Chrome Is Finally Getting Vertical Tabs (techcrunch.com) 48
Chrome is finally adding built-in vertical tabs, "which will move the tabs to the side of the browser window, making it easier to read full page titles and manage tab groups," reports TechCrunch. The company is also introducing an immersive reading mode for a distraction-free, text-focused experience. From the report: The company notes that the new vertical tabs can be enabled at any time by right-clicking on a Chrome window and selecting "Show Tabs Vertically." The company says there's no hard limit on the number of tabs that can be opened (beyond what would be limited already by the user's hardware). The vertical tabs work just as the horizontal tabs do, meaning you can have different Chrome windows with their own set of tabs or tab groups.
[...] Alongside the launch of vertical tabs, Chrome is also rolling out a new Reading Mode experience, which will offer a full-page interface to make it even easier to reduce on-screen clutter to focus on the text. This will be the new default experience for Chrome users, and arrives at a time when web pages, particularly those on news sites, have become cluttered with ads and prompts to subscribe to newsletters.
[...] Alongside the launch of vertical tabs, Chrome is also rolling out a new Reading Mode experience, which will offer a full-page interface to make it even easier to reduce on-screen clutter to focus on the text. This will be the new default experience for Chrome users, and arrives at a time when web pages, particularly those on news sites, have become cluttered with ads and prompts to subscribe to newsletters.
So..... (Score:2)
They're copying Firefox.
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Have 2 or 3 rows of recent sites on a new tab instead of only 1.
Paste the title of a URL link instead of the long URL gobbledygook when cutting a pasting from a web site into a document or email.
Anything else?
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WHERE IS MY LAWSUIT TROLL?
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Some day I may be interested to know what you're talking about. But today isn't that day.
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Dementia much? [slashdot.org]
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Why would I sue you? It's clear that I have been living rent free in your head for 3 years now. Maybe if you raised the rent... that said there's nothing but mold and rubbish in here.
Nothing makes me happier than to see a truly stupid person have someone get under their skin. Seriously man, u dum!
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WHERE IS MY LAWSUIT TROLL ?
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Vivaldi is a Chrome based browser that's also had vertical tabs for years.
Google Chrome itself literally has zero support in the plugin system to even begin implementing something like this without forking the whole project, and they've actually made their extension system worse to try to kill ad blockers.
Fuck Chrome
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Opera did it like 20 years ago without extension.
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Use what? Does it sync with Chrome across my Android device? Does it prevent popups on Google maps complaining that Chrome is better?
The fundamental problem with "crushing them all" is that it will do so with features that users don't give a shit about. I nearly dropped Chrome when ManifestV3 became mandatory, but the it turns out with Ublock Lite ads are still blocked so that seems like a lot of effort to change for little gain. Unless the gain is something a nebulous as "privacy" but we live in a Facebook
Does it whip it? (Score:1, Funny)
Oh, is this actually good UI? I've seen it mentioned but I kind of ignore new UI stuff unless it comes from someone who knows that Winamp is good.
As long as it's just an option (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally, I'm not a fan. Tabs belong at the top, just like the real-world analog of folder tabs that you'd find in a file cabinet. But hey, I'm not gonna yuck your yum if you really want 'em displayed in a list off to the side. You do you.
Re:As long as it's just an option (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it's for a certain kind of workflow. If you want to watch YouTube videos it kind of does nothing useful. If you want to swap between documents and reference materials a lot, much more helpful. I think the answer is "It sucks because it's for multitasking, not because it is a bad idea."
Re:As long as it's just an option (Score:4, Interesting)
I think it's for a certain kind of workflow. If you want to watch YouTube videos it kind of does nothing useful. If you want to swap between documents and reference materials a lot, much more helpful. I think the answer is "It sucks because it's for multitasking, not because it is a bad idea."
I think it depends less on workflow and more on screen layout. If you run your browser maximized on a landscape-mode display, there's a lot of horizontal real estate that isn't very well-used, while vertical space is at a premium. So it makes sense to move tabs to the side.
