Tab Notes going live in Firefox Labs - please share your feedback

[asafko]

Hi folks,

Tab notes feature will become available in Firefox Labs in Release 149, coming out in late March. Your feedback in Nightly greatly helped us improve it from the first working prototype – and you'll see some of the usability enhancements land in the next few weeks. Now that more folks would have access to the improved version of tab notes in Labs, we would appreciate your feedback to make tab notes more stable, useful, and visually polished.

What are tab notes?
A tab note is a simple way to write yourself a note about a web page. Notes can be reminders, to-do items, quick thoughts, longer excerpts — anything you want to capture, up to 1,000 characters. A note is indicated by a little sticky note icon and remains associated with the web page until you delete it. If you close a tab and later reopen it, the tab note will appear again. The notes are stored locally and even if you have Mozilla account with Sync on, they are currently not synced to the cloud or to your remote devices. 

Ready to share your feedback? 
Please give notes a try and tell us what works well and what can be improved. One thing we actively seek feedback on is notes persistence – ensuring that tab note remains associated with the web page even as a website modifies its URL when you navigate around the page, apply filters, etc. We're curious to know how often do you experience problems with persistence –  do notes disappear from pages unexpectedly or stick to pages where you don't expect to see them? Please share any issues you’ve encountered here or file a Bugzilla ticket in the Tabbed browser component.

Some of you have suggested changing the current model (tab notes are associated with URLs) and associating tab notes with tabs instead, so we're curious to gather more feedback on this at scale.  

Want to get into the nuts and bolts of tab notes implementation?
Check out this doc for known limitations around tab notes persistence.

If you have used tab notes in Nightly 
Please note that we will turn the feature off by default in Nightly and relaunch it in Nightly Firefox Labs on February 25th, so if you used notes in these channels, you would need to update to the latest Nightly, then navigate to Firefox Settings > Firefox Labs (about:preferences#experimental), and turn the Tab notes on. Once you do it, your notes will reappear intact. 

[asafko]

Hi folks, 

Noting that once you update to Firefox Nightly 150 today (Feb 26), Tab Notes will be turned off by default and you will need to navigate to Firefox Settings > Firefox Labs to turn the feature back on and see all of your notes again. 

[hippilessrich]

good i should not have to waste my time learning how to turn something off i could careless about even if i do want it ! it should be my choice to turn it on always everytime , that is exactly how any new app or option should be introduced onto or into a system ! everytime that way people dont get pissed off , i have said this for years and im so glad someone finally listened ! keep this up and you will make lot of people very happy !! now make the assholes at google and mircosoft etc..understand this and holy **bleep** the whole world could be happy one day !!

[mdorigny]

If everything new is turned off by default, no one will know about any new features. As a result, no one will turn them on, and so in turn no one will use them. I'm not saying everything should be enabled by default either, but there needs to be a balance.

If a feature is complex, very specific, intrusive, or resource-intensive, then it should be opt-in. But if it’s something as simple and straightforward as this, I don’t see why it should be off by default.

The only reason it’s like that currently is that it’s still in the testing phase. However, I see no reason to keep it as an opt-in-only feature once it is fully finished, tested, and approved.

[s_hentzschel]

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Some of you have suggested changing the current model (tab notes are associated with URLs) and associating tab notes with tabs instead, so we're curious to gather more feedback on this at scale.

Yes, please. This is very important for me. To quote myself from the Nightly thread:

"The feature is labeled as tab notes, but in fact they are URL notes. As soon as the URL changes, the note disappears.

I would like the notes to actually belong to the tab, which makes much more sense to me because the URL can change relatively easily, especially when navigating within the tab. I would argue that it is even very likely that you will actively work with a tab on which you take notes, which in many cases inevitably results in the URL changing — but that does not mean that the note is no longer relevant to the tab.

Apart from that, I also see a kind of privacy issue: If the tab note simply disappears, it is quickly forgotten. If the URL is called up again later and then someone is with you, a private note may be revealed that has been forgotten. To mitigate this, it would at least require an overview of all tab notes."

