Incredible Startpage 1.8 Released

Hello, fellow Incredible Startpagers!

The third extension that received an update! Version 1.8 is out now. If you're new to Incredible Startpage, this is a simple tutorial.  Or you can catch up on everything about this extension in these posts.

Just like the other extensions that were updated recently, little is changed visually, but under the hood, it's like we've given extension a whole new engine to run on, all to keep up with the latest Manifest V3.

What's Changed?

• Migrate to Manifest V3 (Not surprising, right?)
• Remove Chrome Apps tab (They no longer exist, right?)

Important Change on Notepad Storage

The content in the notepad is now synced using chrome.storage instead of relying on bookmarks as a workaround. This keeps the data within the extension's scope. However, it also means that if you uninstall the extension, the notepad content will be lost. This is different from the previous version, where the bookmarks were not removed when uninstalling the startpage.

A sidenote regarding syncing the notepad: if you have enabled this option, you also need to enable Chrome Sync for the extension (not bookmarks anymore). If you uninstall the extension on one machine, it will disappear on another machine with the same profile. This means that the notepad content will be deleted along with the extension. This is how syncing is intended to work, and we hope you understand this functionality before using it.

Recently Close tabs

In this version, the chrome.sessions API is used to bring back recently closed tabs, ensuring that both tabs and windows are restored with their history and positions from the start page.

Just a heads-up, though: you won't be able to clear them directly within the extension (because no such Chrome API is available to extension). So, I've added a handy toggle button to help you manage the visibility of your tabs in this area. If you need to clear your recently closed tabs, simply hop over to the history settings.

Problems after upgrade

I tried moving all settings to the new V3, but if something went awry. Here's what you can do:

Missing notepad content?

If you had notepad sync on, check the bookmark in "Extension settings > Incredible Startpage Notepad."

Lost other settings?

Right-click and inspect the startpage, then type "localStorage" in the console; your old settings should be there.

That's all for now. Enjoy!

FreshStart 1.7 is released!

Hey there, fellow FreshStarters!

Guess what? FreshStart just got a fresh update – version 1.7 is out now, and even I'm surprised, lol! If you're new to FreshStart, make sure to catch up on what you've missed with our previous posts.

What's New?

Visually, things haven't changed much, but under the hood, it's like we've given FreshStart a whole new engine to run on, all to keep up with the latest Manifest V3.

*Manifest V3 is a new requirement from Chrome web store if extensions want to stay on the store.

Patch 1.7.1 Updates: (RELEASED! 17th May)

Please make sure you have updated to the latest version. Thanks!

Hi, everyone, the comment section is not the official area to report bug, please email to contactus@visibotech.com.

Open Session Problems - Fixed

Import session issues - Fixed

Snapshots gone from 1.6 gone - won't fixed

For the snapshots, they were meant to be valid for a very short period of time and will be overwritten multiple times during a standard chrome session. So there is no need to restore them to the extension. 

Please note that due to Manifest V3, the live cycle of the background task of an extension will not persist, so the crash restore functions might be affected somehow. (Might be a bit erratic but that the new Chrome's way I guess.)  

TooManyTabs for Chrome

Oh, and speaking of Manifest V3, I've also upgraded TooManyTabs (TMT), another Chrome's relics extension. If you're into that sort of thing, be sure to check it out!

Enjoy!

TooManyTabs version 2.4 Release Notes

If you are new users, please visit this page for a simple tutorial.

Version 2.4 (2024-04)

• Migrate to use manifest v3
• Note if you remove the extension, the data are deleted. Backup the data in options page periodically.

NEW!! Restore Tabs from backup file

To restore your tabs, choose the backup file, and click "Import". Note this will overwrite your existing tabs if there is any.

For the import, you can use existing backup file from previous or current version of TMT.

NEW!! Export tabs for backup

Backup your tabs data to file directly, go to options page and click "Export for backup", save the file.

Version 2.3 and before users

Data of previous versions are stored in localstorage. If there is a problem in this upgrade, you might get a backup of those data with this tool.

Click on the "Export old data from LocalStorage" button, this is only visible if you have any data stored inside LocalStorage. These are data from previous version and will be out of sync when you start using the new version.

The bottom of the Options Page

Bug fix:

• A weird bug that stops the extension from working if an alert box is triggered inside the extension popup.

TooManyTabs version 2.3 Release Notes

If you are new users, please visit this page for a simple tutorial.

