Almost all of our MyFive articles up until now have been about things that we like, but we also want to use this as a way to discuss improvements to applications, websites, and more. It will kind of be like our Opera article where I wrote about things I would like to see in the browser.
Like many of you I’m a huge fan of the open source Firefox web browser, but there are still some things that I think it can improve on. So today I’m putting Firefox under the microscope!
In my list that I came up with I tried to avoid the more obvious things that can be done by extensions, such as advanced tab management. I also strayed away from mentioning anything that I know will be implemented in Firefox 3. Shall we got on with it?
- Bookmark Sorting
One thing that always irks me with Firefox is its inability to automatically sort my bookmarks. You can always manually sort the bookmarks, but even that can be quite a pain. When sorting by name it doesn’t treat sub-folders any differently than individual bookmarks, that means the folders become intermingled with the other bookmarks instead of being listed before them. I would expect this to work in the same way as a file explorer in an operating system, but it doesn’t. - Toolbar Management
I would like to have more control over the toolbars without needing to install an extension. I should be able to quickly place the Tab Bar, for example, on the side or along the bottom. - Theme
Right now there aren’t many browsers that have much visual appeal, and I would say that the two best looking ones are Flock and Internet Explorer. I especially love IE’s transparent effects on Vista, and something like that would be awesome in Firefox. What can I say, I’m a sucker for good eye candy. I also think that Mozilla should include the classic Firefox theme as an option for the same reason that all versions of Windows still contain the classic skin…some people just like things kept simple. - One-Click Private Browsing
Firefox is making its way onto more and more public computers, and I would like to see a one-click option to get complete privacy. Sure it’s possible to wipe the history clean after you’re done, but maybe I don’t want to lose all of my history and cookies. If I’m paying bills or something it would be nice to disable all of the cookies and caching mechanisms. - No Restarts After Extension/Theme Installation
Installing extensions and themes in Firefox is a regular occurrence for me, and sometimes it can become a pain having to restart the browser. I’m grateful that with Firefox 2 my tabs will be restored, but when I have dozens of tabs open it can take a minute or so for the browser to become usable after it restarts.
I did leave performance off of the list for a good reason, it’s because I’ve seen massive improvements in Firefox 3. That’s a story worthy of its own article though, and you’ll probably be seeing a write-up about Firefox 3 performance improvements in the next week or two.
So now it’s your turn! Hit us up in the comments with what you would like to see in future versions of Firefox.
“Theme
Right now there aren’t many browsers that have much visual appeal, and I would say that the two best looking ones are Flock and Internet Explorer. I especially love IE’s transparent effects on Vista, and something like that would be awesome in Firefox. What can I say, I’m a sucker for good eye candy. I also think that Mozilla should include the classic Firefox theme as an option for the same reason that all versions of Windows still contain the classic skin…some people just like things kept simple.”
There are at least 100 copy cats of every theme from every browser for Firefox,in fact I’m using the IE 7 one right now.
A restart button. Ever once in a while FireFox starts acting weird, and I just want to restart it, without losing everything.
That’s true, but no other browser has the true transparent effect that Internet Explorer 7 offers on Vista.
I think that should be available as well, but there is a simple extension that takes care of that.
I agree with you on #5. That was something I loved about Opera.
Also, if anyone uses the extension Personal Menu, there’s a hidden menu option for restarting Firefox. It’s really handy.
If I’m not mistaken, FF3 will also have a restart button on the add ons screen or something…
Anyways, here are my replies to your 5:
1. I agree completely. I usually just alphabetize and then throw it on manual to put the folders back where they need to be.
2. True, as well…though with some chrome hacks it’s fairly easy to do this.
3. As Andrew pointed out, there are hundreds of themes for Firefox…<_<
4. Stealther extension FTW. Also you can just do the Clear Private data thing…that lets you selectively kill what you do and don’t want to delete.
5. Agreed for the most part…but ultimately since I have a restart button and I usually only have like 5-10 tabs open at a time, restarting doesn’t really bug me.
My 5 would be:
. Never gonna happen, especially since there’s already an extension…but whatever.
1. make it not such a big RAM hog
2. toolbar customization. I think it’s easier to move buttons and crap around than it is in Opera…but Opera definitely kicks Firefox’s ass when it comes to where you want certain toolbars to appear.
3. SPEED DIAL
And I can’t think of much else….
That’s one of the reasons it was kind of fun trying out themes in Opera. You never had to restart to see what it actually looked like.
They’ve already got that in there…there is always a restart button on the add-ons screen now instead of just after installing an extension.
And I do know about clearing your private data, but sometimes I only want to remove items from particular sites. The example that I gave was while doing my finances I don’t want any cookies to be stored or pages to be cached. A button to disable those features on a temporary basis would therefore be nice…without needing an extension.
Thanks for pointing out the Personal Menu restart option though, that is pretty nice. I didn’t know it had that feature.
Yes, Firefox’s bookmark management and toolbar customization sucks. Those 2 keep me on IE. Even with addons, bookmark management sucks too much.
People keep mentioning the fact that there are tons of Firefox themes to download.
What people don’t realize is that the quality of the themes is really bad. 90% of the Firefox themes don’t look like Web 2.0 themes should be: sleek, polished, unobtrusive, uncluttered. For stunning themes Opera beats Firefox, hands down! Maxthon also has better looking themes!
What I would like in Firefox is not a new feature but a more responsive menu and interface. In opera the switch from one tab to another or selecting a menu item is done instantaneously — in Opera 9.5 this has been improved even more (even though there was no need for speed improvement!)
I would be very happy if there was a “Camino” or “Flock” theme for firefox….
I use a handy extension called [addons.mozilla.org] It does what you mentioned in point 4. However, I would really like to see it implemented by default in Firefox 3
Thank you! Now I don’t feel like I’m crazy for wanting a good looking theme. Although I believe that Opera’s theme has also worn out it’s welcome since it has been around for several versions. I think Flock’s is very good, and Internet Explorer 7’s is pretty slick on Vista with the transparency.
Someone else had mentioned that above, and I try to minimize the number of extensions that I use. It’s not something that I use enough to justify installing an extension, but I would use it once or twice a week probably.
My Firefox bookmarks sort to folders before files when I sort by name. They have always done so.
I would also like to enable extensions without re-starting but it is not usually an issue. It only matters when I want to use the extension straight away.
You must have an extension that is doing that. It’s not the default nature of Firefox’s bookmarks.