Late last month, Mozilla revealed a new interface feature for Firefox called “Tab Sets” (formerly called “Tab Candy”)  that is poised to revolutionize and organize the way you browse the Web.  Tab Sets allow users to organize their tabs into separate spaces, or sets, and gives a full window view of their layout.  This new feature will be available within Firefox 4 Beta 4, to be released on August 23.  With Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome 6 set to be released soon, this feature could set Firefox apart from the competition.

Mozilla FirefoxOver the past few days, I have had the chance to play around and experiment with Tab Sets.  So far, my impression has been overwhelmingly positive. I have been known to have up to 30 tabs open at one time in the same window.  Some might call me a tab addict.  I often google something, open search results in new tabs, browse a little, and then think of something else to google.  Often I am hesitant to close a tab because I’m not sure if I’ll need to come back to it.  The result is a bunch of tabs crammed on the small strip at the top of the browser.  With Tab Sets, I don’t have to worry about the number of pages I have open, because I can now organize the tabs into separate sets.


Here is what my Tab Sets layout looks like right now:

Firefox 4 Tab Sets

As you can see, I have several sets of tabs laid out. The names of the sets can be modified however you see fit.  I created sets for browsing social media sites, shopping for computer stuff, emailing and chatting, and one for working on my website.  It’s a brand new way of managing your tabs, so it has taken a little time to get used to. 

When you click within a set, Firefox allows you to browse while only viewing the tabs that are in that set. Any tab you open while browsing within a set will be added exclusively to that set. To see all of the sets again, simply click on the Tab Sets button (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Space) in the top right corner of the browser window.  Tab Sets minimize clutter and gives you the ability to separate tasks.

One minor complaint I have is that there is no easy way to switch back to the previous tab that was being used. I noticed this when I was browsing Digg in one tab and I received a Facebook chat in a different set of tabs. After navigating to the Facebook tab and replying to the chat, I wanted to go back to Digg tab in the other set, and had to navigate through Tab Sets to return to the tab.  A simple solution Mozilla could include is a shortcut to return to the previous tab.

Overall Tab Sets looks really promising and has already helped me with my tab management problems! It will be interesting to see how Chrome, Safari, Opera, and IE respond to this.

What do you think of Tab Sets?  Is this something that will be useful to you?