Thousands of users wanted it, so Firefox delivered it. Tab Groups are now live to help you declutter and stay organized while browsing.
finally firefox re-added tab groups, after removing them once already in the past >_>
https://venturebeat.com/mobile/mozilla-is-removing-tab-groups-and-complete-themes-from-firefox/
It looks like the ux is very different this time tho
yeah it sadly just seems to be a copy of the chrome one
The chrome tab groups were what I missed the most when I switched, so I’m happy with the change. It’s a little jankier feeling as in chrome it’s harder to drag a tab out of the group, while in Firefox if you move a tab to the end it’s hard to get it to stay in the group.
It would also be nice if any of it was themeable, but themeability in Firefox is a whole other problem.
As a librewolf babe, I’m keeping an eye on this: https://codeberg.org/librewolf/issues/issues/2458
Tab grouping is so useful and something I’ve always had to resort to extensions for. Good for Firefox for this, can’t wait for it to make its way to a browser that doesn’t sell users data.
Hey, you can use tab grouping in Librewolf if you set
browser.tabs.groups.enabledto true in about:configThank you for this!
By now you would’ve expected someone to have pointed out what code is actually collecting that data that’s supposedly sold.
Yeah, it still seems like an overreaction(with good intentions) to a poorly communicated change, which, yes, might mean they’ll do it in the future. But for now, they have the benefit of the doubt from me, and once it starts happening, I’ll move to a fork.
That being said, I don’t know anything about the code, so I have to count on the community to make it known that it’s actually been implemented.
For now, as far as I understand, the only indication that they’re even considering it, is that change in the ToS or whatever. Nothing else to suggest it’s happening.I’d agree that it’s overblown and I suspect this reaction comes from users not understanding the complex legal framework Mozilla operates in globally and regionally, and Mozilla doing what it does best, miscommunication.
IANAL but my interpretation of the situation is that in certain jurisdictions, California for example (where Mozilla is headquartered and where they have a legally binding contract in place with Google), they are and always have been “selling” your data from a LEGAL standpoint. It is a difference between how we users define selling (a literal exchange of data for money) versus how the law defines selling which can be much more broad and include things we wouldn’t define as selling.
As far as the law is concerned, again, in some but not all jurisdictions, a) all data has monetary value to tech companies, and b) with Mozilla & Google in particular there is a monetary exchange (ie. a contract worth millions of dollars) for Google Search being integrated into Firefox as the default.
Therefore, as far as the law is concerned, when you type into the Awesomebar or search box in Firefox, Firefox sends (sells) the data you entered (your data) to Google (because of course it does, that’s how the internet works) and this is a “sale of your data” under the legal definition. This is just one example from one jurisdiction Mozilla operates within, albeit a majorly influential and litigious jurisdiction.
My understanding is they had to make that their terms of use because if they didn’t they’d be liable to get sued into oblivion in jurisdictions where using a web browser to browse the internet constituted a legal sale.
Does this open the door to abuse and the literal sale of our data in the future, absolutely. But it’s on us to trust but verify, and do what we, the community, do best and hold Mozilla to account when they inevitably screw up.
Anyway, this was a much longer comment than I intended to write, but that’s my take as a someone who has not just used Mozilla products for decades but also contributed labour as well.
Why people like 50 tabs at once. I can’t understand.
Neither can we.
I used to feel the same way. But recently, I just don’t have time to ‘finish’ each tab/section. When I was younger with more time, I could.
For example, the first section of my browser is several self hosted apps I’m currently implementing. So, I don’t want to lose the relevant forum posts/documentation.
The second section is some articles I couldn’t finish reading.
The third section is something I’m researching for my work.
Fourth are media tabs, some YouTube videos I haven’t finished, a music tab, etc etc
So basically, if I had time to read the articles, one section closed. Or finished my implementation, etc.
The hard part this is this is every week. Always new projects, work or personal. Always new studies to read. Always new vids. You get the point.
It’s akin to when everything is urgent, nothing is.
At one point, you gotta accept that you can’t do everything and move on. You can always re-find the information if it comes down to it in the future. Or you can use bookmark folders to be able to eventually go back to what you think is important.
