Although
Firefox already has a strong selection of tab management helpers like TooManyTabs, which gives you extra rows and memory-preserving options, or Tree Style Tab, which shifts things to a tree-based vertical menu, Mozilla has rolled up its scaly sleeves and decided to rethink the whole thing. Tab Candy starts off much like Safari's TabExposé, by showing you all the tabs you currently have open in thumbnail form, but from there it allows you to organize them into separate groups (with sub-groups promised for the future), which then act in very much the same way as opening a new Firefox window. Yes, it's folders within the browser, and it's all based on good old fashioned HTML, CSS and JavaScript, so no pesky additional downloads will be required once this Alpha-stage code gets added to Firefox's official release. If you want to give it an early spin, hit the source link below, but don't neglect the video after the break to see what else Mozilla is thinking of cooking up with Tab Candy.
posted July 26th 2010 4:14AM
Nice..!!!
@Beto4209
*Remembers the days before tabbed browsing*
Oh man, the nostalgia is almost enough to make me teary eyed. Having my taskbar full of open Internet Explorer windows, or at school, Netscape Navigator on the old Power Macintosh 6100 PC's that our computer lab was full of, among other variations on Macintosh architecture.
The days long gone.... :)
@Beto4209 Just what I needed at exactly the right time! Thank you Mozilla!
@Beto4209
LOVE this feature. I already use Tab Mix Plus & TooManyTabs among others for tab management. This looks excellent. The Killer feature IMO is the co-browsing/groups feature (towards the end of the video). So often I want to share multiple tabs with a few people, and rather than emailing links, this looks much more robust and dynamic. Despite chrome, and safari's speed, I still use firefox because of it's flexibility.
@Beto4209 This is gonna be GREAT. I currently use a mix of CTRL+N and Tabs Bookmarking combination to organize and save things for later. This is gonna make things sooo much easier for me
@Beto4209 Multiple windows?
O_o has no one ever done that?
Just drag a tab down and it gets put into a new window.
Drag other tabs to the other window.
This is just a collector/prettyfier for everything.
@tpbftw
I have thought of that but window 7 tab aero peek, every tab regardless of window shows up in the same list so this is great.
@tpbftw
Great suggestion for Chrome users! Hope you don't mind I quoted you on my new little tech blog at www.techmobilize.com Works great!
@r34p3r one decade from now internet explorer will have this :P
Firefox is the sh*+...
@Beto4209
Until you have a bunch of ... flash video sites... open in a bunch of tabs, and then have it all crash "unexpectedly" =(
@paul34 Exactly. I think this encourages people to open more stuff than they can actually use and then it will just bog the browser down and start crashing. Separating the content into individual processes should help maintain the stability eventually but I still think this is overkill.
If someone has so many tabs open at once that they need subgroups then they just need to learn how to use the internet better.
Oh yeah and Firefox sucks. It's bloated and slow. They need to drop Gecko and use Webkit.
@TinWard
I believe it was said that this app would have memory control. If so, you should be able to pause groups and metagroups of tabs so that memory is not wasted unless you are specifically looking at that group.
I am very excited for this business about metagroups and tab search. I already have hundredS of tabs open (thanks to memory-save), partially because of info-guilt, but also because I have multiple projects that I work on, both for home, school, and work. The tabs are already organized by project, but this helps put things into a far more convenient and productive perspective.
this is interesting...but I moved from Firefox to Chrome....just my personal opinion but the last time I used Firefox it seemed of bloated and kind of sluggish.
Instead of adding eye candy, maybe they should focus on the rendering engine, security and performance? Just a thought.
@ajwoodhouse Can't beat firefox security with WOT, no-script and quickjava. I agree with your other points though.
@ajwoodhouse
I think Firefox is secure enough and Mozilla was always focused on security. As for rendering engine and performance, who said they aren't also focusing on those areas?
Firefox 4 is moving to the Gecko 2 engine. As part of that the new XPCOM component should be landing with beta 2 (and will break most add-ons) as part the ongoing work to make Firefox multi-threaded
They are also working on a new JIT JavaScript engine that will bring them down to the level of Google's V8 and Apple's Nitro.
They have a site tracking JS speed improvements in Firefox http://www.arewefastyet.com/
also a funny 'bug' about it https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=579522
@ajwoodhouse *looks back at IE6* Windows everywhere!!!
