995736 - Delayed tab titles get temporarily replaced with "Connecting…" upon selection

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement)

Description

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

Along the same lines as bug 709182 and bug 716108, I think that replacing the existing tab title with "Connecting…" makes the browser feel slower and hinders my ability to know the title of the tab I clicked on. I think showing the throbber and leaving the title (at least until we get a new title) is a better experience.

Use case:
As a user I would prefer not to temporarily lose the tab title for a tab upon delayed loading as the load may hang and I may forget what I'm waiting for.

Philipp, do you agree with this proposal? If so, can you nominate it for the backlog?

Comment 1

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

This sounds sensible. I have a slight concern that the less drastic change could be perceived as the browser being slower, but I think that is mostly superstition.
Adding to the backlog.

Comment 2

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

And I'm just realizing that I probably misunderstood you:
Are you only talking about the cases where you click a background tab that then needs to load something, or are you talking about all instances of the connecting throbber?

Comment 3

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

(In reply to Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] from comment #1)
> This sounds sensible. I have a slight concern that the less drastic change
> could be perceived as the browser being slower, but I think that is mostly
> superstition.

Yeah, that's possible. I'd have to play with it to know I guess.

(In reply to Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] from comment #2)
> Are you only talking about the cases where you click a background tab that
> then needs to load something

Yes, this case where we already have a page title (in most cases) from session restore.

Comment 4

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

(In reply to Matthew N. [:MattN] from comment #3)
> (In reply to Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] from comment #2)
> > Are you only talking about the cases where you click a background tab that
> > then needs to load something
> 
> Yes, this case where we already have a page title (in most cases) from
> session restore.

OK, that definitely makes sense.