Release notes (2.3)

• Enhance extension permission requirement (to comply with Chrome policy)
• The permission to enable screen capture is now optional
• To enable tab preview in TMT, please enable it by
• Click on the "+" sign of the first tab inside TMT
• Or go to TMT options page, click the "Change" button to disable/enable preview
• ** Chrome will prompt a dialog to request the permission
• More details on "Tab Preview" below

• Storage Backup
• A new permission "Storage" is required so TMT can keep a second backup on the tabs data
• If something goes wrong, please go to the Import Page to see if you can restore TMT tabs data with the "Retrieve Auto Backup" function
• We still recommend you to use manually "Export" function to backup your data to a file, as this would be the most secure way 
• The backup is still local, meaning they will not sync across machines using the same profile
• 

• Discard Tab shown with less opacity
• If a tab is discarded by Chrome (to reduce resource consumption), the tab will have less opacity inside TMT tab view
• Pinned Tab visualization
• A pinned tab will be shown as pinned inside TMT (with a pin icon). You could only select it but not remove it inside TMT now
• Recently Closed Tabs 
• Only tabs closed inside TMT popup/window or TMT tabs removed from TMT columns are sent to "Recently Closed Tabs" column
• For the full list of recently closed tabs, please use the Chrome history function

More Details on Tab Preview

• A tab preview can only be captured when it is active and selected
• Previews are clear when chrome exits
• You might see many empty preview images inside TMT at the beginning when Chrome launchs, because previews are cached gradually (when selected)

TooManyTabs for Firefox 1.4.8 is released!

We have released TMT 1.4.8 for Firefox 47+. The folks at Mozilla told us they expect to obsolete support for traditional addons (Yes, that includes TMT) by the end of 2017, so they think it would be great that these traditional addons would continue to work until then. So here is the new version and enjoy!

I always wanted to say a few words on TMT. Here are some of my final thoughts as a developer.

TMT was first released in 2008 and is my first Browser addon. As a "traditional" addon TMT has always been on the verge of being "phased out" ever since Firefox began to "modernize" its addon system.  I am honored that despite all that TMT has lasted for 8 years long and there are so many of you who still find it useful.

Now onto some ranting. :)

TMT is small, but developing it has never been easy. First and foremost, developing "traditional" addons (technically and specifically XUL addons) requires going through a rather steep learning curve. Documentation for an ever changing browser is always limited and often outdated. I often had to check out the source code of Firefox to find the answers. Another difficulty of developing a "traditional" addon is to provide compatibility with other addons. From the user's perspective, an addon is expected to work with every popular addon on the market. To the developer, this is actually very demanding. It's like working with different people on the same software project without any direct form of communication. When you think about it it's amazing that every addon developer find a way to pull that off.

So why persist on developing the addon when it is difficult, not profitable, and never really gets widely appreciated? For your information, TMT has never been really popular or ever featured by the browser's maker (unlike its Chrome incarnation). In fact, there was a period when I was perplexed why TMT never gather a larger audience. Some reviewers had even commented that TMT is just a glorified bookmark system. I was shocked. For a tabaholic like me I have always too many tabs open. I use TMT everyday and I cannot imagine a Firefox without it. As time goes, however, I realize there has never been a lot of people like me (or you, if you cannot live without TMT). The users of TMT is a minority. TMT offers a niche function that could only be appreciated by few people who really needs it like I do. They would email me about how TMT had improved their productivity and how devastated they would be without it. On reflection I think that is why I had persisted to support TMT all these years, when development is difficulty, support from Mozilla platform minimal, and vast majority of Firefox users don't seem to care. I am proud that I have served the many minority of us whose need were not met by the "standard".

But everything would still come to an end. The Mozilla team has decided to obsolete traditional addons by the end of 2017. It seems all traditional addons have also become too niche to be worth supporting. In my opinion, the Internet and the Open Source movement has kind of lost its original ways. If my memory serves, the Internet promised a long tail. Everyone, supposedly, can find their niche on the Internet when there is none in the real world. The Internet now, however, is too becoming more and more tailored to the sole interest of the majority, where the popularity of your product/addon/app/idea/need/self is the sole criteria of survival. We are recommended the most popular apps on our mobile phones. We are shown most popular posts on our Facebook timelines. If you are a niche, like TMT, or other traditional addons, or like Google Reader, you will no longer get support. Maybe it's because it's not profitable. Or compared to the billions of other users on the Internet, that 0.1% of you aren't important.

