Latest Firefox release includes better tab management and recommendation features

Mozilla unveiled the latest Firefox release on Tuesday (December 11) and it’s had a great response.

Firefox 64, available now for desktop and android, boasts better browser tab organisation and nifty recommendation tools.

“It’s the season for spending time with family and friends over a nice meal and exchanging gifts,” said Nick Nguyen from Mozilla in a blog post.

“Whether it’s a monogrammed bag or a nicely curated 2019 calendar of family photos, it’s the practical gifts that get the most use.

“For Firefox, we’re always looking for ways to simplify and personalise your online experience. For today’s version of Firefox for desktop, we have a couple new features that do just that.”

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— Firefox 🔥 (@firefox) November 27, 2018

What new features are available with the latest Firefox release?

Multiple Tab Organisation

Firstly, you can now organise your tabs in the way that you want. You can do this just by shift or ctrl-clicking the several tabs you want from the tab bar. Essentially, this will allow you to move, mute, pin or bookmark them with more efficiency.

“When you go online, it’s not uncommon to have several tabs open on a variety of topics,” continued Nguyen. “Whether it’s dinner recipes or gift ideas for your family, it can add up to lots of tabs.”

This updated task manager will also now give you an assessment on the energy impact of individual tabs. So, if you’re using a laptop or phone and you’re concerned about power usage, it’s ideal.

Contextual Feature Recommender (CFR)

You can now discover relevant Firefox features and services based on how you use the browser. Mozilla say that this is aimed at people who are searching for ways to ‘level up’; or get a full online experience.

“CFR is a system that proactively recommends Firefox features and add-ons based on how you use the web,” added Nguyen.

“For example, if you open multiple tabs and repeatedly use these tabs, we may offer a feature called ‘Pinned Tabs’, and explain how it works.

“Firefox curates the suggested features and notifies you. With today’s release, we start to rollout with three recommended extensions.”

These include Facebook Container, Enhancer for YouTube and To Google Translate. They are available for US users in regular browsing mode only.

“They will not appear in Private Browsing mode,” added Nguyen. “Also, Mozilla does not receive a copy of your browser history. The entire process happens locally in your copy of Firefox.”

What else is included?

Mozilla’s release notes reveal a complete list of what’s included in this week’s release. Meanwhile, other top improvements include various security fixes and better performance for Mac and Linux users.

So far, the update has been applauded by software publications and customers alike. PCmag has described is as ‘more intelligent’, while The Verge has also hailed its better tab management and smart recommendations.

Further details about Mozilla’s Firefox 64 can be found at FileHippo’s product information page.