Firefox 4 Beta 4 Introduces Panorama to Group Tabs

Are you opening too many tabs? Is the tab bar getting too cluttered? Mozilla has recently announced in a blog post that the fourth beta of Firefox 4 is now available. It introduces a new tab management feature known as Firefox Panorama, formerly Firefox Tab Candy.

Panorama is a new feature that allows you to group and organize your tabs by task. In addition, it offers beautiful eye candy and an attractive interface.

Learn more about this new feature in the video below.

To go to the Panorama view, simply click the new button on the right side of the tab bar or use the shortcut key Ctrl + Space.

Firefox Panorama

Firefox Panorama allows you to group tabs.

Firefox Tab Stacks

Firefox Tab Stacks

To create new groups or to rearrange tabs, simply drag and drop. Dragging two or more tabs close to each other will automatically create a new group.

To create a new blank group, simply hold the left mouse key and draw a new box by moving the pointer diagonally.

Groups can be resized. While resizing, a small dotted line appears at the borders extending to the edge of the window to help with organization of groups.

If the size becomes too small, the tabs merge into a stack. To view tabs in stack, simply click the Expand button that appears below it.

To switch to any tab, simply click the tab’s thumbnail. It will then have an expanding effect and show the tab. You will notice that in your tab bar, only those tabs in the same group are showing. The rest are hidden. This is extremely useful for getting rid of clutter.

Firefox Move Tab

You can move a tab to another group by right clicking on it.

No other browser has this feature available right now and Mozilla is hard at work with their upcoming version of Firefox. There is definitely serious competition in the browser market right now.

Beta 4 also includes Firefox Sync (formerly Weave) which automatically syncs all your Firefox settings including tabs, preferences, bookmarks, and history so you can access the same data from any location you are using Firefox.

Have you tried the new beta of Firefox yet? What are your thoughts of Panorama? Tell us what you think in the comments.

By
Brian is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of TechAirlines. He is also a developer and manages most of the site’s operations. He enjoys web development in his free time and is currently trying to learn Python. He is currently a high school senior in New York City.

  • http://www.creastery.com Creastery

    I like that function =D
    Its really neat and easy to use.
    Definitely useful for browsing through a lot of tabs!

    • http://www.techairlines.com Brian

      Yup. I usually don’t like keeping a lot of tabs open cause then I have to scroll through them and its hard to find what I need. With this new feature, I find myself opening 40 tabs at once without even realizing it cause a lot of them are hidden.

      • http://www.creastery.com Creastery

        Hehe. Same here =D

  • Mistee

    Having tried out FF4b10, I have to say that I do indeed like group tabbing, since I do a lot of surfing and community/blogging online. The only thing I don’t like, however, is that the group tabs do not stick once you close your browser. So once I’m done for the night, and log back on in the morning, I have to redo my groups all over again rather than opening Firefox and having the groups load up just as they were when I closed it. That’s really the selling point for me with FF4

    • http://www.techairlines.com Brian Yang

      Yeah, that’s the main reason why I haven’t been using the tab grouping feature a lot even though Firefox 4 is my primary browser. I don’t want to have to regroup everything every single time.

      Maybe there will be an add-on developed one day allowing tab groups to be saved.

  • Adib

    ctrl+ spacebar not working for me.

  • Jack

    If you have Firefox set to show your windows and tabs from last time on startup, your tab groups will come back.

    • http://www.techairlines.com Brian Yang

      Thanks for the comment! Yep, the only way to have your tab groups come back is to remember the windows and tabs from the last session, which makes sense.