Remember Pin Tabs? The Firefox add-on that we reviewed recently was mysteriously deleted from the Firefox add-on repository over at the Mozilla Firefox website. No one knew why it was deleted and it was not clear at that point in time if the developer would make it available again. The wait is now over with the release of the App Tabs add-on. App Tabs is basically an advanced version of Pin Tabs. The name now reflects the feature of the same name that the Firefox developer plan to include into Firefox 4.
The basic idea of App Tabs is to offer Firefox users a way to pin selected web services and websites to the tabbar of the web browser making them available always in the same spot. The idea works perfectly for websites that do not require back and forward navigation like Gmail or Google Docs but also for any other website or service that the user accesses all the time.
App Tabs pins selected tabs to the left side of the tabbar in Firefox. The tabs are minimized so that only the favicon of the website or service is displayed. This saves space in the tabbar and is usually appreciated by most users.
The new version of the App Tabs add-on adds comes with the following features:
- App tabs can be saved across sessions! (default)
- App tabs can be merged when closing a window. (default)
- App tabs can be protected from being closed individually.
- If you have Tabberwocky installed, App Tabs will automatically also lock app tabs that you create. This feature can of course be disabled by going to about:config and setting extensions.apptabs.lock to false.
Tabs can be converted into app tabs by ctrl-clicking them in the Firefox tabbar. App Tabs is currently compatible with all versions of Firefox 3.5x to 3.7x. The download is available at the Firefox add-on’s website.
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52 Responses to “Firefox App Tabs Add-On”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
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[...] App Tabs – I reviewed the add-on yesterday and really like it. Tabs can be pinned and minimized on the left side of the Firefox tabbar. This is great for websites and services that are open all the time. [...]
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[...] App Tabs is a free download, works with Firefox. It’s currently experimental, so you may encounter some bugs. It worked without a hitch for me on Windows, but rendered kind of wonky in OS X, so your mileage may vary. App Tabs [Mozilla Add-ons via gHacks] [...]
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[...] Tabs [Mozilla Add-ons via gHacks] Tagged:customisationextensionsfirefoxtabbed [...]
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[...] Y ya puestos, tambien parece interesante App Tabs, una extension que permite mostrar de manera iconizada las pestañas favoritas. [...]
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[...] Y ya puestos, tambien parece interesante App Tabs, una extension que permite mostrar de manera iconizada las pestañas favoritas. [...]
So is this basically PermaTabs + FaviconizeTab? I had tried Pin Tabs when it came out, but because it won’t save across sessions I went back to my other add-ons.
Ahaak my session is restored on every restart. Not sure if that is a Firefox setting or the doing of App Tabs though.
@Popstar Dave: +1 #featuredfirefoxextension
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Awesome add-on! #featuredfirefoxextension
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Very useful! Especially for gmail, hotmail, facebook, digg and lifehacker! Very nice extension! #featuredfirefoxextension
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Taking a page from Win7. Might give this a whirl until the functionality becomes an official part of 4.0. #featuredfirefoxextension
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Blah. Doesn’t work with 3.0. #featuredfirefoxextension
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Can the Permatabs be made without using any addons? #featuredfirefoxextension
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doesn’t work in 3.5.5 on mac. app tabs kinda disappear in a heap on the left. #featuredfirefoxextension
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i’ve been doing this for awhile without the addon. just hit properties and delete the "name". all that’s left is the icon. #featuredfirefoxextension
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It looks like someone needs to check their Gmail. 50+ messages?!?! #featuredfirefoxextension
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Quite a number of design changes scheduled for for FF 4.0! Just FYI though, you can already combine the stop/reload buttons using Stylish and the "Combine Stop/Reload buttons" style. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@g: That works great for the bookmark toolbar. Not so much for the actual tab… #featuredfirefoxextension
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Sweet, anything I can use to cut down on addons is awesome. I’m also using Stratabuddy and the Firefox 4.0 theme, cause I’m awesome and the future is now. Also, dude. I know you’re mega busy and all…But if that’s your inbox for the love of god please check it. Please? It burns. #featuredfirefoxextension
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Does anyone know how the icon-only tabs work when the title is changing? IE, I use Gmail a lot, and I talk with my friends through it, since I leave it open anyway. It’s easier than opening up a messaging program. Anyway, if I’m on another tab, I can see if they’re saying anything without having to tab over and check, because the tab starts blinking and saying "Name says…"
Will the tab at least blink when someone sends me a message? That would be the make-or-break deal for this addon for me. #featuredfirefoxextension
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Fantastic. I’ve been looking to consolidate my Add-ons. #featuredfirefoxextension
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So, compare and contrast this to Pin Tabs, which was pointed at only a few days ago? #featuredfirefoxextension
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@chrisrosa: Yep. Not working well on Mac. Was quite nice on Windows. #featuredfirefoxextension
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Doesn’t work on my system – FF 3.5, Win 7 x64. #featuredfirefoxextension
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didn’t work for me, just inserted (*) on my tabs but didn’t shrink them. oh well, i’ll just re-enable faviconize til ff4 #featuredfirefoxextension
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Is there any point to changing to this from the faviconize / permatab combination? #featuredfirefoxextension
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@cheeebs: Looks like it doesn’t work with Tab Mix Plus. Did the same thing for me until I disabled TMP. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@milrtime83: ya that’s what i thought, but i’m not gonna disable TMP. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@Senethior459: If you have betterGMail then the M should turn a lighter red when you have a new message. #featuredfirefoxextension
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Using the old combination the tabs wouldn’t load until you clicked on them. Doesn’t look like that is the case for AppTabs. Anyone else notice that? #featuredfirefoxextension
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@Tim Bond: I’ve never had that problem… #featuredfirefoxextension
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@jcwenger: I didn’t know it recently got an article.
