Comment 22 for bug 572074

I'm not going to campaign for "new tabs opening next to the current tab" to be the *default* behavior of Firefox (though it makes sense as the default for related tabs, as is the case now in 3.6+), but it should definitely be a user configurable preference, even if only settable in the about:config preferences panel.

I personally do think that opening all new tabs next to the current tab ultimately makes sense. After all, it's easier to find and click on whichever tab you want to open a new one next to, than it is to open a new tab at the end then drag that tab to the ideal location, especially if you have tens or even hundreds of tabs open (not as uncommon as you might think). However, I think the general populace tends to prefer the current behavior of tabs opening at the end of the list, and if that is the case, then more users would be frustrated by new tabs opening next to the current tab than users who are currently frustrated by new tabs opening at the end of the tab bar, even with many of us latter folk are coming out of the shadows now that our favorite extension, Tabs Open Relative, was somehow killed by Firefox 3.6.2 (if I recall correctly) with no further updates by the developer(s) of said extension. Of course, if any of them are like myself, they also refuse to use any of the heavier extensions like the terrible Tab Mix Plus, or Tab Kit or Tabberwocky.

So as stated, I'm not asking for this requested behavior to be the default behavior. All I'm asking for is a simple about:config preference (such as browser.tabs.insertNewAfterCurrent) to compliment the existing preference for opening links in a new tab next to the current tab (browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent).

To satisfy the presumed masses, the pref could default to:

browser.tabs.insertNewAfterCurrent = false

At least that way we tab opening snobs can change it (to true) to suit our preferences.

Don't forget that in addition to Ctrl/Cmd+T and the New Tab button, this should also be the behavior for new tabs opened via Alt+Enter via the Location Bar, as well as bookmarks and search, if preferences have indicated that either of the latter be opened in a new tab rather than the currently opened tab. While technically each of these could be their own preference (e.g. browser.tabs.insertSearchAfterCurrent) I'm thinking that anyone who wants this behavior would set each individual preference to true anyway, so that would probably be overkill.

I think that's all I have to say about that. Or maybe this is: PLEASE implement this in Firefox 4!!