Comments on: Firefox 3 - Back Button UI Annoyance

By: Vic

Vic — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:25:19 +0000

A work around extension is available - NoUn button. It almost restores the FF2 operation - instead of holding the mouse on the back/forward button to get the drop down list, it adds another drop down to the left of the back button which you have to click on.
But at least its intuitive (to me at least).

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7056

A disadvantage is that it reportedly only runs on Windoze.

By: Rorge Retson

Rorge Retson — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:08:29 +0000

The new way is stupid, non-intiutive, and a load of bullocks. The FF 3.0 “fix” smacks of Microsoft in that there was a fix for a problem that never existed. It’s like “here’s your new car…it only has three wheels now, but you’ll get used to it.”

By: Angel

Angel — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:36:33 +0000

I agree with Josh. Firefox 2 has a dropdown in the back button and a dropdown in the forward button, so it’s intuitive to go 3 pages back, or 2 pages forward. With the new system (which has irritated me for 2 reasons: it is new, it is inconvenient in my opinion and finally the 3rd, I thought it had been copied from IE7 -now I see it may be the other way around, since I just upgraded to Ff3-
Maybe it’s just a question of getting used to it. Thanks for the explanations

And to Philip: but you can move the buttons around, put them to the right if you prefer. That’s the beauty of Ff customization (you cannot move anything in IE7, for example)

By: Philip Crawford

Philip Crawford — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:44:46 +0000

Why are those buttons on the left side of the browser to begin with? Vertical scroll is on the right, so instinctively most people keep their mouse on the right. Then they have to go all the way over to the left side of the page just to hit back. Why not put those buttons on the right side? Or, why not design a browser where we can put multiple instances of these buttons where we want? Like in the bar on the bottom (on the right).

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:19:02 +0000

I figured out how this worked after a couple minutes, but I still don’t like it. It would be nice if the forward/back was not all one button, so I could at least move them around if I wanted. What I would really like is for there to be 2 different drop downs, one for forward, and one for back, so when I know I want to go back 2 pages, I won’t have to figure out where that is in the list. Like Ed, I wonder does anyone know if there is an extension to change it back?

By: Ed Becerra

Ed Becerra — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:11:19 +0000

I find James’ comment uncalled for. *I* had - and still have - trouble with the lack of the back button drop down list. His statement of “Just because you don’t understand a feature doesn’t make it an annoyance, it means you should learn your tools better” is a slam at all people who believe that their TOOL should learn THEM.

I was forced to rip Firefox 3 out and restore Firefox 2 because of this.

I’m the sort of person, who if they change cars, takes up to six months or more to relearn where all the controls are on the dashboard. Yes, that may earn me scorn from the children, but I’m old and set in my ways. Don’t tell me that I have to learn a new browser, give me a browser whose User Interface can be set to someone old and familiar.

I don’t want new and better, I want old and comfortable.

Having said that, is there ANY way of restoring the back button drop down list behavior to the 2.0 standard? Perhaps someone can write an extension that will put it back the way it was?

Someone, please HELP!

Ed Becerra

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:27:33 +0000

I agree it’s a total annoyance. Software makers shouldn’t be always fiddling with their software so we don’t have to keep learning everything all the time.

This was the first site that came up when I searched for Firefox 3 restore back history. Now that I know that the dropdown that’s attached to the forward button has all history, it’s all cool. Glad to know how that works. But as far as intuitive, this gets a ZERO. In Firefox that dropdown triangle is definitely part of the forward button, so I would have never guessed to press that

Some poster said above to “learn your tools”. The trouble is when you have 30 some programs to know, and if all 30 of those programs made such drastic changes, that’s its impossible to keep up. I’m putting Firefox 3 in the same league as Office 2007 in regards to swapping a bunch of stuff around that didn’t really need to be fixed.

By: benizi

benizi — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:30:53 +0000

I stumbled upon this entry trying to find a way to revert to the Firefox 2 behavior. In my opinion the correct solution, if they insist on keeping this piece of UI as a single button, is to put the dropdown list *BETWEEN* the forward and back arrows.

Best,
Ben

By: Anders

Anders — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:13:52 +0000

Hey Kevin - thanks for your very heartfelt thoughts about this - I actually have to admit, that now that I’ve been using the feature for a while that it is starting to make more sense (tho, yes, maybe having the arrow on the left, even though it would continue to work for both forward and backward, would be better) I like the idea of placing it underneath as well.

By: Kevin P. Rice

Kevin P. Rice — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:16:33 +0000

Is it intuitive? Yes and no. Even though I previously posted that the position of the drop-down arrow makes sense, I don’t think it’s completely intuitive. However, hand a pair of dice to an aborigine and see if they are intuitive! There is obviously some level of understanding that is expected.

Simply placing the drop-down next to the back arrow doesn’t solve the problem either, because, as I pointed out, the drop down works both backwards and forwards. However, I concede that it is more often used for going backwards–and even if you are going forward it is still to a “previously” visited page! So, locating it next to the back arrow may make more sense.

On the other hand, (in our right-handed society) drop-down arrows are traditionally always on the right side of a control. I view the back/forward arrows as one control since they are within the same “3-D” inset. So, the right hand side makes sense as well.

Inevitably, there may be a better design that has not been invented yet. Maybe placing the down arrow underneath, or, a separate “history” button?

REMEMBER, FIREFOX IS EXTENDABLE SO ANYONE IS WELCOME TO CREATE ANY ALTERNATIVE!

Bottom line is it took a few minutes to figure out, but now that I understand it I’m not going to revert to another browser simply out of principal-based protest. That would be dumb. It is completely functional even it it’s not exactly as I would have done it. There are much bigger annoyances in life–like SPAM!