I use both Google Chrome and Firefox for my main personal browsing. I love both browsers and think each of them does some things better than the other, so I tend to switch between the two depending on my requirements.

I love the development add-on’s that I can get for Firefox so most of my design type browsing is performed on there. However, there is one thing that I would love to have seen on Firefox that Chrome does really well. The New Tab functionality in Chrome results in a webpage dashboard that lays out my most common websites, recent book marks and recently closed web pages all in an easy to read manner. I miss that the most in Firefox.

Well, obviously someone else did too, and there is now an experimental add-on called JumpStart for Firefox that does exactly that!

To Install The Add-on:

Step 1

Navigate to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8914

You will notice that this is an experimental release and as such is not guaranteed to work. These are add-on’s that are still to go through a public review process and may be in beta or prototype form. You can get more information about Experimental Add-on’s here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/pages/faq#experimental-addons.

Step 2

In order to authorize the install of this add-on, tick the “Let me install this experimental add-on”. The “Add to Firefox” button will then become active. Click it.

You will see the add-on window pop up to ask again for authorization. Click on Install.

Step 3

When the install is complete, it will ask you to restart Firefox.

Click the button to restart Firefox. Firefox will restart and display you your Add-ons window. Close this now to get back to Firefox.

Step 4

That’s pretty much it now. Whenever you open a new tab, you’ll get to see a screen similar to what Chrome displays

There is a button on the top right that allows for further personalization if you wish. The Searches button allows you to search through your history.

Conclusions

There are few things still not working correctly for me. These include:

• The ability to pin a website to the dashboard doesn’t seem to work as well as the ability to remove the website from the grid (you get these options by mousing over a website thumbnail).
• The Recently Closed items apply only to the current session, so if you have multiple windows open and you close Firefox, the recently closed items reset
• It may have some issues working with some existing add-ons so use at your own discretion.
• It does consume some memory so keep an eye on that and if it’s not to your liking, then feel free to disable the add-on.
• Its an experimental build, so it may not be compatible with the latest versions of Firefox. However, this should get better as it moves towards a more stable build.

For an experimental build, its certainly better than looking at a blank page :) And it gives me a few more options to play with to personalize Firefox as a web browser. For the brave amongst you, feel free to try it out and let me know what you think :)

Alternative Solutions

Updated: June 11th 2009:
As JumpStart is still an Experimental Addon, there are a couple of alternatives that can serve a similar purpose (though they don’t go to the lengths of emulating Google Chrome’s functionality completely). These include New Tab King (thanks shelly!) and Speed Dial. I’ve put links to their home pages below for your reference.

Relevant Links

• JumpStart Add-on Page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8914
• JumpStart Add-on Home Page: http://digitalmihailo.blogspot.com/search/label/JumpStart
• New Tab King Add-on Home Page: http://www.newtabking.com
• Speed Dial Add-on Page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4810  (Home Page)