Currently 2 on mobile (including HN) and ~6 on my work desktop. 0 on my home desktop.
I only keep tabs open that I’m actively using or will use over the course of my day/week. Anything else gets bookmarked or archived.
Ask HN: Your browser tab count
11–20 of 52 posts
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#12Mobile Firefox stopped giving an actual number a while ago. I think it's past 100 that it shows ∞, which is what it is displaying now for me. I'm not near my desktop right now, but there it's well over 4000. I'm a tab hoarder.
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#13OMFG ! I never really understood this or the use of all those tab managers [1]. For me, Tabs are just links. Why do you have to keep them open? Can't you just bookmark them ? (and then delete them later) [1] https://alternativeto.net/feature/tab-manager/?sort=likes
I thought this way at first, but I'm discovering the value of opening tabs and coming back to them later, as I'm reading. I try to stay focused on what I'm reading without following links, so a middle-click and move on. Then I come back to the links and skim what I'm interested in. Sometimes this leads to 20 tabs being opened from a single site. And I don't have time to do it all in one sitting so I leave them there…
What I personally do is, I use the "bookmark all tabs" to a folder feature, then I open them (together or one by one) from the new chrome side panel.
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#14I'm of the bookmark generation, my tapbount explodes during active trouble-shooting or research then dwindles to 0 immediately after. About 2k bookmarks.
My bookmarks is a plain html file in my home directory, it is my "starting page" too, so I use it by opening a new window.
I like it because it is easy to edit, human readable, and portable.
I'm sorry that there are so many people with hundreds of tabs open, because theyir use-pattern is why my browser constantly seems to want to purge tabs from active memory, even though I have plenty of free memory and do not want them purged. For instance, a few web-apps that have no active code or sockets, running, but does have a state.. when those tabs are purged, so is the state..
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#15OMFG ! I never really understood this or the use of all those tab managers [1]. For me, Tabs are just links. Why do you have to keep them open? Can't you just bookmark them ? (and then delete them later) [1] https://alternativeto.net/feature/tab-manager/?sort=likes
YFG is probably aware that that pushing tabs off to the side for later consumption can be a big help in maintaining focus and spending screen time efficiently. And it's OK if you don't get to all of them - what a nice problem to have!
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#16My father beats me hands down. But I have to check it out his browser. I'm sure he has a lot more than me. I'll brb here with numbers asap.
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#178 on desktop, 3 on mobile.
The 100's/1000's people have real issues
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#18So, something is seriously wrong with me. I knew it.
I never have enough tabs opened at any time; if a tab is open, it is a to-do for me to either do it (read, or fill up or something), or ignore and close it. My mobile browser auto-closes if any tab is left open for more than a week (by mistake). Desktop browser has (except on rare days) all tabs closed and clean by end of day/work.
The most I have is like 15 or so odd ones that I read real quick (kinda speed-read). It is the time when I will also have a timer[0] running for 25-min, then close all even if I'm not finish. This is when I submit articles to Hackernews.
0. P.S. I found out about a year or so back that a timer is the best way to keep track and push your tasks on time. Now I own few mechanical kitchen timers, electronic ones, a large highly visual hourglass (30-min), and the only Complicatons on the primary Watch face is --- the Timer.
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#19Currently two, including this one.
Re: Ask HN: Your browser tab count
#20OMFG ! I never really understood this or the use of all those tab managers [1]. For me, Tabs are just links. Why do you have to keep them open? Can't you just bookmark them ? (and then delete them later) [1] https://alternativeto.net/feature/tab-manager/?sort=likes
> Tabs are just links. Why do you have to keep them open? Can't you just bookmark them ?
I use both tabs and bookmarks and they serve different purposes:
- tabs are ephemeral and not meant to be saved. Saving them as bookmarks adds friction because it leads to "managing" them later in bookmarks UI to find+reload+delete them. Using multiple tabs avoids digital housekeeping work. Bookmarks are more useful if the url is "promoted" to reference status (e.g. like the weather page being bookmarked.) as a frequent shortcut.
- tabs already have the HTML downloaded and visually pre-rendered. Can quickly cycle through them like flipping through tv channels. Bookmarks are only text of page titles.
I often have about 50+ tabs open and I deliberately do not want to bookmark most of them.
On the other hand, if people are using tabs exactly as they would use bookmarks, maybe that's an anti-pattern because now the web browser is consuming gigabytes of RAM for a hundred tabs that should be bookmarked and closed to save resources.