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I think the core problem is still tab clutter. Every time I hop onto my iPad to do some light browsing, I have less anxiety. I don't keep many tabs open on mobi

I think the core problem is still tab clutter. Every time I hop onto my iPad to do some light browsing, I have less anxiety. I don't keep many tabs open on mobile/tablet, but I'm already counting 8 opened here as I'm typing on my laptop. Sure, almost everything mentioned in the article is problematic. Then again, maybe it's just us programmed to hit Ctrl-T too much over a decade...

cube2222 8y ago
Heh, I've got the exact opposite problem. On the desktop I manage to have "only" 10-40 tabs open at the same time, but on mobile it's usually 200-300. I just open new tabs whenever I think something might be worth reading, but only have time every now and then to actually read part of the stack.
basch 8y ago
There needs to be a complete overhaul of "how i got here, back/forward, where i want to go, things i want to read, things i want to flip between, things i want cached so when i click they dont load, i want to purge the tab from my current workspace, i want to purge this site from the history." Navigation (forward/back), history, tabs, bookmarks et all are all trying to do various forms of the same thing, and their overall relationship to each other is fundamentally broken, because each individual component is too rigidly defined and isolated. I should be able to click between a couple buttons to see how tabs are 1) related to each other from a time/clicked/navigation history perspective 2) workspace perspective 3) topic perspective
- PaulHoule 8y ago
  Even in current browsers you can do pretty well closing tabs whenever you want and looking them up in history. The situation could be way better.
  - basch 8y ago
    Except in chrome for example, where history clears after so many days, so you have to bookmark. Firefox had some experiment that merged a visual history with tabs, I didnt like the idea at all, but at least they were thinking about change.
  - jordanpg 8y ago
    I agree with this. I've come to the conclusion that the bottom line is that I don't need more than a few tabs open, and that if I do, my attention is probably too fractured. Solution is to change my habits and be a little bit more deliberate with how I'm using the browser.
  - tokyodude 8y ago
    I can't use history unless the browser searched by page content not just title
    - rhizome 8y ago
      Exactly. Trying to find something you saw last week? Just sort "by date and site" and scroll down to its page title! This kind of thing is why I leave tabs up.
- pard68 8y ago
  Can't think of the browser but there is a hobby browser designed for modal --vim-- usage that displays history as a tree similar to a file structure rather than as a flat back and forward. I wish I could remember the name of it... I do recall it was listed on qutebrowser's github page under similar projects but I can't look right now.
rch 8y ago
Opera's tab groups and save browsing sessions made the interface a lot more convenient for me... I tend towards the high end of open tabs.
ehsankia 8y ago
I like the experiment Chrome is running with "switch to tab" [0]. For most content, I would say it's probably faster to find the content again than search for it in a hay of tabs. I also like extensions like SimpleUndoClose [1] which let you search your recently closed tabs. This way, use my closed tabs as a way of "storing" tabs I may want to access in the near future again, rather than keeping them open. I would definitely love to see more experimentation around this area. [0] https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/07/24/chrome-experimenting-switch-tab-button/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/07/24/chrome-experimentin... [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/simpleundoclose/emhohdghchmjepmigjojkehidlielknj?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/simpleundoclose/em...
- _dark_matter_ 8y ago
  Firefox has had switch-to-tab for awhile, go try it out!
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
Kenji 8y ago
> I think the core problem is still tab clutter. Every time I hop onto my iPad to do some light browsing, I have less anxiety. I don't keep many tabs open on mobile/tablet, but I'm already counting 8 opened here as I'm typing on my laptop. If you have anxiety because your browser has 8 tabs open, you have issues that cannot be solved with computer programs.
jodrellblank 8y ago
I have a huge problem with tab clutter; every computer I have, every browser, has lots of open tabs, long-term. I have no idea what to do with them. Even something as simple as "read them" is .. and then what, close and forget them? No idea what I even want to achieve - integrate them into my life in some hoarder kind of "this will make me a better, more knowledgeable person" way?
adrianratnapala 8y ago
I have about 30 open on my phone.
macNchz 8y ago
I've been using an extension called TabWrangler for years–it automatically closes tabs you haven't looked at (or pinned) for a specified period of time. The closed tabs are saved in a searchable list so if something actually important gets closed you can find it again, but I find that 99% of the time I don't even notice that it has auto-closed hundreds of tabs I've opened over the course of the day. I think I used to tell myself that leaving tabs open was sort of a 'soft bookmark', but now I just bookmark stuff that I genuinely want to come back to, and let the rest of the unimportant stuff I stumble across just disappear.
yowlingcat 8y ago
OneTab on Chrome has been pretty nice for this. If it's something I want to keep, I'll close out a couple tabs that aren't useful and then OneTab the whole thing and put a lid on it. Ironically, despite saving everything, I've found that I rarely return to OneTab saves...
BrandonM 8y ago
I stuck with Firefox through Chrome's peak due to Tree-Style Tab. It makes all the difference in terms of tab anxiety, IMO.
- solnyshok 8y ago
  this. and support for ublock on android version.
jplayer01 8y ago
100 tabs open on my iPad. Probably a similar on my iPhone. Far more on my desktop. The problem is that nobody has come up with a decent way to handle tabs.