I do not like the direction that we are heading.

If you are reading this little rant up to this point you must be one of the loyal users of TMT. Thank you for your long time support and farewell! It has been a great time.

Best regards,
Sandy

Important Notice: TooManyTabs for Firefox

*** Surprise!!! TMT 1.4.8 is available for FF47, check out this post for why? ***

The Mozilla team has announced that future Firefox will no longer support XUL and XPCOM based extensions (related post). Therefore, TooManyTabs, with its core functionality based on these two technologies, will cease to work. We have made a lot of effort to continue to support TMT since Firefox 3. It is a pity that it is no longer possible now.

Thank you for your support for all these years.


* Please note that your TMT tabs will remain in your bookmarks folder - Unsorted Bookmarks > TooManyTabs (Do Not Delete).

TooManyTabs for Firefox 1.4.6 is released!

*** Important: Users of Tree Style Tabs would have problems when using TMT 1.3.6, please update to latest version 1.3.7  ****

*** If you are using FF35 (stable channel) or FF36 (Beta Channel), 

please go to TMT options and uncheck "Mark TMT folder readonly". ****

Firefox 36 will arrive soon and this update includes several bug fixes which are necessary for TooManyTabs to work properly in FF36.

• Two options are removed
• Send tab by single/double click - Users have to double click the TMT arrow to send current tab TMT. If it is not responsive sometimes, please try clicking on the arrow directly or use the right click context menu instead
• Mark TMT folder as ready only - the TMT folder in Unsorted Folder will no longer be readonly, users can edit it via the Bookmarks manager anytime.

• The pin tab icon is shown again
• Multiple rows should now display properly even when positioned on the top of the browser

Enjoy!

Lookup Companion for Wikipedia 2.0 released!

Lookup Companion for Wikipedia 2.0 is released! In this update we have fixed the "Open In Tab" bug.  Also users are now free to use Wikipedia in any available languages. To use a custom language, please go to options page and select "Custom", and enter the language code (a two-letter code) of the language you would like to use.

Click "OK" and "Save" to confirm your changes. That's it!

For the list of available languages, please check out this list.

Enjoy!

Incredible Startpage 1.7 released!

Flexible layout

• For wide screen users, the main tab area would size dynamically,  and you might want to show 4 columns instead of 3 or 2 columns.

• Show/Hide "Bookmarks & Recently Closed" columns: Now you can hide them when you don't need them; when the columns are hidden, the notepad will automatically be enlarged and you can write some very long notes :)

New Filter for bookmarks and apps

Type to filter items in "My Bookmarks" and "My Apps" tab. Great when you have lots of bookmarks and you just can't spot it on screen.

Enjoy!

TooManyTabs 2.1 released with Google Drive Support!

We have released TooManyTabs for Chrome 2.1. In this update, we have fixed the missing previews since Chrome 34 and introduced a new feature - automatic backup to Google Drive.

Authorize TMT to save data to your Google Drive

• Visit the "Import/Export" page, then click "Authorize"
• This will open the Google Authorization Popup, please click "Accept", close the popup after a few seconds if it does not close automatically *

• The TMT data will save as Application Data and it is not visible in the Drive interface. To manage TMT data, please go to Google Drive's Settings > "Manage Apps". The stored tabs can only be accessed by your authorized Chrome profile**
• Now go back to the Import/Export page and click "Reload" button to confirm the authorization status. You can create your backup immediately, TMT will also automatically backup your tabs daily

Restore and Delete Backup

• If you have multiple Chrome profiles/machines using the same Google Account, you might want to add a label to differentiate different backups from different machines

• Click "Restore" to restore a specific backup, all the existing tabs and columns will be overwritten and the changes cannot be undone
• Click "Remove" to delete a backup from your Drive, TMT will keep at most 10 backups in your Drive

New Commands

We have added two new commands that can be customized in the Tools > Extension Page. You can now easily send active tab to TMT and open TMT window via shortcut.

* To make sure the backup can run automatically, please always remember to login with your Google account

** If you revoke TMT access to your drive then no more backup will be created until you authorize again

Thank you for using TooManyTabs. Enjoy!

TooManyTabs now compatible with Aurora (Firefox 29)

Aurora(FF29) will soon be released, users who are using FF29 will have to update to version 1.4.5 for compatibility.

