Firefox New Tab Need a King

A few days ago we were fortunate enough to get the best commentary on New Tab King by Jeff Almond, a Technology Reporter from Israel.  Jeff was kind to allow us to publish it here so before we blush again, here it is:

Incidentally just two days after Google Chrome stunned us with decorative themes Firefox released this afternoon one of its most promising add-ons: New Tab King (version 2.1.2).

I’ve been watching Google Chrome closely since its release last year and I’m able to spot some seismic action in the past month alone around the display of Chrome’s default homepage or new tab.

Google are on to something (yet again), but are they alone? A default homepage is indeed the gateway to one’s browser, and although users tend to set the homepage to their own selected web address, an appealing new homepage is a great way to make a first impression. But what about the browser’s new tab display? Could this be the next uncharted ground? Sure. Here’s an opportunity for Google to dazzle us with features like Speed Dial sites, recently closed tabs, history, and yes – a never ending themes collection for us to play with.

It’s no secret that Google are running their full burners for making Chrome a serious player in the browser market, and quite frankly – I think they’ll get there. Moreover, I wouldn’t be surprised if the existing Chrome user-base is no other than the classic Firefox user, early adopter in 2005 to Internet Explorer new rival, and now sinking into Google’s product. If so – Mozilla will be the ones to get the first blow from Google, and Microsoft will keep the old schoolers, well – as long as Windows is the dominant OS.

But has Firefox said its last word? Here’s the real surprise… someone at Mozilla, or rather some Mozilla extension developer has crunched up a worthy contestant to the big G (Google or Goliath – you decide), at least in the “new tab” ring. New Tab King, a rather new extension is ranked in the top 3 add-ons in 3 of Mozilla’s 14 categories’ rating systems. I’ve checked – no other add-on has such a consensus on its quality, which kind of makes it Firefox’s most appreciated add-on, at least by Firefox reviewers.

What does it do? The same as Chrome’s approach to new tab, only better. Instead of the big speed dial boxes in Chrome, NTK displays a histogram of most used sites, enabling the user to get a broader view of his visited sites and there’s a touch of analytics on one’s browsing trends. On top of that, there’s a big, no really, BIG search bar, functioning very similar to Firefox’s awesome bar (auto-completion wise). And that’s just a start – this extension let’s you customize just about everything concerning the new tab experience: background (down-to-earth) themes, keyboard navigation shortcuts, suggested sites, blacklisted sites, closed tabs, even desktop applications’ shortcuts. A true geek’s dreams coming true. There’s a touch of mischief in New Tab King that I can’t put my finger on precisely and yet – it’s still within the limits of being a reasonable quality tool. It is short of perfect, but all in all – thumbs up to Firefox for this add-on.

Again, I see Firefox losing the market to Google in the future, but until that happens – New Tab King could be an interesting reason for Firefox fans to stick around.

- Jeff almond

A couple of folks approached us and asked how to turn off the New Tab King toolbar icon we added in the latest version (2.1.2).  It’s basically in the Settings of the add-on (see screeshot here) – adding quick and detailed instructions here:

New Tab King options: toolbar button

1. From the top right of the add-on screen click on “Options…”
2. Select the “General” tab at the top of the settings dialog
3. Uncheck the checkbox labeled as: “Check for the New Tab King toolbar button on every Firefox restart“
4. Right click on the toolbar and choose Customize - remove the little NTK button from your toolbar
5. Restart!

Our latest version went officially public yesterday at the Mozilla Add-on portal.  We’re super excited about this and hope existing and new folks would enjoy it – keep us posted with feedback as always – we promise a quick response.

One of the key features of the recent release is the 7 built-in themes with New Tab King.  We hope one of these themes is a good fit with you but also feel like advanced folks would rather have their own personal touch.  Here’s a quick recipe for that:

1. go to your themes directory (just replace with your Windows user name where in bold): C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\tuf7wn2a.default\extensions\{FC5BAC7D-D696-4ba6-B913-CF8F000C33DF}\chrome\content\themes
2. Open one of the newtabking-theme-x.css files
3. Change the very few CSS attributes according to your taste!  here’s an example from the built-in Beautiful Eyes theme:

Hopefully this is not too complex for the brave design-savvy out there.  Let me know if you need some help.
–eddie

We’re super excited about launching our latest themed-based release (2.1.0)

Screenshots attached here – which one is YOU?

