I feel like this idea pops up every two years or so; I was definitely running something like it in the early 2000s. How come none of the previous efforts succee

I feel like this idea pops up every two years or so; I was definitely running something like it in the early 2000s. How come none of the previous efforts succeeded? Firefox's built in history is so, so close to being useful. My impression is it's hampered mostly by limited UI.