Major Changes in 1.4.5

• TMT Arrow: Because of the layout change of tab in FF29,  the active (or selected) tab can only be sent to the current row by double-clicking on anywhere of the tab (not just the arrow), the tab must be selected and the TMT arrow is shown.
• The TMT arrow now also works for OS X, you can also send tabs using the new mechanism

• Options Page: The new "Rearrange via bookmarks" will open the "Library" directly, and you can easily rearrange their rows inside the TMT folder, i.e. Unsorted Bookmarks > TooManyTabs (Do Not Delete)

Enjoy!

TooManyTabs: Steps to diagnose your problem

If TooManyTabs is not working please check out the following steps to diagnose the cause

Steps to diagnose your problem

1. Export your tabs with TMT export tools (In Options > Advanced) to a file (Or just export all your bookmarks to a file with Firefox Manager)
2. Create a new profile for testing with Profile Manager
3. Install the latest version of TMT
4. Then restart and check TMT is working as a clean install
5. Then restore your TMT tabs and restart again

• If TMT does not work in step 4, please send a bug report to us (instructions below)
• If TMT does not work in step 5, there is a problem with the stored data, try to remove a row one by one and restart Firefox to find out which row is the issue
• Finally, if you restore other extensions and theme and TMT does not work, please contact the corresponding add-on developers for help. There is little we can do.

Steps for sending a bug report (Updated)

• Go to Tools > Web Developer > Browser Console, it looks like below

• Filter the output with keywords like "TMT" or "toomanytabs" in the error message after you interact with TMT (e.g. send a tab and nothing happened)
• Take screen shot of the error messages and include your profile information (Go to TMT options > Advanced and click copy profile information)
• Send all the information in your bug report.

Check out our support forum at getSatisfaction if similar problems are reported, if you found nothing helpful, Please post a new bug report on getSatisfaction or email us. Enjoy!

TooManyTabs 2.0 released with new feature

We have released TooManyTabs for Chrome (v 2.0), the incorrect tab count bug has been fixed in this version and we have added a new feature for keyboard shortcut lovers.

Whenever the search box is active, you can use up/down arrow to navigate open tabs, then press enter to select the tab immediately.

For example, after we search for "chrome", we can use the down arrow to navigate to the third result, the tab will start "bouncing", simply press "enter" to select the tab.

Actually immediately after you open the popup, you can also use the up and down keys to select a tab without searching for any specific keywords. It might take longer than a regular mouse click to select your desired tab in some cases though.

Enjoy!

TooManyTabs for Firefox 1.4.0 is released

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*Important* If you have enabled Firefox Sync or other sync extensions like XMarks, you might want to update to version 1.4.1 http://goo.gl/6VIxz

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Too many rows to manage in your TMT? Check out this new feature that allows you to directly manage your TMT rows!

A new context menu is added when you RIGHT click on a TMT row name in the list of rows. In this popup, you can remove, rename, add a row below, and modify shortcut** of a row easily.

Or you can have total control on your stored tabs by managing TMT via the Bookmarks Manager, click the last option to turn off read-only access of TMT folder and manage them directly in the Bookmarks Manager.

Enjoy!

** The modified shortcut will work after Firefox restarts.

* For users experiencing problems when synchronizing their tabs using Firefox Sync, please check Firefox sync service status at  https://services.mozilla.com/status/. We have no control over the process, so we cannot provide further support on the issue.

* For users who saw empty "Manage Rows" in TMT options, please update to version 1.4.1 here

Lookup Companion for Wikipedia 1.9.0 released!

Lookup Companion for Wikipedia 1.9.0 is released! In this update we have a fix for wikipedia recent layout changes. We have also added compatibility with the latest Chrome extension requirement (Manifest-2). Most importantly we have added a frequently requested feature!

The new context menu feature provides two ways to search Wikipedia.

Select any text in a tab, click "Lookup Wikipedia foor [selected text]" will bring to search wikipedia in the primary language in a new tab.

If you select any text inside the extension popup, the new search will continue inside the popup.

The new context menu feature can be enabled/disabled from the extension Options.

* After the update please remember to restart the Chrome completely if your extension popup is not working properly.

If you still have issues with particular languages please feel free to leave a comment. We will then check with it promptly.

Enjoy and thanks for your support all these years!

FreshStart 1.6 is released!