cube2222 8y ago

Heh, I've got the exact opposite problem. On the desktop I manage to have "only" 10-40 tabs open at the same time, but on mobile it's usually 200-300. I just open new tabs whenever I think something might be worth reading, but only have time every now and then to actually read part of the stack.

basch 8y ago

There needs to be a complete overhaul of "how i got here, back/forward, where i want to go, things i want to read, things i want to flip between, things i want cached so when i click they dont load, i want to purge the tab from my current workspace, i want to purge this site from the history." Navigation (forward/back), history, tabs, bookmarks et all are all trying to do various forms of the same thing, and their overall relationship to each other is fundamentally broken, because each individual component is too rigidly defined and isolated. I should be able to click between a couple buttons to see how tabs are 1) related to each other from a time/clicked/navigation history perspective 2) workspace perspective 3) topic perspective

PaulHoule 8y ago
Even in current browsers you can do pretty well closing tabs whenever you want and looking them up in history. The situation could be way better.
- basch 8y ago
  Except in chrome for example, where history clears after so many days, so you have to bookmark. Firefox had some experiment that merged a visual history with tabs, I didnt like the idea at all, but at least they were thinking about change.
- jordanpg 8y ago
  I agree with this. I've come to the conclusion that the bottom line is that I don't need more than a few tabs open, and that if I do, my attention is probably too fractured. Solution is to change my habits and be a little bit more deliberate with how I'm using the browser.
- tokyodude 8y ago
  I can't use history unless the browser searched by page content not just title
  - rhizome 8y ago
    Exactly. Trying to find something you saw last week? Just sort "by date and site" and scroll down to its page title! This kind of thing is why I leave tabs up.
pard68 8y ago
Can't think of the browser but there is a hobby browser designed for modal --vim-- usage that displays history as a tree similar to a file structure rather than as a flat back and forward. I wish I could remember the name of it... I do recall it was listed on qutebrowser's github page under similar projects but I can't look right now.

rch 8y ago

Opera's tab groups and save browsing sessions made the interface a lot more convenient for me... I tend towards the high end of open tabs.

ehsankia 8y ago

I like the experiment Chrome is running with "switch to tab" [0]. For most content, I would say it's probably faster to find the content again than search for it in a hay of tabs. I also like extensions like SimpleUndoClose [1] which let you search your recently closed tabs. This way, use my closed tabs as a way of "storing" tabs I may want to access in the near future again, rather than keeping them open. I would definitely love to see more experimentation around this area. [0] https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/07/24/chrome-experimenting-switch-tab-button/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/07/24/chrome-experimentin... [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/simpleundoclose/emhohdghchmjepmigjojkehidlielknj?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/simpleundoclose/em...

_dark_matter_ 8y ago
Firefox has had switch-to-tab for awhile, go try it out!
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

Kenji 8y ago

> I think the core problem is still tab clutter. Every time I hop onto my iPad to do some light browsing, I have less anxiety. I don't keep many tabs open on mobile/tablet, but I'm already counting 8 opened here as I'm typing on my laptop. If you have anxiety because your browser has 8 tabs open, you have issues that cannot be solved with computer programs.

jodrellblank 8y ago

I have a huge problem with tab clutter; every computer I have, every browser, has lots of open tabs, long-term. I have no idea what to do with them. Even something as simple as "read them" is .. and then what, close and forget them? No idea what I even want to achieve - integrate them into my life in some hoarder kind of "this will make me a better, more knowledgeable person" way?

adrianratnapala 8y ago

I have about 30 open on my phone.

macNchz 8y ago

I've been using an extension called TabWrangler for years–it automatically closes tabs you haven't looked at (or pinned) for a specified period of time. The closed tabs are saved in a searchable list so if something actually important gets closed you can find it again, but I find that 99% of the time I don't even notice that it has auto-closed hundreds of tabs I've opened over the course of the day. I think I used to tell myself that leaving tabs open was sort of a 'soft bookmark', but now I just bookmark stuff that I genuinely want to come back to, and let the rest of the unimportant stuff I stumble across just disappear.

yowlingcat 8y ago

OneTab on Chrome has been pretty nice for this. If it's something I want to keep, I'll close out a couple tabs that aren't useful and then OneTab the whole thing and put a lid on it. Ironically, despite saving everything, I've found that I rarely return to OneTab saves...

BrandonM 8y ago

I stuck with Firefox through Chrome's peak due to Tree-Style Tab. It makes all the difference in terms of tab anxiety, IMO.

solnyshok 8y ago
this. and support for ublock on android version.

jplayer01 8y ago

100 tabs open on my iPad. Probably a similar on my iPhone. Far more on my desktop. The problem is that nobody has come up with a decent way to handle tabs.