Tab Origin is an add-on for the Firefox web browser that provides you with the means to return to pages you came from even if you have closed them already.
Maybe you have encounter the following issue before: after browsing a page for a while you clicked on a link on it which took you to a new website or a page on the same domain. Maybe by loading it in the same tab or by loading it in a new tab.
Maybe you closed the originating tab afterwards, for instance because you thought you did not need it anymore.
After a while though you realize that you want it back. Maybe you have used the undo close tab feature of the browser then to get the tab back, or the browsing history if it is recorded as it holds records of your visits in its database.
The add-on Tab Origin adds an easier practicable solution to the browser. It keeps track of originating tabs for each website that is opened in the Firefox browser so that you can go back when the need arises.
This works very similar to Firefox’s Undo Tab feature but with the difference that it is linked directly to the active tab.
This means that the order of restoration is not based on the chronological order of closed tabs. To restore the closed originating tab of a website open in Firefox hit Ctrl-Shift-u on the keyboard.
This works for as long as the parent window remains open. Once it is closed, information about originating tabs are lost as well so that the feature cannot be used anymore.
You may right-click on a tab and use the “Back to Origin Tab” context menu option instead if you prefer to use the mouse for that.
Tab Origin ships with a single option that enables you to change the keyboard shortcut used to invoke the extension’s functionality.
Closing Words
The Firefox add-on Tab Origin can be a useful addition to the web browser. While it may not have much appeal to the majority of users, it may prove useful to Firefox users who sometimes need to reopen the originating tab after it has been closed.
While you may achieve the same goal with other methods, for instance by using the undo tab feature of Firefox or looking for the page in the browsing history, it is often not as comfortable as if you’d be using Tab Origin for that.