Mozilla Firefox Might “Borrow” Microsoft Edge’s Best Feature

As Microsoft Edge continues to gain users, Mozilla is planning to pilfer its best feature: vertical tabs.

Microsoft Edge is putting up some amazing numbers lately, to the point where its competitors are now looking to it for inspiration. Now, a community project manager from Mozilla has confirmed that the company is experimenting with implementing Edge’s amazing vertical tab functionality into its browser.

Mozilla Firefox’s Move on Microsoft Edge’s Vertical Tabs

As spotted by Softpedia, Mozilla users have been begging for Microsoft Edge’s vertical tab feature to make its debut on Firefox. And now, the community product manager Jon Siddoway has stated that, while nothing is set in stone just yet, the company is definitely considering it.

As Siddoway states on a Firefox feature request forum:

Hey all,Here with some exciting news…This idea has emerged as a top idea in the community and has been reviewed by the product team at Mozilla. And we will continue to explore this possibility as we take a closer look at tab management. This means we are going to invest in research before making that final decision, but we invite you to continue the conversation and stay tuned for announcements.

In case you’re unsure as to what’s going on, vertical tabs are designed for “tabaholics:” people who keep a lot of tabs open in their browser.

Your browser can handle as many tabs as your hardware allows, but the more tabs you add, the more they squish up to make room. Eventually, they’ll only show their “favicons:” the little icons that tell you which website you’re on. This removes important identifying information for each tab, such as titles and page names.

Vertical tabs fix this by showing the tabs going down the side of the screen, instead of across the top. That way, tabs don’t need to squish up to make room for more, meaning you can quickly locate the tab you’re searching for.

Of course, given how monitors are wider than they are tall, it means you’ll need to do more scrolling to find the tab you want. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter if you have one tab or 100 tabs open; they’ll all show their full page title.

Microsoft Edge Is Making a Splash

Microsoft has had a lot of reasons to celebrate with its Edge browser. Ever since its phoenix-like resurrection using a Chromium base, the browser has gone from strength to strength over the years.

It’s now at the point where Microsoft Edge is threatening Safari’s spot at number two, only lagging behind the internet behemoth, Google Chrome. And as such, companies that once scoffed at Microsoft’s browser offerings are now taking notes as Edge’s users begin to grow.

As such, it’ll be interesting to see if other browsers will begin “borrowing” bits from Edge, too. And if they do, we’ll have to see if it’s enough to encourage users to ditch Edge and use third-party solutions instead.

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them

With Mozilla now eyeing up Microsoft Edge’s vertical tabs, it’s a clear sign that Microsoft’s product is causing others to reassess their position in the market. We’ll have to wait and see if Edge can maintain its momentum or if it’ll leak users to its competitors as they borrow ideas from the browser.

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