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I closed a lot of browser tabs

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Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#91

Post by e3bc54b2 »

agent327 wrote: post #64

Here's something I'd love to have. Let's you are reading hacker news. Clicking a link gives you two options: open in a new tab, or open, replacing the current tab. Opening in a new tab works, but leaves you with a lot of tabs open that are cognitively hard to deal with ("why did I think this would be interesting?"). Replacing the current tab removes the context. When you return to the front page, it may have changed,…

> but leaves you with a lot of tabs open that are cognitively hard to deal with ("why did I think this would be interesting?")

Get "Tree Style Tabs". All the tabs are in hierarchy. Anything opened via "Open in new tab" becomes a child tab. This way, the "train of thought" is always preserved.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#92

Post by pjmlp »

Macha wrote: post #75
pjmlp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I see it as refusal to learn how to use bookmarks. I fail to see how what is so hard regarding organizing information in folders per subject, when in doubt choose the more generic one. Firefox also allows me to easily search for bookmarks, and has a quite nice bookmark manager. Using bookmarks since 1995 across different kinds of browsers, always migrating them along.

1. Bookmarks fail for medium term usage. There's some research material for a doc or PR I'm actively working on - Why bookmark, catalogue and eventually prune if I'm not going to need it past tomorrow? 2. Bookmarks don't keep page state. As more apps go the PWA route, not all of them have URIs that lead to your preferred state. Even just stuff like expanding/hide comment threads is a start, not to mention things like…

1. Ongoing activities folder

2. Neither do tabs across process restarts or devices.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#93

Post by felipeerias »

Ultimately, how you use tabs is very related to how your thought process operates.

Some people need to have their tabs always visible as an aid for thought, so they can quickly see all the little tasks that are needed for the goal that they are trying to fulfil. In some cases, tabs that go away from view will literally go away from the user’s mind as well.

Web browsers need to get a lot better at supporting different thinking styles. After all, it is easier to change how our software operates that how people’s brains work.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#94

Post by lmohseni »

pjmlp wrote: post #92
Macha wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Bookmarks fail for medium term usage. There's some research material for a doc or PR I'm actively working on - Why bookmark, catalogue and eventually prune if I'm not going to need it past tomorrow? 2. Bookmarks don't keep page state. As more apps go the PWA route, not all of them have URIs that lead to your preferred state. Even just stuff like expanding/hide comment threads is a start, not to mention things like…

1. Ongoing activities folder 2. Neither do tabs across process restarts or devices.

Regarding your second point, Firefox does both of these.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#95

Post by pjmlp »

theshrike79 wrote: post #57

This is a type of FOMO. You start collecting Absolutely Essential Reading in tabs, stuff that you'll for sure read later, no joke, seriously. You never will. But you can't close the tab or you can't find the content again and bookmarking is mostly useless if you use multiple computers and browsers daily. I got over my tab-itis with Pinboard[0]. If stuff seems to sit in my tabs for too long, I can send the link easily…

> But you can't close the tab or you can't find the content again and bookmarking is mostly useless if you use multiple computers and browsers daily.

Tabs are hardly any different.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#96

Post by e3bc54b2 »

zeristor wrote: post #2

Is that a lot? I think I've got Firefox up to 3500, indeed I mentioned this when I went to a meetup hosted by Mozilla, and they said that few people use more than 14. I think some of the tab tools start to make it unstable, but the root issue is that it'd be good to clear down browser tabs often.

> few people use more than 14

I can definitely say there is a selection bias at play here. Tab management as it is in major browsers by default sucks. At more than half dozen tabs, you start losing tab titles, basically playing "Where is waldo". When you go beyond a dozen tabs you can barely see the favicon. Any more and it becomes a game of "Concentration"[0]. When the experience is so horrible, no wonder people don't use more than 14 tabs at once. Give people vertical tabs with nested hierarchy and watch how quickly people go about operating 100+ tabs without losing sweat.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_(card_game)

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#97

Post by pjmlp »

lifthrasiir wrote: post #80
thefr0g wrote: post #70

I don't get why people litter their browser with tabs. I pretty sure I never used more than 30 at the same time. I just close them if I don't need them anymore. At the latest when I can't read the titles anymore the garbage collection runs. If I might still need it I just bookmark the page. (It helps to sort your bookmarks and have proper syncing)

Because I'll be never sure when I need this tab next time. I can't use bookmarks because bookmarks don't record the exact context (the history leading to that tab and neighbor tabs).

Better never let the process die or corrupt the session cache.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#98

Post by jraph »

globular-toast wrote: post #85
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…

Maybe. For some reason many people just don't use bookmarks at all. The question is why don't they use them. Have they tried but found it broken? Or have they never tried?

I don't use bookmarks. I rely on history. If I want to find something, I'll type relevant keywords and the page shows up. It works without using bookmarks. I usually memorize parts of urls or title without effort, if I didn't have that I guess I would need bookmarks.

I think bookmarks would be good for building lists. Like recipes. But I'm not organized well enough to do this.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#99

Post by mrweasel »

thefr0g wrote: post #70

I don't get why people litter their browser with tabs. I pretty sure I never used more than 30 at the same time. I just close them if I don't need them anymore. At the latest when I can't read the titles anymore the garbage collection runs. If I might still need it I just bookmark the page. (It helps to sort your bookmarks and have proper syncing)

I normally just exit the browser if I reach 20 tabs. Mentally I can’t/won’t deal with it and just declare tab bankrupcy and exists everything. Browsers like Safari have excellent time based history, should I need a page within the next few days.

On problem with this method is that is has made me hate webapps, including PWAs, as it they incompatible with the browser being closed down a few times a day.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#100

Post by pjmlp »

lmohseni wrote: post #94
pjmlp wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Ongoing activities folder 2. Neither do tabs across process restarts or devices.

Regarding your second point, Firefox does both of these.

It also does the same for bookmarks.

However it doesn't help when it isn't the same browser across both devices.

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