Mozilla’s great group tabs feature is called Panorama
Earlier today, I got to download and try out the latest release of the Firefox 4 Beta version and I instantly noticed a small button on the right hand which read ‘Group your Tabs’. Now to my shame, I didn’t actually take the time to fully read all the news and rumors regarding the new features of Firefox 4.0. In fact, I’ve been somewhat disappointed by Mozilla’s Firefox lately because it tends to crash a lot more than it used to and seems quite behind the usability that the latest versions of other browsers offer. After playing with the tab feature for a little while, I discovered it was actually great to use. On top of that the feature also has a name now. It was dubbed Panorama.
Today, Mozilla’s Asa Raskin explained in a post how Panorama works as well as how the company adapted it to fit in the latest beta build of Firefox. The idea behind it is simple. Most users (myself included) tend to keep a high number of tabs open, especially when at work. I most of the time even keep tabs open to remember that I need to view the webpages later, even if I have no interest in them at this particular time. This means that in two and a half hours of work, or so, I’ll have a browser filled with tabs and endlessly search through them to find what I’m looking for. Panorama tends to fix all that by adding groups for tabs. It organizes tabs together in different windows and also displays all of the groups of tabs (you get to see thumbnails of them). You may then select which group of tabs you’re currently working with and save the 
rest for later or simply organize them based on their topic and so on.
According to Raskin, it took seven months for the company to transform this feature from simple sketches to an actual part of the upcoming web browser. The company did have some ideas to work with however, as Panorama was inspired by Firefox Mobile concepts from 2008. He then goes on to explain that humans are bad at multitasking and it would be optimal if any form of distraction was removed. Because of this, Panorama allows the users to group tabs and only view the tabs and information they need at that very moment. No distractions whatsoever. When you do switch back to viewing all the groups, you can easily spot what you’re looking for because you see an image rather than a small line of text. Let’s face it, after reading text all day, that’s the last thing in the world you’re going to notice easily, especially if you have a huge number of tabs that you have to check through, to find the right one.
Raskin also mentions something about sharing a webpage directly with someone else instead of copy-pasting an URL and sending it through various instant messengers or social networking sites. The same post notes that a user could move a tab to a mobile device by simply dropping it onto a representation of the phone.
Finally, Mozilla is also focusing on making Panorama feel fast, including reaction time, animations and interactions. I must admit they did a pretty good job with it because the interface doesn’t feel like it’s lagging behind at all.
Hi, I agree that Panorama is a really nice feature. But I did not find how to retain tab groups after closing the program.
How can you “save the rest for later”, as you say?
Thank you.
Well, the groups dissapear once you close Firefox. When i said ‘save the rest for later’ i meant you can start on one task, with one set of tabs, then when you’re done, you can switch to the next group, later
i’m sorry if I confused you
Ok. I am not blaming on you, anyway. It is just that a Save feature like that would have been a great one, IMO.
).
With Sync option as well, it could have become like a Delicious with your favourite pages always open. I saw that Delicious is trying to include a browing inside its site, btw.
Is somebody aware of something like that? (if I was clear enough in explaining, of course!
Well, i don’t know anything about Delicious yet, but i’ll look into it. The App Tabs from Firefox can be used for what you’re saying. You can set any tab (site) as an App Tab, especially stuff that you always want open like e-mail etc. App tabs will be there whenever you start your browser. Unfortunately, the feature isn’t working properly in beta (you can set app tabs but they don’t show up after you re-start your browser), and many people are complaining about it. But it should be working fine by the time Firefox 4.0 is officially released because Mozilla actually announced the app tabs were designed to stay open permanently and be available as soon as you start your browser.
You can have the groups save. Under Tools/Options. Hit Alt-T, Options, then under the general tab under When Firefox starts:, select Show my windows and tabs from last time.