If I have more than 6-7 tabs open, I check what I need to absolutely save and add that to a bookmark folder, then I close my browser and start fresh.
Yup, that’s how operate. I went to help a colleague with some stuff and dude had so many tabs and windows open it took him more time to find the tab he wanted me to see than it wouldn’t taken me to search for it. Annoying
Heres a neat easter egg: If you open enough tabs on firefox mobile the number in the tab icon changes to an infinity icon
I’m constantly trying to keep under that number, lol. It’s a shame Easter egg
They don’t know how bookmarks work.
Bookmarks are great if I remember what I want is there. Usually bookmarking is like putting a piece of paper in cabinet that I will never open… A tab is leaving the paper on my desk for me that I will rediscover.
Use the bookmarks toolbar then.
This is what I do. You can even create folders with no name that take up very little space on the bookmarks toolbar, and fill them with links. You can have sub-folders within those folders… I truly just do not understand the tab hoarding mentality.
You can also just start typing and set up your search bar to automatically search bookmarks (and history too if you’re afraid of losing something)
You can hide the bookmark bar to save vertical space and then it’s just a more organized, forgotten bookmark list. Using a search engine to find the page again is more likely for me than a bookmaker 😅 (if no tab).
And don’t forget that you can add tags to your bookmarks to make them easier to find again.
I did forget! Thanks
I do this too. Folders in the bookmarks toolbar. If I’m not done with a topic I just drag-and-drop these tabs into a folder. If you middle click one of these folders every bookmarks opens in a new tab for quick access.
This person gets it.
Agile and task reprioritization at work.
Too many projects to work on at home.
Games.
agile
Lol sure thing.
You gotta be nimble to navigate through 50+ tabs to find what you are looking for
Hence the groups having the ticket name related to the task I am working on. When the task closes I delete that group once I’ve ensured anything important for future context is documented and then I say goodbye with confidence.
I don’t bookmark things for work tasks, I log them in tickets or commit it to readme/code comments/team docs somewhere.
Edit: I should also note that my workflow uses Simple Tab Groups and not much of this new core feature.
Simple tab groups hides all other tabs and you switch groups via a dropdown. I usually only have 10-12 tabs open at once.
At work I’ll have like 20+ tabs open and I eventually am like F it, close everything and start over. Usually feels good.
adhd. I’m considering making at alert for when my browser uses so much tabs that I’m almost out of RAM
The only way to keep my ADHD at bay when I’m on the computer is to be radical with my tabs. Don’t need it in the next hour? That’s definitely a bookmark, not a tab. I configured my browser to not save tabs between sessions so I always start clean. I’d long be dead otherwise, suffocated by my own browser tabs.
Same here… I need my browser session to be new each time. I’ll get thrown off if I forget that I had my browser open when I rebooted my PC or something, so it “restores” my session… I’m like what the fuck is this mess? Give me my blank page!
Just install the Auto Tab Discard extension. After a certain amount of time it will replace your loaded tab with a (RAM-free) placeholder that reloads when you click it again. Me, my ADHD brain, and my 500 tabs can be at peace now.
When the tabs use too much RAM I just pkill waterfox and restart it, so the tabs are still there but not loaded, I assume it would to the same ?
Close tab button is a lava
to hide thier porn tabs.
I storing YouTube links that I would watch next time
Bookmarks? Or if you’re logged into youtube, they literally have a “watch later” option to keep track of these.
Well, its not only youtube
I’m glad they’ve added it to desktop, but based on my usage it’s more important for me on mobile. Hopefully they bring it to Android soon.
A million times this. But now the backend is done, hopefully mobile isn’t that far off.
Agreed. But I’m glad it’s native to desktop Firefox now. Grouping tabs in desktop works for me to hide the hundreds of tabs I keep to tens of groups 🤪
As someone who is disgusted by people’s browser tab hygiene on desktop, I will say that I do have this issue on mobile. But it’s really more about how the browser is set up (on Android at least). Every single link I click opens a new tab, and I almost never scroll through existing tabs because, out of sight out of mind.
The problem for me is that I’ll keep things open for reference. Like I might have a few tabs open with info about a game I’m playing, or researching a purchase I’m trying to make. So having those grouped on mobile is super helpful.
live to help you declutter
Me ready to clutter even more 😈
Right??! So instead of clutter of tabs it will be clutter of tab groups… of tabs, lol.
