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Firefox's new tab page adds a bit of RSS
Built-in start pages are all the rage in the latest browsers. Chrome and Safari each show slick-looking selection of your most visited pages when you open a new tab, and now Firefox is getting into the game with its own new tab page for version 3.5 (formerly known as version 3.1). The Firefox About:Tab page isn't as flashy as the other two, but it might be a bit more practical, now that it features a little bit of RSS. Firefox's new tab screen-- previously covered on Download Squad -- now shows an unobtrusive list of your top sites down the side of the page, instead of the full-page graphical layouts other browsers use. It also shows a button to Google search or Google Map whatever's in your clipboard with one click. The real advantage of the list format over the graphical version wasn't obvious to me until the latest version of About:Tab, though: the list is ideal for displaying a few RSS items from your top sites, so you know if they've been updated before you click through. This new RSS feature works automatically, and -- for me, anyway -- it gives Firefox the edge over Chrome or Safari's start pages.
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Subscribe to commentswrabbitMar 19th 2009 10:00AM
It looks very promising. Unfortunately I haven't had time to really try it out but from the few times I did try it, even in its very first incarnations it was already very good, and I imagine it'll get even better fast.
To be honest I hope Mozilla includes it in 3.5, and Ubiquity as well. They could (in fact, should) be included as options, so if you don't like them you can turn them off (though they should be on by default). I mean as for ubiquity, it's completely invisible until you actually use it, so those that don't want to bother with it, won't even know it's there. And as for the new tab - well, it seems like a no-brainer, I mean _anything_ is better than a blank tab, isn't it, as long as it loads fast. So I'd say that's the only thing they gotta pay attention to - if they can make sure the new tab opens as fast as (or not noticeably slower than) the old tab then it should definitely be included in 3.5.