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Can container tabs open in a new tab?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by Philip

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I think this is a feature request. Here's what I'm seeing:

  1. do a web search
  2. click on a link that launches a container tab, like Facebook
  3. current tab killed (!) new page opens in container tab
  4. History gone/back button disabled

3 creates a a very frustrating user experience. Since you get no notification that the current tab will be killed by clicking a link, you don't know why your history is gone. It took me a while to figure it out and I'm a developer who's been surfing the web since Mosaic. I found that the history is there if I look at the history tab, which is good. Even better, "undo close tab" resurrects the killed tab.

But why not automatically open the page in a new tab and leave the original one open? I don't see an option for that, but maybe I missed it? Thanks.

I think this is a feature request. Here's what I'm seeing: # do a web search # click on a link that launches a container tab, like Facebook # current tab killed (!) new page opens in container tab # History gone/back button disabled 3 creates a a very frustrating user experience. Since you get no notification that the current tab will be killed by clicking a link, you don't know why your history is gone. It took me a while to figure it out and I'm a developer who's been surfing the web since Mosaic. I found that the history is there if I look at the history tab, which is good. Even better, "undo close tab" resurrects the killed tab. But why not automatically open the page in a new tab and leave the original one open? I don't see an option for that, but maybe I missed it? Thanks.

Modified by Philip

Chosen solution

I've opened a bug report for you (see bug 1610210), so that the developers can take a look at your suggestion.

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All Replies (4)

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Firstly, you can bring back a closed tab in Firefox. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + T.

As for your issue, this is the expected behaviour of the feature. It behaves the same as it would without the container tabs. If your search results normally open in a new tab or you have right-clicked on the link and selected Open in new tab, then the container tab will open in a new tab. If the website is set to open the link in the current tab, but the container tab replaces the regular tab.

You get no history in the container tab because it's a new tab, so there is no history to it. It would undermine the purpose of the container tab feature to add history into the tab.

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Yes, I said explicitly wrote you can "undo close tab" and bring it back.

I understand this is the way the feature was designed, and my argument is that even very experienced users do not expect this. I see you're a top 10 contributor, so you're you may be overestimating what even experienced users understand and expect. I never expect the current tab to close just by clicking a link to another site.

I'm simply saying it would be very beneficial to give users to automatically open container links in a new tab. Yes, I can right click can open the link in a new tab if I remember that the link goes to a site with a container tab. This is a fairly new feature so I almost never do. I just see my history is gone with no indication why.

But Firefox knows whether it needs to run this in a new container tab and can automatically open it in a separate tab without destroying the original. That would cause less confusion and frustration.

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Chosen Solution

I've opened a bug report for you (see bug 1610210), so that the developers can take a look at your suggestion.

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Thank you, Wesley, really appreciate it.