Update: This extension is no longer available. Having a visual view of something is usually helpful to many people. It’s one of the reasons that charts, graphs, and mind maps are widely used as an aid to represent data that would just be numbers or text. Browsers (e.g. Chrome, Safari, and Opera) have started to have a way to visually view your most-visited web sites all on one page. However, Mozilla Firefox, which is one of the most used browsers, doesn’t have the functionality. What if it did? What if it also helped you view your entire web-searching history? This is where History Tree can help.

What is History Tree?

History Tree is a free Firefox extension that provides you the capability of viewing your web history as a tree and/or a web grid of screenshots.  At the beginning of the page, you will see statistics: 1. Pages you have visited 2. Tabs now open 3. Tabs closed. There are two icons at the bottom of each box, the up arrow indicates that this web site has pages that are linked to it. If there are none, then this icon will not be available. The question mark icon allows you to view a bigger view of the screenshot when clicked.

What versions of Firefox does it work with?

History Free works with Firefox versions 3.0 and 3.5.

How do I open it up?

The easiest way to get to History Tree is by going to Firefox’s Tools->History Tree.

How does it work?

There are two views: web-site screenshots and historical tree. Choose your preferred way of viewing your web history.

After selecting the view that you want, choose what kind of web site history you want to see.  You are able to view your web history in four ways:

You are able to expand/minimize the history tree/web-site screenshots.  If you are using the history tree, you will see a Tree Spacing option.  If you are using the web-site screenshots, then you will see the Image Size option in its place.

If you have a bunch of web sites in your history, History Tree has a search functionality that allows you to find the site that you are looking for without having to waste time searching through many web sites. You are able to search by name or URL.  When it finds the page(s) that you are looking for, they are highlighted in green.

Are there things that History Tree won’t do?

History Tree does not give you the capability of saving your history.  If you close the browser, it does not restore the history.  It’s something that is suppose to be added in a future release.