Firefox gets a new add bookmark prompt

If you run Firefox Nightly right now, you may have noticed that the particular version of Firefox comes with a modified add bookmark prompt.

While the prompt itself has not changed, the key change is that Firefox displays a thumbnail of the actual page when you click on the add bookmark icon in the Firefox address bar.

If you have used Firefox before you know that you can add any site to the bookmarks of the browser by clicking on the star symbol in Firefox's address bar.

Firefox displays options to change the name of the bookmark, add tags, and change the location in the bookmarks hierarchy the bookmark is saved to as well but all of these are optional.

The addition of the page's thumbnail adds a visual component to the bookmarking dialog.

The new bookmark prompt grows in size because of this as it needs space to display the page thumbnail at the top of the dialog.

The same thumbnail is displayed when you click on the icon on a bookmarked page. Firefox displays an option to remove the bookmark from the browser using the dialog so that you don't have to do that in the bookmark library instead.

Firefox does not display the thumbnail in the bookmark library at this point in time. I cannot say if it saves the thumbnail but does not display it, or if it does not save it right now.

It does not really make much sense to display a thumbnail of the bookmarked page without doing something with it. Considering that you see the page underneath the bookmark prompt, you gain nothing from it when it is displayed in the dialog.

Mozilla could have plans to add a visual component to Firefox's bookmark library. The library is one of the last elements of Firefox that open in extra windows and not in tabs in the browser. It is possible that Firefox will display thumbnails next to bookmarks in an upcoming redesign of the bookmarks manager but that is pure speculation.

Firefox Beta is moved to version 62 today and it will be interesting to see whether the new bookmark prompt is available in the beta version as well. If it is, it is a clear indicator that Mozilla plans to go ahead with the release in Firefox 62 or another version of Firefox that is released soon.

Mozilla modified Firefox's bookmarking functionality in 2016 the last time.

Now You: What is your take on the new prompt?