Firefox 141 introduces local AI to help with tab management

[harlan4096]

Mozilla plans to release Firefox 141 to the public today. The new version of the open source Firefox web browser is a smaller release, at least when you look at the changes it makes. The highlight is a new local AI feature that is designed to help users manage tabs better. It also introduces a few nice-to-have usability changes and security fixes.

As always, all Firefox ESR editions are also updated. This means that Firefox 140.1 ESR, Firefox 128.13 ESR and Firefox 115.26 ESR will all be released today as well.
You can check my review of Firefox 140 here.

Firefox 141: the major changes and new features

AI-enhanced tab groups



Mozilla introduced tab groups in Firefox some time ago. The feature enables users to sort open tabs into groups to improve manageability. This is done via drag & drop, or by right-clicking on a tab and selecting the "Add Tab to New Group" option from the context menu.

Each group comes with a color and a name, and tab groups work both in horizontal and vertical tab bar mode.

The new feature uses local AI to identify similar tabs to bundle them together in a tab group. Here is how you access it:

1. Right-click on the tab group identifier in Firefox.
   
2. Select "Suggest more tabs for group".
   
3. Confirm the terms (once).
   
4. Accept or decline tabs that Firefox identified.
   

The feature worked considerably well during tests, especially for tabs with matching domain names. If you open several Ghacks articles, Firefox's feature will (very likely) mark all of them for inclusion in a tab group, when you make use of the feature. Mozilla says that the AI reads the titles and descriptions of the tabs for its suggestions.

Good news is that the user stays in control. You can uncheck any tab that you don't want included in the tab group.

Who benefits the most from the feature? Firefox users who use tab groups and have lots of tabs open in the browser. If you want to create tab groups to manage tabs better, this one may be useful to you.

The feature is rolling out over time. You can enable it right away by setting browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled on about:config to True.

Continue Reading...