Firefox 4 Is Speedy, Modern And Cross-Platform: Review

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“App Tab” feature

Tabbed browsing, while unremarkable these days, was one of Firefox’s early differentiators, and the Mozilla team has continued refining this feature in Firefox 4.

The first of these refinements to catch my eye was the “App Tab” feature, which allowed me to convert any browser tab to a narrowly sized tab, pinned to the far left of my tab bar, which would automatically open in future browser sessions.

I found that application tabs came in handy for frequently used Web applications, such as for Gmail or Twitter, where I would have the applications close at hand whenever I needed them.

I would like to see Mozilla expand upon the application tab feature with process isolation for these pinned web applications. I would feel safer running key web applications in the same browser session as regular web pages with this additional separation in place.

Panorama

Elsewhere on the tab-management front in Firefox 4 is Panorama, a tab-grouping feature that was previously known by the code name “tab candy”. Panorama is aimed at helping users deal with large numbers of tabs, which, as any Web user can attest, can quickly multiply out of control in a typical day’s browsing.

I used Panorama to arrive at a zoomed-out view of my open tabs, and to drag related tabs into separate groups, which I could then dive back into individually. I used Panorama’s search feature to locate particular tabs from the zoomed-out Panorama view.

In my own browsing, I’ve developed a discipline around keeping my open tabs to a manageable number, and turning to history to return to recently closed items, but Panorama may allow me to become less parsimonious in my tab use.

Also affecting my browser habits is the integration of Firefox Sync in version 4.0. Sync, which was previously available as an experimental feature under the handle Mozilla Weave, enables users to synchronise their browser settings, bookmarks and passwords in encrypted form to a central server.

I tend to browse the web from a handful of different machines, and the Sync feature made it much easier to switch between these systems. I tested with a sync server hosted by Mozilla. It’s possible to host one’s own server, as well, but the installation instructions for setting up a custom server are fairly rough around the edges at this point.