Now that’s my kinda thing!
There is only solace in chaos
Hi sorry to bother, how come your name is red in voyager? Tyvm
Hey no bother at all, I think it’s just because I’m an admin in my instance
Ahh makes sense, thank you!
Tab groups have always been there. They’re called windows.
Yeah, no. I’m not trying to keep track of 15 windows when I can make named groups to actually organize the various things I always end up coming back to
Not when window history in only 3 windows long. That deletes 90% of my tabs instantly.
Managing that would be a nightmare too. Good luck alt-tabbing to the one you want.
Good luck alt-tabbing to the one you want.
This is what workspaces are for.
Ah, so now I have 7 workspaces that don’t survive reboots! Wonderful.
Bookmarks would be easier at this point.
Bookmarks were easier from the beginning.
Not on mobile
I’m sure that when they rolled out tabs in browsers, there were people saying “I just have multiple windows open and Alt-Tab between them. This ‘tabs’ thing is for people who don’t know how to Alt-Tab.”
Eww
I’ll never understand you people that need like 50 tabs open at once.
I have a few use cases:
- Many youtube videos that are like 30+ minutes long saved for later
- Documentation on some stuff that I need to go back and forth
- Movies or games that I found, but don’t want to write down and forget
- Going down rabbit holes on wikipedia and saving it for another day
- Everything else that catches my attention and deserves a honorable spot in the tab bar
Basically, I use my browser as a notebook. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Yeah those all seem like great uses of bookmarks and save functions.
Bookmarks are only for the stuff I will always need again. Tabs just for the stuff I haven’t finished yet and don’t want to forget about.
Buddy have I got some news for you. You can actually delete bookmarks when you’re done with them.
Sure, I can also just close the tabs I have open. Same thing, but I like it organized this way.
Closing tab is also faster than deleting bookmark
deleted by creator
What if I told you bookmarks and tabs have a lot of overlapping use cases, and people prefer one or another because they have different workflows, or just as a matter of personal preference?
RIGHT
So why’s it hard to explain why they’re not the same… 🤔
So a shit ton of tabs that never get looked at again? I swear all of you secretly want your tabs to disappear so you have something to complain about.
Not the slightest! I can perfectly fine live without them, but I would be a little bit sad if they were gone. It happened once after my OneTab extension got somehow corrupted.
I can perfectly fine live without them,
I can stop any time I want, I swear!
I will do my good deed of the month. You seem like a prime candidate for Tab Stash. Does the same but better than Tab Groups. Check it out. You might like it.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-stash/
Let me know, love it or hate it. Cheers.
Tab Stash is great, yes. That’s the answer.
Is there some way this could work on android?
I wish. But no. :-(
Do you know if there’s a similar extension that allows you to export/import the tabs in some text format rather than saving to bookmarks? I’m currently using Tab Season Manager, but it takes way too many steps to accomplish this.
I did not know that, thanks. The reason I use Tab Stash is because I can use my Nextcloud instance to move the tabs/bookmarks automatically. As for privacy reasons I do not use FF sync.
Moving a file seems like more work and more moving parts as I use multiple machines and different OS’es on the same machines.
Hey, this looks like a better OneTab that I always wanted!
It makes me happy to hear that you will find it useful.
Cheers!
Have you heard of bookmarks? There’s a bookmark toolbar, that could look almost exactly the same if you want.
So you’re saying that pressing 2 on screen buttons, then closing a page is a better solution than creating a group then dragging in and out whatever you need? Sure, I use the bookmarks bar too, but it’s not for stuff I’ll remove after a while, those are perminent, but tab groups are generally for stuff you will eventually close, but wantto sort in the meantime to make it more convenient.
If you don’t have a use for it, fair enough, I don’t either, but it is a genuinely useful feature for some that can’t be replaced by more clicks.
Sometimes I ended up with +50 tabs because I just don’t close them. But when the computer restart and Firefox ask me to restore them or start a new session, I always go for a new session. And I never felt that I lost something.
