I love Firefox’s tabs.
One improvement I’d like to see: to close a tab (a very common operation), you have to right-click it and then select close tab. Two clicks for a common interaction. To make matters worse, there’s a big red button next to it that closes all tabs, not a common action, inviting mistakes.
What would work better: bring the close-tab functionality to the surface, and hide the close-all-tabs functionality under a right-click. Something like the image below.
If I find some time I’ll open an account, read the FAQs and do a Bugzilla report. Meanwhile, if someone else wants to do that, feel free.
March 5th, 2004 at 5:14 pm
Middle click on a tab.
March 5th, 2004 at 5:30 pm
Oddly enough that’s exactly how tab closing works in Safari :)
March 5th, 2004 at 11:59 pm
Good for Safari. I don’t have a middle-click button :(
March 6th, 2004 at 12:02 am
The big red X closes the current tab in focus for me.
Moz did make a big switch with how bookmark groups are represented in history, considering them as a sort of “single page load” for purposes of the back button.
I rapidly disabled that “feature”, as I am clearly not one of the vaguely reported “confused usability test” participants.
Let’s track this down.
March 8th, 2004 at 10:23 am
The “big red X” only closes the in-focus tab for me as well.
Also, using Tab Browser Extensions, I just double-click on a tab to close - feels very natural.
HTH
March 22nd, 2004 at 11:45 am
And, using Tab Browser Extensions you can choose to have an ‘X’ in every tab if you want to :) I agree it’s a bit difficult to find, but it is in the ‘tab’ menu of the extension.
March 23rd, 2004 at 1:42 am
Tab browser extensions won’t do it. You need this to be *extremely* easy to use. 90% of people don’t change defaults or download extensions.
August 21st, 2004 at 10:10 am
[...] h Firefox. Funny, they’ve ended up with exactly the same solution I did a mockup for a few months ago. Which makes me think my instincts weren’t so far off The only dif [...]
October 24th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
[...] Cool, the new firefox now has close buttons on each tab. Just as I suggested in 2004. World domination next! [...]