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I closed a lot of browser tabs

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Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#41

Post by Joeri »

What is the value in keeping all this stuff around in tabs to look at later? If it is important, you will see it again and it is not necessary to put it on a todo list of tabs to read later. If it is not important it is just more busy work. I would also argue that reading all these random things on the internet does not build knowledge. We learn by doing or by repeating, not by reading something once. Isn’t keeping that many tabs around just an example of FOMO?

To be clear, I’m all for todo lists, but tabs are a terrible UI for having a todo list in. If you’re going to keep a todo list, use a proper todo software, and be mindful of what you put on the list.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#42

Post by lewisjoe »

I built https://closetab.email specifically for this problem. I set a timer within which I'd like to read the tab, and immediately close it. The extension emails me a digest of all these tabs, once a week - until I either finish reading it or the timeout is reached.

Works like charm for me.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#43

Post by sharmi »

I use firefox. I open ridiculous amount of tabs. I have had atleast 600+ that I have counted. There is a good chance I have exceeded 1000 more than once, maybe often.

One of the reasons is I keep tabs from previous sessions open through "Recover tabs".

I found that having too many tabs also affects my ability to concentrate, as I get distracted often.

To keep the tab count low, I use Two extensions together: Open Tab Count Resurrected (gives me the count of tabs in current window and across windows, current count: 44/147) Lean Tab Limiter: Limits the number of tabs you can open. This gives me the wakeup call I need when I exceed the number of tabs I have set.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#44

Post by lewisjoe »

cookiengineer wrote: post #16

Isn't this tab fatigue of every user not more a hint that bookmarking is broken? I mean, no matter how I bookmark a website, omnibar is absolutely useless in every browser when it comes to re-discovering your bookmarks via keywords that you remember. Sometimes I bookmark the same URL multiple times, because the Browser is too stupid to realize that a #generated-hashbang or a ?utm_source is a generated tracking parame…

You hit the nail. Yes bookmarking is broke. Most bookmarking services act as dumb buckets of information. Like an endless abyss of links that I'll never return to.

That's why I made https://closetab.email - This one delivers a digest of links from my bookmarks straight to my inbox, every monday. This way I end up consuming them eventually and also close tabs a bit more confidently, knowing I'll come back to it later.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#45

Post by asymptosis »

mattlondon wrote: post #7
milesvp wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don’t understand how anyone could have less than 14 tabs open at any time. Just using a search engine requires at least 4 at a time, and I’ve often got four or five searches going at any time. And then there’s at least a half dozen communication tabs. Even when I declare browser bankruptcy and close whole windows dedicated to some topic, I don’t think I can get my total count below 14. I mean, I get that my wo…

I regularly have only one or two at once. When I am done with a tab, I close it - this makes it very simple. Sure I might temporarily open 10 at once when searching, but many will be culled within the first 10-20 seconds of reading the page as either the info I need is not there, or I've found what I need so can close the rest. Occasionally when cross-referencing stuff I will go up to perhaps 5 or even 10 in extreme…

I have this approach too. When working, I might have up to 20 tabs open at a given time, but most of them are just there passively for things like monitoring and calendars.

Some tips for people who are struggling with their tab count:

* Always close all tabs at the end of the day.

* Use different browser profiles for different types of task (eg work admin/emails/calendars/trello vs work-related documentation/search vs monitoring vs nonwork.)

* If you notice you have enough tabs open that the browser needs to shrink or hide them, cycle through and cull a bunch. If needed, you can always find them again later, either just by searching for them or using your browser history.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#46

Post by _Microft »

cookiengineer wrote: post #16

Isn't this tab fatigue of every user not more a hint that bookmarking is broken? I mean, no matter how I bookmark a website, omnibar is absolutely useless in every browser when it comes to re-discovering your bookmarks via keywords that you remember. Sometimes I bookmark the same URL multiple times, because the Browser is too stupid to realize that a #generated-hashbang or a ?utm_source is a generated tracking parame…

Firefox allows to search your bookmarks by prepending * (an asterisk) to the input of the adress bar. They have also added a button for that a while ago. It's next to the search engine buttons at the bottom of the results panel. These buttons also show the shortcut symbols in their hover-text.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#47

Post by b112 »

dredmorbius wrote: post #38
cookiengineer wrote: post #16

Isn't this tab fatigue of every user not more a hint that bookmarking is broken? I mean, no matter how I bookmark a website, omnibar is absolutely useless in every browser when it comes to re-discovering your bookmarks via keywords that you remember. Sometimes I bookmark the same URL multiple times, because the Browser is too stupid to realize that a #generated-hashbang or a ?utm_source is a generated tracking parame…

Very much this. I've attempted (largely unsuccessfully) to try to use Pocket (also a Mozilla product) to address this. The problem with Pocket is that it gets worse the more you use it. From four years ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/5x2sfx/pocket_... A couple of those issues have been addressed. There's now "find in page" on the Android app, and editing tags is very slightly improved. But overall,…

Why would they? It's local, thus, not saleable information.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#48

Post by cookiengineer »

_Microft wrote: post #46
cookiengineer wrote: post #16

Isn't this tab fatigue of every user not more a hint that bookmarking is broken? I mean, no matter how I bookmark a website, omnibar is absolutely useless in every browser when it comes to re-discovering your bookmarks via keywords that you remember. Sometimes I bookmark the same URL multiple times, because the Browser is too stupid to realize that a #generated-hashbang or a ?utm_source is a generated tracking parame…

Firefox allows to search your bookmarks by prepending * (an asterisk) to the input of the adress bar. They have also added a button for that a while ago. It's next to the search engine buttons at the bottom of the results panel. These buttons also show the shortcut symbols in their hover-text.

The search functionality is still very limited, though. I don't remember URLs with /some/post/id/123.html. I remember headlines, I remember mentions of the thing the article is telling about.

Local bookmarks need an offline cache that at least contains the text content and headings of the URL. Otherwise, the search will stay useless because nobody can organize them manually without making (human) mistakes after a while.

Ironically, Chromium's omnibar search worked by searching through headlines for a while; but meanwhile it's broken again, and it never worked for bookmarks and only for history entries.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#49

Post by dredmorbius »

b112 wrote: post #47
dredmorbius wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very much this. I've attempted (largely unsuccessfully) to try to use Pocket (also a Mozilla product) to address this. The problem with Pocket is that it gets worse the more you use it. From four years ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/5x2sfx/pocket_... A couple of those issues have been addressed. There's now "find in page" on the Android app, and editing tags is very slightly improved. But overall,…

Why would they? It's local, thus, not saleable information.

Incentives misallignment is a major component of my disillusionment.

It's possible that a non-Google vendor might see the approach as a differentiator. Of these, Mozilla seems to be footgunning itself with exceptional facility, Apple would serve only its own hardware platforms in all likelihood, and the remaining players (KDE / Webkit) are so small as to be utterly outclassed.

The remaining possibility would be a generalised HTTP/HTML (and if possible other document markup) programming libraries.

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