For almost two years, I've been using a Firefox extension called "Tabbrowser Extensions" written by a Japanese guy who really tries hard, but doesn't quite do English very well. Now, I have to say, he may not know English, but the controversial TBE packs more tabbing features than I even thought were conceivable into one extension. If there's a feature you want... it's there! Thumbnails, tree views, horizontal or vertical tabs, closebox management, look-and-feel, fonts for unread items, pop-up blocking and repurposing as tabs. The newest version is even more incredible.
Am I recommending it? I'm not sure. Even the author advises against using it! He says...
This extension strongly unrecommended. Tab Mix is recommended instead of this, because it is stable, light, and it covers most useful features of this...
If you think this is too heavy and too gigantic having many needless features, see a thread in MozillaZine: Rebuilding TBE's featureset with other plugins. There are many tiny extensions which provide each feature of TBE's.
If that doesn't have you clicking to download, the author has an "Advantages and Disadvantages" pages which is heavily weighted toward the disadvantages, including this gem...
Virtually, now no one can update TBE codes, excluding [sic] me. Its codes are like as entwined spaghetti. Many unknown bugs are maybe there, many known problems (with unknown reasons) too.
Fantastic! No wonder it works so well under Windows!
The poor guy! It's obvious from looking at his page that he's had nothing but complaints from lots of people. Maybe it's no wonder. Just navigating the preferences pages makes you feel like you're in the cockpit of a 747. Maybe a 747 is even easier. As a programmer, I can't even imagine how you can make all those checkboxes operate in combination. I mean, when you add tab thumbnails, have tabs indicate which things you haven't read, group tabs by color and launch group, there are so many fonts and special-features packed into the tab you really need a quick reference card to understand what it all means!
But, here's the rub. I've been using it for 2 years. Not a problem. And I love it! When people look over my shoulder at me whizzing through dozens of tabs and sorting and rearranging and categorizing they say I look like some kind of frenzied information junkie. It's true. I can consume and organise tons of web information using TBE. It saves me time.
And it's almost like a video game in terms of the fun factor! I change the preferences all the time just because I can!
So, I may be alone. I may be weird. I may be totally off my nut.
But, I recommend Tabbrowser Extensions highly! Get it. Go nuts! In a world of dangerous awful stupid adware and browser viruses, at least THIS crazy thing does something helpful. It may not be for everybody. You really need to be a cockpit junkie. But, if you are, you'll never go back.
And hey, let's figure out how to help this guy out of his depressing mess. I'd love seeing this thing maintained and updated and made more official. If there are bugs, I haven't found any. But, considering how over-the-top this thing is, there MUST be zillions in there somewhere!
Anyway! I give it FIVE UGLY STARS!
Thank you, Gary.
Posted by: Furnas-san | May 11, 2006 at 04:27 PM