I know I’m going to hate myself in the morning for saying this, but IE7’s implementation of tabbed browsing has one tiny detail in it that Firefox doesn’t and it’s driving me nuts.

The issue is a small one (like most things that influence usability) - when you open a new tab in IE7, it opens the tab in the background immediately to the right of the tab that’s active.

IE Tabs

Firefox opens a new tab in the rightmost position. Also, IE’s tab scroll controls are on the ends of the tab bar while Firefox’s are clustered on the right side.

Firefox Tabs

If you’re like me, you frequently have more tabs open that will fit on the screen. This means that in Firefox the tab you just opened is floating somewhere off to the right and you have to scroll to the right until you can see the tab you wanted.

A typical flow for me:

  • Find interesting blog post
  • Start reading, come across 2-3 interesting references in the post
  • Open references in tabs (so I can get to them after I finish the main post)

I often have more tabs open than will fit in the application window and I often find the idea of localized access applies to my reading. In IE7, my flow is uninterrupted - as I open new tabs, they are clustered around the one I’m reading. When I move from one to the other, my clicking is localized and I don’t have to search the tab bar for the pages I just opened.

In Firefox, I find myself constantly having to stop what I’m doing to find the pages I just opened. The tab I just opened is floating somewhere to the right and I have to click on the right scroll arrow to find it. Now, if I want to reference the original post, my eye has glanced to the left, I’ve noted it’s off screen to the left, but then I have to go back over to the right because the left and right controls are clustered together. In IE7, the left control is where my eye ended up - on the left side of the window.

This is a minor, niggly, nit-picky issue, but it annoys me constantly. It makes me notice the browser instead of having it fade into the background. On balance, I still strongly prefer Firefox, but this issue annoys me enough that I’ll open up IE multiple times/day.

Details matter.

PS: If I’m missing an obvious Firefox config setting or a Greasemonkey script, please enlighten me - I’ll be eternally grateful. (Ok, maybe eternally is slightly overstating the point - you know what I mean though…)