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Why You Should Never Have More Than Nine Browser Tabs Open

3 points by vog 14y ago

wynter 14y ago
All true, but easier said than done :/
- vog 14y ago
  I must confess that I never had this problem in the first place. I'm quickly annoyed if I have too many open tabs, long before I even reach 9 tabs. I never understood other people with their 3 to 6 rows of open tabs. [1] However, I never had any real arguments to convince them to change that habit. That's why the article was an interesting read for me. [1] In the old days, browsers stacked their tabs in second row when the first row was full. And opened a third row when the second was full, etc.
  - wynter 14y ago
    Yeah I see that. I think it's not a tabbing problem, but more of a "I really want to multitask" problem. Better organization can definitely help keeping the number of tabs open at a safe limit.
vog 14y ago
At first, I thought that the number 9 in the title was arbritrary. I was just wondering why the author didn't choose a round number, such as 8 or 16. Or a link-baiting number, such as 3, 7 or 10. I was surprised when I found out that the number 9 has an actual meaning in the article: > ... but why pick 9 as the upper limit? Simple: every modern browser supports using Ctrl-1 to go to the first open tab, Ctrl-2 to the second, and so on ... (Control-9 always jumps to the last tab, however many you have open, by the way.)
dalke 14y ago
Wake up. Open laptop. Skim through the pages of HN. "Open in new tab" for all the ones which look interesting. This could be a couple dozen new tabs. Close-tab (cmd-W on my Mac) to close the HN page. Read next tab. Close-tab. Read. Repeat until done. My scenario doesn't match any of the 4 listed arguments against opening more than 9 tabs. For example, the user interaction is easy; "open in new tab" and "close tab". Both easily done from the keyboard.
- bartl 14y ago
  Yeah, I wish browsers supported a tab mode where a tab can be open, but use no memory apart from URL and history, thus: no page content. A bit like how currently in Firefox a closed pinned tab is still visible in the browser tabs list, greyed out.

3 points by vog 14y ago

wynter 14y ago

All true, but easier said than done :/

vog 14y ago
I must confess that I never had this problem in the first place. I'm quickly annoyed if I have too many open tabs, long before I even reach 9 tabs. I never understood other people with their 3 to 6 rows of open tabs. [1] However, I never had any real arguments to convince them to change that habit. That's why the article was an interesting read for me. [1] In the old days, browsers stacked their tabs in second row when the first row was full. And opened a third row when the second was full, etc.
- wynter 14y ago
  Yeah I see that. I think it's not a tabbing problem, but more of a "I really want to multitask" problem. Better organization can definitely help keeping the number of tabs open at a safe limit.

vog 14y ago

At first, I thought that the number 9 in the title was arbritrary. I was just wondering why the author didn't choose a round number, such as 8 or 16. Or a link-baiting number, such as 3, 7 or 10. I was surprised when I found out that the number 9 has an actual meaning in the article: > ... but why pick 9 as the upper limit? Simple: every modern browser supports using Ctrl-1 to go to the first open tab, Ctrl-2 to the second, and so on ... (Control-9 always jumps to the last tab, however many you have open, by the way.)

dalke 14y ago

Wake up. Open laptop. Skim through the pages of HN. "Open in new tab" for all the ones which look interesting. This could be a couple dozen new tabs. Close-tab (cmd-W on my Mac) to close the HN page. Read next tab. Close-tab. Read. Repeat until done. My scenario doesn't match any of the 4 listed arguments against opening more than 9 tabs. For example, the user interaction is easy; "open in new tab" and "close tab". Both easily done from the keyboard.

bartl 14y ago
Yeah, I wish browsers supported a tab mode where a tab can be open, but use no memory apart from URL and history, thus: no page content. A bit like how currently in Firefox a closed pinned tab is still visible in the browser tabs list, greyed out.