@TenaciousJ728 err...?
A man can only handle soo many tabs....
*Looks up at tab list*
Man, this sure would come in handy right about now. I'm always researching multiple projects at the same time
Mouth Watering.
safari 5 is my favorite. i sometimes just open a couple windows and group tabs that way if i need to. it's pretty quick and easy because i can completely close one group and keep the others active.
This is a brilliant idea.
not bad, like the social online..browsing with other people
I was going to make a UI design concept video showing what kinds of madness would come from adding every idea possible to a UI but it seems Mozilla beat me to it!
i can already see pervs rejoicing, they can open as much nasty sites as they can and be able to manage them
Speak faster...
*Waits for the chrome equivalent and implementation*
Huh, actually, watching the end of that, it suddenly took a turn towards an idea I think has been spinning in the backs of a lot of people's minds: The Cloud Browser. Where the whole internet is organized into space we can visually zoom in and out of and control all in real time with domain hierarchy like we have now but everything is up front instead of found through typing in URLs and clicking on links. Just drag and zoom like Google Earth! Then if it's space you own you can manipulate it using whatever apps you have and and expose whatever you want to everyone else. All visually. That's certainly where we're headed anyway.
@franktinsley Once GPGPU acceleration catches up to globalization and everyone has the minimal 3D rendering capacity available in their machines, a managed 3D Internet browsing experience will finally become available.
Many have envisioned the concept for years. The only major setbacks were cross-platform compatibility (now becoming insignificant with HTML5) and GPU hardware requirements.
@AuDioFreaK39 Interesting you mention that because I happen to play games using a system that could fairly easily take care of the end user hardware problems called OnLive. Only limitation using that system is the pipes between the server or "The Matrix" as it's called in sci-fi movies ;) and the disposable cheap input/output devices. No fun maybe for circuit board fetishists but I'm certainly ready to move forward!
@AuDioFreaK39 Oh right, forgot to say that the limitation there is the pipes but even with what we have now, OnLive demonstrates it's possible to cover nearly every current application with even 1.5Mbps. Once we have a good 20Mbps wireless internet covering everything, why should the wires ever leave the labs?
FF FTW
NOW GIVE US 4.0 :)
This looks very nice, i could certainly use it :)
Eye Candy...
Not sure if I'd use this paradigm.
@loocas
I know I won't... Hover-over previews of tabs combined with favicons is much quicker.
add it on ff 4 LOL
...browsing for the neurotic. I like it.
Wow. I think I just had a brain aneurysm. So many tabs!
Yes! I want that NOW! This seems to me like a quantum leap in using the web. Cudos.
Safari has a much better tab solution. IMHO.
@pspitts That's why it has the lowest market share...
Would be cool if you could have sites/groups color highlight for specific things - like if they are playing music (and sounds really).
Also - some meta data.
Like how much processing time and memory each is consuming.
I don't think I want to see my friends tabs at all times... Nor do I think I want them to see mine all the time. Some things are better left private.
With that being said, this is freakin' cool and I hope we see it built into a version of Firefox soon!
i feel like i'm watching Inception movie.
Minefield here, can't wait till this gets added to the main build trunk; because right now it's its own separate build on Roc's Tryserver, very very Alpha.
Hope other browsers notice and copy this.
Good things must be shared xD.
Tabbed browsing has spoiled me. I usually just open up tabs until the browser becomes too laggy (usually the flash plugin makes FireFox use 100% CPU on my Mac if I have 15+ open.) and I have to relaunch it.
Personally I find Safari seems a bit more polished and not as bloated vs. FireFox on the Mac, the way that it handles tabs where only so many show up in the Tabs bar and if you want to see others open you have to click to a side menu bothers me too much to make it my daily browser. Plus the great Add-On system for Firefox
Very cool- Definitely looking forward to this feature. Especially the ability to group tabs, and have suggestions and the ability to send all that info to my phone- sha-weet
I'm using it on my laptop. I've all but abandoned Firefox for Google Chrome but this is surprisingly cool. What I'm watching for is how memory is managed. It has been Mozilla's biggest blunder with Firefox.
I'm still getting used to Tab Candy (especially the fru fru name) but it ain't half bad.
Maybe Google Chrome will adopt this in case Mozilla's track record remains the same.