New Tab King for Firefox 2.0.9 Preview

Get it from here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/10828#version-2.0.9

So, let’s have a quick summary on what happened since NTK was officially launched (9½ week ago but who’s counting).

1- There are just about 33,400 results in Google mentioning NTK, including some heavy caliber tech blogs
2- 36,000 users downloaded it (that’s ~540 each day, and growing)
3- NTK is ranked #6 in Mozilla’s favorites under tabs section
4- Lebron went on an early vacation. again. god.

but now for the important stuff – what the people had to say:

A lot of Linux freaks, freaked out on us for be incompat. well, we got this fixed with a little help from a volunteering user. cheers, amigo.

Same goes for Mac. now we’re Mac oriented.

Almost all comments (not complaints – comments) included the expression “customize my own”. Here’s a real giant NTK leap: almost everything in your NewTabKing dashboard is customizable. You can choose your background image (or choose not to have one at all). You can pick your own application shortcuts. You can select the number of results that you get in your “Most Used Website” and in “Recently Closed Tabs”. View your “black listed” sites, and hand-pick some of them back to life. You can even set your own title. My title says something nasty about a huge company that starts with a “G” but that’s just my secret revenge.

Plus, we’ve added some other neat stuff, like:

Suggested sites – lets you see sites that are similar to the ones you’re usually visiting. Hey, perhaps you’ll find hidden treasures in the suggested sites list.

Auto-completion in your search bar – You know FireFox? same idea. only bigger.

Shorter loading time – No, I’m saying this for REAL. Try it yourself.

So where are all these improvements? Good question. We are waiting for the Mozilla testing crew to approve our new version 2, which is currently only available in their testing queue

Truth is, we didn’t think it would take that long… but guess what – you can help! If you download, try it,  and post a comment in our mozilla add-ons section, they say it quickens the process. Well, if you feel like it. no pressure.

We’ve gone a few miles since the April 9th release, but as far as we’re concerned the journey has just begun. We hope NewTabKing will become the best interface for new born tabs around the globe.

- Adam and Eddie

Patrick – appreciate the terrific review. We’d be honored to have you on the front page of

Tons of stuff.  Give us a try at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/10828#version-2.0.3

* Autocomplete for searches

* Relevant suggested sites

* Configurations for your shortcuts and view

Ever doze off during work and find yourself googling instead of being productive? and how about your superior taking over your seat and working on your Firefox screen? Could be embaressing, especially if he found out you were surfing that site…

No worries, amigo. At New Tab King every site can be erased and what appears as a site in your history won’t be revealed to a soul.

Also, a little bird at NTK told me that soon there will be a presentation mode, displaying IVY league sites so that when opeing a new tab everyone will think you’re a big shot, surfing first class sites.

We told you it’s addictive.

NTK team

Here’s a problem: we often visit a website over and over again. Typing the same old address more than once is quite a drag. One option, is going to the history tab and try tracking your surfing whereabouts. Personally, I haven’t done that since browsing Netscape in the late 90’s… History is a flat list of sites. Often, that is just too much of a disordered blobs of data. Wouldn’t it be great to have an analytical view of my most visited sites and my bookmarks?

Problem solved!

That’s exactly the idea behind New Tab King for Firefox. In NTK, you get all your frequently visited sites lined up from most to least visited in the last 30 days right in the context you need it – on a new browser tab. This way you can easily locate all your recently visited sites and access them at a click.

Another important item is a display of your bookmarked sites. This way you can remove the bookmark menu and save some precious browser area.

Now don’t say we didn’t warn you: New Tab King for Firefox is addictive!

NTK team