Chrome (at least the dev build I use) has had tab pinning for a while. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@cheeebs: Agreed. Does not work with Tab Mix Plus. I even tried disabling TMP, then creating app tabs, then re-enabling TMP. The tabs returned to original size, but with no text.
Looks cool, but not cool enough to ditch TMP. #featuredfirefoxextension
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I wish they would just leave it as an extension rather than adding it to firefox permanently. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@rfriaz: The developer changed the name from Pin Tabs to App Tabs. ([forums.mozillazine.org]) #featuredfirefoxextension
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@Drakkim: At the moment, I’m sticking with the combination of PermaTabs and Faviconize. I tried out App Tabs, and it works as advertised (provided you don’t run Tab Mix Plus; you can use Tabberwocky instead which replicates some of Tab Mix Plus’ options). HOWEVER, there are several advantages to Permatabs. First, you can set Permatabs to not automatically load on start-up of Firefox. This means faster load-up times when all you want to do is go to a webpage that’s not one of your permanent tabs. Second, I haven’t found a way with App Tabs to permanently lock that tab from ever opening up to another webpage. For instance, if I have Gmail as an App Tab, and I go to my bookmarks and open up ESPN, it doesn’t generate a new tab with ESPN; instead, ESPN fills in my Gmail App Tab. This never happens with Permatabs. I know you can set Tabberwocky settings to always open bookmarks in new tabs, but I just want the setting to relate to my permanent tabs. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@Andrew von Fightmaster: You can also do it without any extensions or scripts by editing "userChrome.css" in your Firefox profile, as covered by Lifehacker here (most recently). #featuredfirefoxextension
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I’m confused. What is different between having permanent, small tabs…and using the bookmark toolbar? Don’t they accomplish the exact same thing? #featuredfirefoxextension
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Works great for me. Fantastic! Thanks! #featuredfirefoxextension
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I’ll stick with Faviconize and session restore. I don’t want to wait until I click on the tab for it to load. I’m going to check them anyway, so I want them to load with the browser. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@fosphen: i stand corrected. i now like this add-on. #featuredfirefoxextension
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Royally screwed up on FF3.5 on OS X 10.6.2… Stacked all the icons on top of each other ontop of the first tab. This should be Gmail, Gvoice, Wave, and Gcal.
Edit: I’d like to note that it says it doesn’t work with some OS X themes, but I am using the default theme that ships with Firefox for OS X. At least make it work for that one :-/
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Works more or less for me in both Windows 7 and Karmic.
One odd issue is that it seems to occasionally rearrange the order of the pinned tabs between sessions. Is anyone else having this issue? #featuredfirefoxextension
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After hearing in the comments that this doesn’t work with Tab Mix Plus, I used the Faviconize/Permatabs Mod method and I’m very happy with the results. :) #featuredfirefoxextension
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@Namu Eric Williams: Well, the tabs are loaded with each start, so there’s that. Still, it was a bit wonky for me on Win7. It worked, but the two tabs I had set up looked terrible/overlapped each other. Given that I have the exact same two icons in the bookmarks bar just above, I uninstalled it. Seems to be working for others, though. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@wjglenn: i second that. i never dump TMP just to get a fancy feature. TMP gives me enough room to make tabs look and feel the way i like them. #featuredfirefoxextension
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This addon is completely incompatible with tab mix plus, nothing works if you have that addon installed. #featuredfirefoxextension
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Doesn’t work it just gives me an asterisk. I heard it doesn’t work with tab mix plus. Major dealbreaker. I’ll stick with faviconize and permatabs mod #featuredfirefoxextension
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Could someone answer this?
Does permanently being logged in, and a tab opened, to ’sign in’ sites make a person more vulnerable to XSS attacks?
That was one of the first things I thought of after getting everything set up using the Tab Mix Plus compatible method. I’ve got NoScript installed, but still… Is this safe? #featuredfirefoxextension
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@nolabar10der: Ah, you mean whatever site is bookmarked in the tab preloads as soon as you open your browser? Seems like a poor use of resources. #featuredfirefoxextension
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I dont like it … All it does have open web page hogging up resources. SO .. Pointless Extension. IF a similar extension came out that did the same thing but DID NOT open the page till you clicked then that would be useful. #featuredfirefoxextension
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@se7a7n7: I probably have a few hundred unread messages in mine :p
I just read the subject. And if it’s not very interesting/important, i just ignore it #featuredfirefoxextension
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