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Another thing I would like to repeat from my Nightly feedback is the behavior of the Enter key. The input field is not a single-line field, but looks like a text area. Therefore, it has happened several times that I pressed the Enter key to create a new line. Instead, the dialog was closed and I had to search for it again and open it to edit the note.

You should either allow line breaks with the Enter key (I know Shift + Enter, but that still contradicts my mental model of a textarea-like input field) or not close the dialog when the focus is not on the “Save” button.

[D0m1n1c]

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Some of you have suggested changing the current model (tab notes are associated with URLs) and associating tab notes with tabs instead, so we're curious to gather more feedback on this at scale. 

---

+1 for this suggestion. Currently, at work, I use multi containers feature to open few different accounts of Microsoft OneDrive. I wanted to add a note to know quickly in which container the tab is in. But the note is added on all tabs that match the same OneDrive URL (even if they are in different containers). 

[Unfathomable]

Please add the note(s) icon in the address bar. Right clicking on the tab is rather tedious. 

[Lax]

Totalement d'accord avec vous

[troysjanda]

IF you add a note to the tab, you should be able to see the note on mouse hover, does not seem to be the case only way to view it to right click on tab and edit or delete. adding a note is useless unless you can see it.

[gharp]

@troysjanda tab notes should appear when you hover over the sticky note icon (but not when you hover over the tab title). If they aren't appearing for you at all on hover, could you please file a Bugzilla ticket so that we can troubleshoot? 

[K1P2]

Perhaps you are using SB? Re: Sandboxie users: I just confirmed for myself that after adding a Note on a tab, I can't then hover on the tab or that little icon and see the Note while I am using the latest update of the Classic version of Sandboxie for that Firefox browser session.  I can, as expected, edit and delete the Note upon a R-click on the tab while in Sandboxie'd browser session. For the hover function, I must open a FF without using Sandboxie which, for me, allowed Tab Note to work completely as intended. It's a wonderful feature that I personally like a lot, and I hope Sandboxie's very nature doesn't preclude the 'hover' ability for reading our Tab Notes. 

[DaveQ1]

Firefox 149.0 Stable on Zorin 18. Hover is working for me.

[mythicroam]

This would be insanely useful if there was some kind of an "All Tab Notes" overview. Maybe in Library, or in Sidebar, similar to how Bookmarks or History are shown.

Without a way to quickly recall the note I take anytime I want, I feel like I might foget about it, and would rather copy the link and add a note about it in any other notes app.

[gharp]

@mythicroam thanks for the suggestion. Feel free to suggest this as a new Idea on Connect so that others can weigh in too.

[efte]

Yes, very important to have some kind of note persistence, especially if the tab is closed or user navigates away from the original URL. The note should still be available, otherwise it's a bit pointless.

[bhoconnor]

I just turned it on, and am excited to try it out, but it was very frustrating to try to find it. Please label super clearly in all places Tab notes (or anything Labs related) are mentioned, as I even followed multiple links and directions to find Labs in Settings, but it wasn't there--oddly, not because I didn't have "Allow Firefox to improve features, performance, and stability between updates" unchecked, I for some reason had to uncheck and check it back again.

Even pasting "about:preferences#experimental" into my address bar didn't work. 

So screenshots and caveats for how to actually find will go a long way...thanks,

Brendan

[TheQueenOfBones]

Please stop the tab note box from popping up when you hover over the tab. It is extremely cumbersome and distracting, and very easy to mis-click on when trying to go to the URL bar. If you must have it, at least give an about:config option to disable it and only interact with tab notes through right-clicking.

[august0490]

I proposed exactly the same. That hover menu is annoying and unnecessary.

[davidnrn12]

Hi, I am new to this site. This message box is a long way from the top. "give us your feedback."

Having found how to enable it in "lab xxx" and then right clicked a tab learnt how to create a note.