On the other hand, if you don't maximize your window but keep it as narrow as possible (so you can see other windows) but just wide enough that sites render well, then you'll probably prefer them on top.
On the gripping hand, if you're like me and run your browser full-screen on a portrait mode screen, then you have gobs of vertical real-estate and tabs on top definitely makes sense.
(I have three monitors, a 32" (landscape) in the center, which is where my IDE, editors, and "focused" work lives, and a 27" portrait orientation monitor on each side. The left one has a full-screen browser window for work stuff and the right one has a full-screen browser window for personal stuff. It's fantastic.)
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If following the real-world analog is that important, then you should limit yourself to three visible tabs. The rest should only be accessed by moving through a list.
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Actually file cabinets typically stored the papers themselves sideways. So this would most be like the existing tab bar being turned 90 degrees and put on the side of the screen. Which does not match the proposed or old design either.
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Personally, I'm not a fan. Tabs belong at the top, just like the real-world analog of folder tabs that you'd find in a file cabinet. But hey, I'm not gonna yuck your yum if you really want 'em displayed in a list off to the side. You do you.
The one person I know who uses vertical tabs can't tell which one is which because the labels cut off too soon. He prefers it but every time I'm at his desk helping with something it's always "oh, nope, not that one..." hunting to switch between things.
Re:As long as it's just an option (Score:4, Informative)
?!?
The width of the side tab bar is adjustable.
OTOH, the tabs across the top keep shrinking every time you add one.
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?!? The width of the side tab bar is adjustable.
OTOH, the tabs across the top keep shrinking every time you add one.
Yup, you're not wrong. But that's kind of the point. The one person I know who uses the feature values horizontal screen space enough that they keep it small.
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https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/... [dreamstime.com]
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Tabs belong at the top, just like the real-world analog of folder tabs that you'd find in a file cabinet.
If I was on a 4:3 display, I'd be with you. On a wide aspect ratio like my iMac's 16:9, especially because the OSX menu bar is almost always consuming the top few percent of real estate, I prefer my tabs on the right (and Dock on the left).
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smells like a feature for those accustomed to sites that put everyone on the mobile-downgraded style, i.e. using 50% of real estate
giving up a chunk of the real viewport makes sense when it gets used on a real nothing
the poor dears probably record vertically too
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Re: As long as it's just an option (Score:2)
I use side tabs because I'm trying to maximize horizontal space on a wide laptop screen. The widescreen standard leaves a lot of unused space on the edges. I could zoom browser text to go edge-to-edge, but then it's unnaturally large font and I get only a few lines of reading before I have to scroll. Making text/docs/webpages fill the center 2/3 of the screen is comfortable for me, leaving the outer 1/6th on each edge perfect spots for tabs.
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I don't generally like change, but I think I'll like this. I prefer IDEs where tabs are on the right instead of at the top.
A Chrome on Windows 11 feature I like is being able to name windows (on the context menu of the taskbar icon). So I can have a window for work tabs, and a window for news/other tabs, and be able to tell them apart easily.
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The real world analog of file tabs at the top is limited by the need to deal with gravity in roll-out file drawers. Doctors and dentists often use[d] folder shelves with vertical tabs. Just pretend you are a doctor.
Why core? (Score:3)
Re:Why core? (Score:4, Interesting)
There are a bunch of vertical tab extensions:
https://chromewebstore.google.... [google.com]
Every time I've tried one, both in Firefox and Chrome, there's been something clunky about it.
Many of them could not hide the horizontal bar well, so sometimes you had tabs at both the top and the bottom. Others had trouble integrating with UI elements at the top of the window. Often you had to set preferences deep in some config files.
Apparently tabs are deeply integrated into the browser code, and the extension hooks simply didn't provide everything needed.
That same integration issue also means that tab extensions have have access to everything, and therefore create a security issue.
