Mozilla explores ways to make new Firefox tabs more useful

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Browsers

Mozilla explores ways to make new Firefox tabs more useful

by Brad Linder Aug 26th 2008

Firefox Proposal: A Better New Tab Screen from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Tabs changed the way we browse the web. No longer do you have to open new browser windows to view additional content. You can just create a new tab and enter a URL or search term. Most browsers even let you right-click on any link you find on a web page and open it in a new tab.

But when you open a new tab the old fashioned way by clicking the "new tab" or Ctrl+T keys, you're presented with a blank screen that honestly doesn't do you much good. So the folks at Mozilla are thinking about ways to make new tabs instantly useful. One idea, which you can see detailed above is to throw a search box onto every blank tab, since there's a good chance you're opening a fresh tab to search for something.

It doesn't stop there though. The conceptual search box would be linked to the Firefox 3 Awesome Bar, which means it has access to your web browsing history and can offer recommendations for sites you've recently visited as you search. And if you highlighted and copied some text on another web site before opening your fresh tab, this concept design would try to detect what kind of text you copied and offer even more useful suggestions. For example, if you copied a date, you might see a box with the option of adding the date to a calendar. If you copy an address, you might be able to map it with the click of a button.

After the jump, check out another concept from another Firefox developer. Either one of these ideas could find their way into future versions of the web browser.

Ambient News: A Mozilla Labs Concept Series Pitch from Atul Varma on Vimeo.

The idea here is that every time you open a new tab, you get a list of web pages you frequently visit. Unlike Opera's Speed Dial feature, you don't have to manually select and organize your favorite pages. Firefox will do that for you.

There's even a Firefox add-on that offers a rough-around-the-edges version of this feature. The Auto Dial add-on will look at your browser history and create a list of links to the sites you visit most, arranged by the frequency of your visits. In order to access the list, you currently have to type chrome://autoDial/content into your location bar. Eventually this could be the screen you see every time you open a new tab. It's not particularly pretty, but it's a whole lot more functional than a blank white screen.

[via Mozilla Labs blog]

Tags: firefox, mozilla-labs, tabs

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Eric said 1:24PM on 8-26-2008

I do a Cmd+T and immediately press the Tab button to move to the search field... it's gotten to be a habit, where whenever I open a new tab I automatically go to a search.

Jeffrey said 2:02PM on 8-26-2008

Or you can press Command+K to switch to the search box, then press Option+Enter to do a search in new tab.

Tuxster said 2:19PM on 8-26-2008

Or, alternatively, you could install TabMixPlus which lets you choose what you want to open in the new tabs...

Max said 2:52PM on 8-26-2008

In other browsers, you can specify what you want to open in a new tab.

Why not just add a similar preference in FF, instead of making it so complicated?

alex_dlc said 4:20PM on 8-26-2008

i just use the addon that opens the homepage (google in my case) on a new tab, and to open a new tab i always click the mouse wheel. but in firefox, when i open a new tab and google comes up, i start typing and the list with matches under the search field does not appear automatcally, to see it i have to click somewhere on the page, and then click back in the search field. fo for example, i open a new tab, google loads, i start typing "download" in the search field, and no matches apear. so i click anywhere else besides the search field, click back in the search field, and then the matches appear, for example "downloadsquad" dont know if i explained it well

supernova_hq said 5:40PM on 8-26-2008

Hell Yes for the first one. The only thing I would change is to have it load a list of my most commonly used bookmarks. I know the awesome bar allows this to happen, but I'm thinking more of a 1-click thing here.

Cile said 2:24AM on 8-27-2008

One word: Opera :)

Vinny said 3:00AM on 8-27-2008

Agreed!

karlynhuz said 1:32PM on 8-27-2008

opera does it all better!!!

ZeroCoolFool said 4:17PM on 8-28-2008

firefox always find some way to steal opera's thunder
come on with speed dial you get 100 plugs in and 20 essays on how to make tabs better.

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