My project: to find a new home to live in hamilton NZ

Trade Me is the local NZ auction site where most houses are advertised.

Each house has a separate listing number and can be saved in separate tabs in firefox.

I was attracted to tab note as a way of adding my thinking to each tab in TradeME

So made a note in the first tab, then moved to the second tab, right click and the add note is greyed out.

So tab note is not usable for multiple tabs from the same Auction house.

[PlumDhom]

Bravo,
Je trouve cette nouvelle fonctionnalité super utile et bien pensé. Peut être le fait de colorer l'indication (le dessin de la note cornée translucide) d'une note serait intéressant,; permettrait de plus la remarquer

[user02]

Please leave this feature bloat out of Firefox. There are plenty of note taking solutions already and the last thing anyone needs is more scattered user data. Mozilla should just focus on Firefox as a fast and compliant reference implementation of web standards. Features beyond that detract from the value of Firefox.

[s_hentzschel]

Again, as in the other topic. It's not bloat just because you don't need it. For me, it's a great feature (if they consider my other feedback) and makes a lot of sense.

[lackey]

I'm sure there are dozens of extensions you want baked into the browser. 

But Firefox isn't about you.

It's about giving everyone the choice to extend the browser on their own, without bothering others with bloat.

[s_hentzschel]

Firefox is not only for me and not only for you, it's for more than 200 million active users and many different use cases.

It's not about "dozens of extensions", it's about an enhancement for tabs that totally makes sense for a browser.

No one is "bothered with bloat", that's nonsense and you know that. There’s absolutely no way this feature could bother you, because you’d have to actively use it yourself for it to affect you at all.

According to your reasoning, Mozilla could stop developing Firefox because everything can be provided as an extension. Fact is: Choice isn't created by not offering options. Choice is created by having options.

[lackey]

You are being selfish and thinking backwards.

Forcing your favorite extensions into everybody's browser code is the opposite of choice. 

[Nexl404]

I’ve been using Tab Notes for a few days now and wanted to share some observations:

• Minor thing: I’m using vertical tabs on the left side. When the tab bar is collapsed (favicon-only view), hovering over it expands the sidebar together with the note preview. This doesn’t feel visually clean and can be a bit distracting.
• The Add note / Update note option is somewhat buried in the context menu (macOS). I have to actively look for it each time. I’d suggest moving it higher in the menu for better visibility.
• The most important thing: when I click on a note, it opens a preview, but I can’t edit or delete it directly from there. I have to go back to the context menu and find the option again - which is also renamed from “Add Note” to “Update Note,” making it less predictable.
  • I’d suggest allowing direct editing/deleting from the note view itself.
  • Also, a more consistent label like just “Note” or “Notes” would be clearer for both cases.

• Speaking of notes in general: it would be really useful to have an overview of all notes across tabs, for example in about:firefoxview.

Overall, I like the idea a lot. It’s genuinely useful for keeping context, but the current UX makes it slightly harder to use than it could be.

[gharp]

@Nexl404 thanks for this helpful feedback. With vertical tabs and the hover interactions, there is some bugginess that we need to work on.
For release 151 we plan to improve both the positioning in the context menu (your second suggestion) and the ability to edit/delete a note directly from the preview panel (your third suggestion).

[JonM]

Lovin the notes and your suggestions would definitely improve them.

[ddonfire32]

"Speaking of notes in general: it would be really useful to have an overview of all notes across tabs, for example in about:firefoxview."

If there was an overview of all notes it may be useful to be able to go from the note to the web page to which it relates, so its easy to go a see to what the note relates.