Re:"Finally" (Score:4, Interesting)
No need for the sarcasm. Enough people wanted this that multiple extensions exist for it.
Chrome does it? Time to move on. (Score:5, Funny)
Next? Diagonal tabs. They just plaster the tabs right across the browser window corner to corner. You can, however, choose which diagonal course it takes. Left lower to right upper, or left upper to right lower. True configurable innovation!
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Do it like the stacked tool bars that used to infest browsers. View port is the lower quarter of the screen.
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I favor three dimensional tabs that are actually behind you.
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I favor three dimensional tabs that are actually behind you.
FINALLY! A use for all those VR headsets.
Why? (Score:2)
Why do these browser companies think anyone wants vertical tabs? Why are they all hell bent on breaking workflows by drastically altering the user interface for "reasons"?
Hows about trimming some fat? How about reducing telemetry and spyware? How about not putting every stupid anti-consumer idea they can think of in there?
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do these browser companies think anyone wants vertical tabs?
Because people, including me, have asked for it and use it.
https://forums.opera.com/topic... [opera.com]
https://www.theverge.com/tech/... [theverge.com]
https://www.makeuseof.com/goog... [makeuseof.com]
What workflow is broken by having a vertical tab option?
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You have no idea how much better they can be if you haven't tried.
I, and many friends and coworkers, switched to Arc browser a couple years ago because tab management is such a gigantic pain and problem in most browsers. Arc fixed that for us (with spaces + vertical tabs). Vertical tabs are far easier to navigate and organize than previous approaches (tab groups, colors, multiple windows).
With Arc being deprecated in favor of AI browsing garbage, I am so thrilled and relieved Firefox and Chrome have decided
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Why do these browser companies think anyone wants vertical tabs?
Because they see the metrics of extensions released for their browsers showing that users are very much not only coding these up themselves, but using them too.
Why are they all hell bent on breaking workflows by drastically altering the user interface for "reasons"?
Zero workflows are altered in any way but a completely optional feature you can completely ignore and won't affect you. For the "reasons" see question 1. But why ask a question if you are already stubbornly committed to an answer?
Hows about trimming some fat?
What fat? Please tell us what you want removed, and when you do just know that you'll be breaking someone's workflow for "
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I’ve been using vertical tabs ever since wide aspect monitors came out, which is one of the main reasons I don’t use chrome.
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> Why do these browser companies think anyone wants vertical tabs?
Because with today's 457:9 aspect ratio monitors, there are a lot more horizontal pixels to give up than vertical pixels.
Screen space (Score:2)
It's all personal preference except the loss of screen space moving from the title bar. If you have enough tabs that the titles are getting lost, then maybe the extra screen space is well used. Likewise if most of the content viewed is responsively designed for a phone in a shrunken column or infinite scrolling on low resolution displays, then losing that space doesn't matter.
But in my preference, vertical tabs infringes too much on the page content especially with side-by-side snapped windows and shifts th
Diagonal tabs would have been epic (Score:2)
Not much creativity at Google these days.
That's great and all but Manifest v3... (Score:2)
Web sites are within their rights to deny access without showing advertising, but the browser is running on my computer and I can have it manipulate the data how I want. That's why I no longer use Chrome or any Chromium-based browser since Google deliberately blocked Manifest v2 extensions such as uBlock Origni.
Firefox is the only browser that has uBlock Origin now. And vertical tabs of course. There's so much to dislike about Mozilla and horrible Firefox UI choices, but as far as safety goes, it's the on
Priorities (Score:2)
Yes, finally. Not like it'll make me use Chrome, but this is a small step in the right direction.
You know what never ceases to amaze me? Geeks will spend months or even years working a big, elaborate features nobody asked for or wants, but simple little things like this that could be implemented in a day or two almost never get done. To hell with all the whiners complaining that this should be an extension. This absolutely should be an [optional] core feature, just because it's such a simple thing to im