undo new tabbed browsing behavior

[ColdFusion650]

that first blog post gave some info about the study, although not very much. i cant wait to see the raw data from the study. i like everything they did except except the close tab buttons.

[BenBasson]

I have to be honest, I'm in two minds about the close tab button issue. It doesn't benefit me personally, there are times when I've clicked it rapidly to remove lots of tabs. On the other hand, I typically close tabs by middle-clicking. At the end of the day, as long there's enough weight behind the decision for it to benefit more people than me, I'm happy.

[Deafult Luser]

that first blog post gave some info about the study, although not very much. i cant wait to see the raw data from the study. i like everything they did except except the close tab buttons.

I think you'll have to learn to wait, Bug 324227 - Implement old tab close button as a preffable option - comment #31.

Although I agreed with Hixie, Ben says he'll try and release some sanitized data, which I'm sure we can all respect.

[stevebell001]

Just read the initial blog post and there you go then. Aren't google at war with MS.
I didn't see any reference to users using MS software in their real life, therefore the results of these lab rats is of very limited extrapolation use.

So if you run the same test amongst 50000 subjects in China the result is that 100% of the users only want and use the Chinese character set.

Tough on the rest of us, but you can't argue with the results of a well run test.

I use some forums that consist of many "older" ladies, who start to share their thoughts and lack of IT knowledge, have problems with IE and are then guided through the Firefox installation and off they go. There is NEVER any feedback about accidentally closing the WRONG Window.
It is mainly technophobes who would want to close inactive windows.
Without the right target any research is going to be biased.

[Zulithe]

I believe IE 7 also has [close buttons on tabs].

not as of beta 1. i don't know if they have added it since then.

IE 7 has close buttons on each tab in recent builds. Here are some screenshots of IE7 build 5299 (an internal build of Beta 2):
http://nidonocu.weyrspace.co.uk/ie7/
And so, Safari, Opera, IE7 and now Firefox 2.0 will all have close buttons on each tab. I prefer the close buttons there, as I've made clear, obviously some won't, that's fine. But at least Firefox provides a relatively easy way to change the close tab behavior by way of extensions. You can't say so of the others.

i did a search on google for "google usability study" which didn't come up with the study in question, only other studies that randomly had the word google thrown in.

I'm also interested in seeing the study, although companiese do studies all the time on this sort of thing (usability, etc.) without disclosing the results publically, nor do I think Mozilla/Google has an obligation to do so. Anyway, I'm thankful that they will in this case since this is the only thing that will please some people.

[ColdFusion650]

I believe IE 7 also has [close buttons on tabs].

not as of beta 1. i don't know if they have added it since then.

IE 7 has close buttons on each tab in recent builds.

i had build 5299 installed for a short time (the only thing i use it for is ftp, and the ftp client is missing, so i uninstalled it and went back to ie6), and didn't see those close buttons. do they only appear on hover or something?

[stevebell001]

I have never been a MS fan, I only use their products out of necessity (I have had to pay for it so I will use it!). Good news for Firefox if MS have made the boo boo. having looked at a couple of IE7 screen shots there is not a lot there to tempt me, but on the other hand with todays DP update I can't even switch windows so the whole thing is a bit academic. Had to go pacifica to resolve it.

[Dorsan]

The bad,
Ah, change!!! Run, run away!

The good,
More obvious for new users as to what tab is being closed.
Frees up real estate for tabs
Most recent behaviour of only showing 1 close button on the active tab as apposed to buttons on all tabs is better. It is cleaner then the other way.


I've moaned about other changes but you get used to them, like the whole Luna menus thing.
Also the advanced javascript options (Yay they came back). "Disable common annoyances" what the hell did that ever mean. Another change, the removal of mail rubbish in Firefox was good. Well done devs.


Now if a few crash bugs get fixed I'd be really happy.

[ColdFusion650]

tab no x is now on umo.

[ehume]

hooray!

[Landonian]

There is only one "feature" of the new tab behavior that i dislike. The ability to force links to open in new tabs was removed as far as i can see. Is it just hidden and it can be reenabled? or was it compleatly removed?

[BenBasson]

It wasn't removed, the two preferences dealing with opening tabs/windows have been consolidated into one.

[Elder Young]

Are there any plans to add simple undo close tab functionality to the trunk? It seems to me that putting the close button on the tab just increases the chances of acidentally closing a tab, instead of switching tabs. Another option would be to set the default value for <B>browser.tabs.disableBackgroundClose</B> to <B>true</B>. Like Cusser said, I just hope that the new tab behavior helps the majority of people because I always click the scrollwheel to close tabs and I can use extensions if I want to change things back to the old way.

Edit: Why does setting <B>browser.tabs.disableBackgroundClose</B> to true only make the background close buttons useless, instead of getting rid of them entirely? I wouldn't mind a close button on just the active tab. Is there a way to do that?

[BenBasson]

There's a bug marked as blocking-2.0 for investigation into undo close tab functionality.

Edit: Why does setting browser.tabs.disableBackgroundClose to true only make the background close buttons useless, instead of getting rid of them entirely? I wouldn't mind a close button on just the active tab. Is there a way to do that?

It's probably best to do this with userChrome.css.

[Landonian]

Then there is a bug because i have mine set to the option shown above but it is allowing windows that used to be forced to open in tabs to open in thier own seperate windows. I will do some testing with a blank profile in a tiny bit.