[wayfaringrob]

Couple things that might be improved:

• Tooltip delay. The pop-up for tab notes appears instantly on hover rather than after a delay (as with the tab preview/title). Another commenter expressed frustration with the hover functionality, but perhaps a delay would help.
• Tooltip redundancy, size of hover targets. While we're adjusting the delay...could we just combine the note pop-up with the existing hover pop-up containing the tab title and optional thumbnail? That would be way less fussy and way more useful. And with vertical tabs, the hover target for the note is so, so tiny. Even with horizontal tabs, it seems less efficient to have to hover over such a small icon, which is also consuming a lot of horizontal (text) real estate. Is there a more compact way to communicate "there's a note on this tab?" Having all the info in one quick motion with a large click target (the whole tab) would be so much better. Since there is already an area for "add note" in the regular pop-up, perhaps any existing note should go there, too, for easy legibility and muscle memory. You could also add Edit and Delete buttons to make it even more useful.
• Auto Tab Discard contraindications. I use this Mozilla-recommended extension to put tabs to sleep after a period of inactivity (to save RAM). However, there is no option to add a note to tabs that are "sleeping." This would be useful. I can, however, see an existing note.

Regarding people's preferences regarding whether a note should be associated with a URL or a tab session, perhaps there could be a toggle.

[wayfaringrob]

Another idea:

• Assign a common note to multiple tabs: Often I have multiple tabs open that relate to the same thing (jobs to apply to, apartments of interest, primary sources, related tutorials, product research...). Associating them with the same note might be helpful, but this kind of blurs the line with tab groups. However, I have never found using tab groups to be worth the overhead, and it might be more useful to just select multiple tabs and be able to assign the note to them that way. Perhaps such a function could automatically create a group, too, and with the tick of a box, also discard them into something like OneTab for later?
  • If you play OpenTTD, you'll know this as "Shared Orders," aka assigning multiple trains to the same route, which you probably developed first on one train and then assigned to the rest. But from then on, when you edit the route for one, it changes for the rest. So editing the shared note in Firefox should update it for all tabs.

Also: I don't use tab groups, but I do use OneTab for saving collections of tabs for later. I wonder if Firefox could develop a native OneTab function that stores associated notes.

[Nexl404]

That OpenTTD example is brilliant!

I actually use Tab Groups quite a lot in my workflow, and assigning a note to an entire group might be exactly what I’d find most useful.

Right now, I usually try to encode some context directly into the group name, but having a proper note attached to the group would handle that much better.

[wayfaringrob]

Interesting! So far, the most I have used tab groups is on accident. Maybe because I am used to my OneTab workflow and I don't like to have too many open at a time.

[FM]

ui.tooltip.delay_ms already enables you to adjust the tooltip delay. This works on tabs too. Although there might be some value in separating the two values in future versions.

[azure]

Echoing this is a great example of features that should be added as accessible icons located at the end of the address bar, not within or when hovering over the tabs. It's a particularly rough experience when using vertical tabs, and in the way when tab clickbox "real estate" is valuable.

[Jabin_KilwickIT]

My first impression is that that are a little difficult to interact with when created. They sit as a tiny note icon on the tab. If they floated on the page like a sticky note it would be easier in my opinion. Otherwise a very GOOD IDEA thank you!

[miki64]

Good morning to all the Mozilla Firefox friends.

I would like to point out that everything you requested regarding "Tab Notes" is available in a fantastic extension that allows you to save text notes on a Firefox tab: it is called "Notefox" and is available for download from AMO: https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/websites-notes/

It is even an extension with the "Recommended" badge, used by 12,539 users, also available for Firefox on Android, and with a high score of 4.4 stars.

You could use that extension to come up with ideas to then suggest in this topic.

Greetings everyone.

[DailyUser]

I enjoy this new feature but make it so there is a option so when you click on a tab, it creates a sticky note looking box on the middle of the page that shows the note. Make sure there is a option to turn it off when it appears or when right clicking on the tab and in the notes section and a setting to turn it off.

Cool feature and I like the new "Firefox is on guard" shield icon!

[bactobene]

wish it was visible in a regular tooltip and didn't require the ugly browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled to use.

[Alec269]

Yes, this is a good feature. But it isn't implemented correctly. Currently, the note is bound to the URL not the tab. When I change the URL, the note disappears. Please make this a proper tab note feature and make it permanent.