FreshStart Crash Recovery allows you to auto-save current sessions periodically. Unlike the normal FreshStart sessions, these auto-saved sessions are not stored as bookmarks.

In this update, the Crash Recovery function is greatly enhanced. In addition to the your last Chrome session, five more snapshots of your sessions are saved. These five snapshots are taken during your last five Chrome launches. They can serve as an extra backup when Chrome auto session restore fails.

Enable "Crash Recovery" in FreshStart Options and adjust the backup frequency if necessary.

Usually if Chrome crashed there should be a yellow "Restore" button that allows you to restore to your previous session. In the case when it fails, please open FreshStart popup and click the "Crash Recovery" button. (Note FreshStart "Crash Recovery" must be enabled already)

This will open the Restore Page that contains all your auto-saved sessions. Click on a snapshot link to see the content of the session. The session now includes time-stamps and the pinned state are saved. (Only for auto-save sessions)

Enjoy!

Incredible Startpage 1.6 is released!

Important!  If Incredible Startpage is not loading properly, please upgrade to Chrome 22 or higher.

This update includes three new functions. First, you may now easily rearrange your app order by drag and drop, just like the "My Bookmarks" tab.

In response to users who would like to hide the "Most Visited" tab, a new option is now available in this update. Simply go to "Advanced Options" and uncheck the "Show 'Most Visited' tab", click the "Save" button, and reload your startpage.

Another new function is "Send tab/link to Startpage", you may now use the context menu to add links to the startpage's "My Bookmarks" tab which is bookmarks bar folder (default) or any other folder you have chosen to show in the startpage. To enable this function, please go to "Advanced Options" page and change your settings.

Finally, this update also includes an important fix for the "Startpage not loaded for the first time during Chrome launch" issue. Enjoy!

New users - please go to this page to add Incredible Startpage to Chrome.

Incredible Startpage 1.5 is released!

Incredible Startpage 1.5 is released! You may now see your list of most visited sites in the "Most Visited" tab. This feature is only available if the new permissions are granted to the startpage. Please find the details below:

Note: If you experience any problem after the updates, please try to restart Chrome and reload the start page. 

After you have updated to version 1.5, when you click the "Most Visited" tab for the first time, you will see the following popup.

Please click "Allow" and the startpage will reload and show the list of most visited sites. This version also asked for access to favicons (icons of web sites), this would solve the issue on unmatched favicons in older versions.

We will continue to improve Incredible Startpage. Enjoy!

* The "Most Visited" function requires Chrome 19+.  Please try to upgrade your Chrome to 19+.

* Please note that the function to remove most visited sites & "Other devices" like the default new tab page is not available to extensions yet. It will be implemented once the function is made available.

TooManyTabs 1.9 is released!

TooManyTabs 1.9 is released! This updates includes many new features for all the tabaholics out there:

• Too many tabs in TooManyTabs? You may meditate to suppress your never-ending tabbing desire, or you may now sort TMT column by tab title or URL to find your tabs in TMT easily. Just toggle the two new buttons to sort and unsort your column.
• You may further filter column by tab title or URL just use the corresponding sort filter box beneath the sort buttons to filter tabs as you type.

• Pinned tab support: If a pinned tab is sent to TMT, it will stay pinned (indicated by the pin icon over the tab). This means when you restore this tab, it will also be restored as pinned in Chrome and will not be removed from TMT. To remove a pinned tab from TMT, please explictly remove it via the context menu.

Export and Import

• In addition to export as JSON format for backup and migration. You may now export your TMT tabs as plain text or HTML for print or email.
• New import options: Merge import data with existings columns.
• Tip: Please always export and backup your tabs as file before importing other TMT data.

New options

• Hide Chrome's pinned tabs in TMT popup: Check this options and pinned tabs in Chrome will not appear in the TMT tab panel. This can avoid suspending pinned tabs accidentally. You can still send the pinned tab via the "Send Tab to TooManyTabs" context menu directly.

Enjoy! Join us on Google+!

Wikipedia Companion has been updated! (1.8.2)

Hi fellows! "Wikipedia Companion" is now "Lookup Companion for Wikipedia"!

Due to recent changes to Wikipedia's new formatting and layout our Companion has been broken for a few days. We have just pushed a fix that will work for most languages. If you still see odd formatting try a new search and see if things get updated (Chrome may have cached the content). If you still have issues with particular languages please feel free to leave a comment. We will then check on it promptly.

Enjoy and thanks for your support so far!