5 ms·

I believe Opera was the first browsers to introduce tabs.

by whikhngbu359 5y ago

_trampeltier 5y ago
Yes, years before other browsers had tabs.
thanatos519 5y ago
I'm pretty sure Galeon had tabs before Opera, but maybe something had tabs before Galeon.
- thanatos519 5y ago
  (Galeon had mouse gestures, too!)
- chucky 5y ago
  According to Wikipedia, Netcaptor was the very first browser to have tabs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_(interface)#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_(interface)#History However, Opera supported an MDI interface before it supported tabs, and if you count that it may have supported multiple browser windows within one MDI window even earlier, which could be said to be a form of tabs. Everything depends on how you define "tabs", as usual.
  - slightwinder 5y ago
    I thin kyou misread that. Wikipedia says InternetWorks was the first browser with Tabbed Interface, released 1994.
- Winsaucerer 5y ago
  I loved tabs in Galeon, it's the only browser I remembering having it at the time, but I probably didn't try Opera. I was sad when Galeon went away (or removed tabs? I don't recall) and I couldn't find another browser with tab support for a while. Again, I may have overlooked Opera :)
  - bzzzt 5y ago
    Galeon was also the only usable Linux browser having a native look on Gnome (Epiphany was the other one, but I remember it having more difficulty with a lot of sites). It embedded the Mozilla engine (which was a supported use case back then, before Firefox) but launched a lot faster. Usable on a 200Mhz machine at least.
- acheron 5y ago
  And in a HN thread a couple weeks ago someone posted about how “everyone” switched to Chrome because it invented tabs, if you want to know what today’s web developers think.
crummy 5y ago
It also had mouse gestures, right click drag left to go back, right click... swirl? to reload... felt like I was casting spells!
- jbverschoor 5y ago
  I think that came during the period of Black & White by Lionhead Studios. (which was a milestone in using gestures to cast spells by swirly your mouse around)
  - danielscrubs 5y ago
    They where released within one month of each other.
    - slightwinder 5y ago
      And Opera openly admitted that they copied B&W there, because they considered it a very useful feature. It even came in a sub-version, which at that time was somewhat unusual for such an important feature.
- joshuaissac 5y ago
  > right click drag left to go back, right click... swirl? to reload I still customise my Chrome and Firefox mouse gestures add-ons to work exactly this way, despite having long forgotten where those conventions originally came from. Other gestures I have, probably also from Opera: DL: Left tab RL: Right tab D: Page Down U: Page Up RLR: Close tab/window
  - AfterShave 5y ago
    Mouse gestures, right click scroll between tabs, closed tab history & current tab history. I thank Opera for showing me the way. Sadly the last two were killed off in Firefox in that last big add-on update. I didn't find anything that works since then.
- StavrosK 5y ago
rotten 5y ago
It also had a built-in pop-up blocker which none of the other browsers at the time had.
slightwinder 5y ago
No, it was not. That's a popular myth, but it's wrong. There were other browser with Tabs before opera event tried them. And Operas first attempts wasn't really Tabs in the modern sense. It was just a poor working button-bar for an MDI, which was a bit cumbersome to use. They fixed it two versions later, around the time when the feature gained attention in other browsers and even Mozilla Suit got it's first Extension that became so insanly popular that it was build into Phoenix (later renamend to Firebird, then Firefox) out of the box. Though, Opera tried many things in that area. There never really lost the MDI-Spirit and went with different approached than most other TDI-Implementations. Made it more useful for some, more complicated for others. So for certain specific functions they probablly were the first ones.

I believe Opera was the first browsers to introduce tabs.

_trampeltier 5y ago

Yes, years before other browsers had tabs.

thanatos519 5y ago

I'm pretty sure Galeon had tabs before Opera, but maybe something had tabs before Galeon.

thanatos519 5y ago
(Galeon had mouse gestures, too!)
chucky 5y ago
According to Wikipedia, Netcaptor was the very first browser to have tabs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_(interface)#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_(interface)#History However, Opera supported an MDI interface before it supported tabs, and if you count that it may have supported multiple browser windows within one MDI window even earlier, which could be said to be a form of tabs. Everything depends on how you define "tabs", as usual.
- slightwinder 5y ago
  I thin kyou misread that. Wikipedia says InternetWorks was the first browser with Tabbed Interface, released 1994.
Winsaucerer 5y ago
I loved tabs in Galeon, it's the only browser I remembering having it at the time, but I probably didn't try Opera. I was sad when Galeon went away (or removed tabs? I don't recall) and I couldn't find another browser with tab support for a while. Again, I may have overlooked Opera :)
- bzzzt 5y ago
  Galeon was also the only usable Linux browser having a native look on Gnome (Epiphany was the other one, but I remember it having more difficulty with a lot of sites). It embedded the Mozilla engine (which was a supported use case back then, before Firefox) but launched a lot faster. Usable on a 200Mhz machine at least.
acheron 5y ago
And in a HN thread a couple weeks ago someone posted about how “everyone” switched to Chrome because it invented tabs, if you want to know what today’s web developers think.

crummy 5y ago

It also had mouse gestures, right click drag left to go back, right click... swirl? to reload... felt like I was casting spells!

jbverschoor 5y ago
I think that came during the period of Black & White by Lionhead Studios. (which was a milestone in using gestures to cast spells by swirly your mouse around)
- danielscrubs 5y ago
  They where released within one month of each other.
  - slightwinder 5y ago
    And Opera openly admitted that they copied B&W there, because they considered it a very useful feature. It even came in a sub-version, which at that time was somewhat unusual for such an important feature.
joshuaissac 5y ago
> right click drag left to go back, right click... swirl? to reload I still customise my Chrome and Firefox mouse gestures add-ons to work exactly this way, despite having long forgotten where those conventions originally came from. Other gestures I have, probably also from Opera: DL: Left tab RL: Right tab D: Page Down U: Page Up RLR: Close tab/window
- AfterShave 5y ago
  Mouse gestures, right click scroll between tabs, closed tab history & current tab history. I thank Opera for showing me the way. Sadly the last two were killed off in Firefox in that last big add-on update. I didn't find anything that works since then.
StavrosK 5y ago

rotten 5y ago

It also had a built-in pop-up blocker which none of the other browsers at the time had.

slightwinder 5y ago

No, it was not. That's a popular myth, but it's wrong. There were other browser with Tabs before opera event tried them. And Operas first attempts wasn't really Tabs in the modern sense. It was just a poor working button-bar for an MDI, which was a bit cumbersome to use. They fixed it two versions later, around the time when the feature gained attention in other browsers and even Mozilla Suit got it's first Extension that became so insanly popular that it was build into Phoenix (later renamend to Firebird, then Firefox) out of the box. Though, Opera tried many things in that area. There never really lost the MDI-Spirit and went with different approached than most other TDI-Implementations. Made it more useful for some, more complicated for others. So for certain specific functions they probablly were the first ones.