I closed my tabs with the window automatically
Nah, just 200 or more
I used to never close tabs and they would accumulate as I kept doing more web searches and other activities. Now when I need to do stuff I usually open a new window instead for different tasks and if I need to free up RAM then I start closing other windows for tasks I’m not doing anymore so it closes all of the related tabs at the same time
whoa. mozilla doing something the people want?? WHAT PARALLEL WORLD IS THIS?
Don’t worry they say they’ll shove AI in it so it’s definitely our world
So after I save and close a group… where do I find it?
It’s in the tab overview menu https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tab-overview-menu
Thanks!
Mh, I’ll check out how it works but if I don’t like it I can always stick with
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-tab-groups/
(And obviously 👎 for the inclusion of useless AI bs, would be nice if you can turn that off?)
The AI is local, privacy respecting and optional to use,
but I agree a config option to hide the button would be niceEdit: Apparently you can disable the feature
You can disable it in about:config
What’s the name of the option?
I’ve been out and about all day, and can’t check my desktop. But when I looked earlier this week, I found it by searching for “group”. AI tab group something or other.
I’m not sure which button you’re talking about, but if it’s the one in the sidebar, click “Customise sidebar”, and then uncheck “AI chatbot”.
Good news! Weirdly enough, I can’t use tab groups (not able to drag tabs on top of each other, there is no option in right-click dialogue), though I am on FF 138.
Ever since i switched to zen browser i hace not thought of coming back for a second.
Yea Zen is amazing, especially the neat Workspaces feature.
I’m still going back to Firefox because of tab groups.
I tried it -> couldn’t figure out how to get rid off vertical tabs -> uninstalled -> installed Librewolf
Amg I couldn’t figure out how to collapse. I’m so happy rn. I’ve been containerising everything. It’s so soothing.
The lack of groups was the deal breaker for me, so after it rolled out to beta, I finally switched back to Firefox as my primary browser.
Last I tried, I don’t think you could reorder or drag/drop groups and selecting multiple tabs doesn’t result in “group tabs” in the context menu, but it is still decent enough.
So now when I open my mom’s computer, she see 20 tab groups, I’ll know it’s even worse than it looks…
I’ve never understood this. You guys know you can have multiple Firefox windows, right? What’s the point of tab groups when you can just group related tabs in a different window? Between multiple workspaces, multiple monitors, and multiple browser windows, I never feel the need to have more than 5-10 tabs open on any one of them at a time. More than that and I’m clearly doing something wrong and need to clean up anyway.
Oh, here’s the ol’ “I have no use for this feature, and I can’t see why anyone else would have one, either”, so I get to check that off my bingo card.
He’s just asking as in, maybe someone can share their perspective on why there may be an advantage to tab groups over windows. And to that end… isn’t there a certain amount of system resources that are increased more with a whole new window as opposed to just more tabs in groups? I would think it would consume more resources, albeit perhaps not to any severe degree. —?
And to the actual question I think visually tab groups are easier to navigate than swapping back through windows. Task managers don’t really tend to present windows in a fashion where you could refer to them in context of one-another. Maybe some custom views that you can install in Linux but even then, ones I’ve tried still don’t quite give you a quick easy overview that shows enough detail. You pretty much see what program you’re swapping to, but not laid out in ways you can compare and choose on the fly the way you want when it’s the same application but different content. That’s my experience, anyhow.
It’s called the ‘inner platform effect’. They are basically replicating parts of the underlying platform (the OS in this case) inside their own application, until the application turns into a platform itself, one crappier than the one below it. You see this happening with web browsers and ‘web apps’.
Switching between windows is far less fluid than switching between tabs.
Then maybe switch to a better OS / Window manager?
It doesn’t matter which one you have.
You underestimate the tab hoarders.
I’m also like you where I barely have more than a few tabs open. But I regularly witness people I know fill the tab bar until you can’t read the first 3 letters of the title anymore.
tabing through multiple windows of the same program is annoying, having one window with groups is way easier. plus 1-2 monitors is the norm, so sometimes its just a screen space issue.
tabing through multiple windows of the same program is annoying,
How is it any less annoying than tabbing through multiple browser tabs in the same window?
Well it’s all in the same window and generally easier at least to me.
Different strokes for different folks. I replied to the guy who replied to you and raised a couple of ideas that I think may distinguish the options to answer your question.
