Web browser tabs and me

One web browser feature I’ve been using a lot for the past few years is tabs. However, much to my surprise, most of the people I’ve met don’t use them, at least not as much as I do…

I’ve become quite the excessive “tabber.” I have Firefox open all the time with at least five tabs – my e-mail, my blog dashboard, my blog’s homepage, MAL, and Tokyo Toshokan. These five have become my default sites that I always have open because they’re the ones I like to refresh constantly for anything new. I know a lot of people simply close all tabs, or even Firefox itself, when they’re done with it. But for me, why should I close these five tabs when I’m gonna want to refresh them many more times during the day?


My default tabs (my MAL profile currently the open page)

In addition to these five, I’ll usually have a few other tabs open too. For example, if I’m playing a new Pokemon game, I’ll have additional tabs for Serebii.net or Bulbapedia open. This way, they’ll always be quickly available since I know I’ll be using them a lot while I’m playing the game. And when I’m not playing, they can be there so I can study up on game mechanics and such when I feel like it ;) I’ll also do the same when I start following a forum thread. For example, when Saimoe came around this year, I kept a tab open with the AnimeSuki forum thread for it, and kept refreshing it constantly like my default sites.

Other tabs I may have open are links to pages that I want to look at but don’t have time for at the moment. For example, I get an interesting link via e-mail or Twitter but I don’t feel like reading through it right then and there. I’ll leave the tab with the page open so I won’t forget about it. I’ll also do this if I find an interesting anime blog post that I want to read later. I’ll usually close the tab once I’m done reading the page unless there’s something more I want to do with it, for example, I want to send it to a friend or refresh it later to see if the blogger replied to a comment I posted.

Incidentally, I do the same thing with my e-mail – I keep tabs of e-mails that I need to reply to or read later open so I don’t forget about them XD

Additionally, if I come across a site I get addicted to but can’t read through it all in one sitting, like Anime Tropes for example, I’ll leave the tab open so I won’t forget about it and can read through more of it whenever I have the time.

Basically, I keep tabs open for sites that I either want to constantly refresh, like my e-mail or a new forum post, or sites that I want to do something with later on and don’t want to forget about, i.e., read them later, send them to a friend later, etc,. As a matter of fact, I’ve come up with a very steady routine for my browser tabs. Every morning one of the first things I do is take my computer off standby mode and bring up Firefox with my tabs (which I leave minimized whenever I’m away). After refreshing my five default ones, I’ll open up a blank tab and use that to check through my bookmarked sites – check ANN for news, done with that, check AnimePaper for new scans, done with that, move on to AnimeNation’s blog, and so on. I always check Anime Nano last since it’s the most likely to contain an extensive page I’ll want to read later when I have more time (in which case, I’ll leave a tab open for it so I don’t forget about it).

I know constantly having Firefox open with many tabs puts a strain on my computer. But for someone like me who’s on the Internet all the time and has many sites that I want to continually check up on, it’s more convenient to have them right there all the time and all I have to do is hit the refresh button, rather than having to constantly open and close the different sites. Also, without tabs, I would have no way of remembering all the web pages I want to read, send, or refresh at a later time. I’m glad that Firefox gives you the option of saving all your tabs if you need to close your browser (though it’s also very annoying when my computer, or Firefox, crashes and I lose all my tabs XP)


Yes please!

So…is it common to be an excessive “tabber,” or is there an easier way of doing what I discussed here without tabs?

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. Adam Skinner says:

    I think you’d benefit from using an RSS Reader like Google Reader. You can place the RSS feeds of various sites (see the little orange icon in the address bar of Firefox? That’s your feed) into Reader, and it will periodically poll for new items. You can tag, sort, share, star, and “like” items in Reader, as well as email or send the links to different services. It’s like AnimeNano, only customized and more robust. So, for example, rather than checking AnimeNation’s blog every day for new entries, you simply add their feed to your RSS reader.

    However, RSS isn’t for everything (like email). While gmail automagically polls as well, if you find yourself constantly trolling through Tokyo Toshokan and refreshing whenever you hit the page, you can set that tab (in Firefox or Chome via an extension) to refresh the tab periodically by itself.

    However, with regards specifically to TokyoToshokan, you’re looking for anime torrents. For your favorite shows? Or just to see what’s out there? If you’re manually downloading torrents for the shows you want to watch, you’re doing it wrong.

    Of course, tabs have their place! I use Chrome now (I used Firefox for years though), and I like the ability to “pin” tabs. That allows you to take a tab, show only it’s favicon, and docks it on the left hand side of the screen (without a close tab button). I keep Reader and my Tumblr dashboard there at work, and gmail, Facebook, TokyoToshokan (I like to see what’s out periodically, even if my shows are automagically downloaded for me), and Hulu at home.

    One of the more convenient things I’ve set up via extension in Chrome is Selection Search. This allows me to select text on the screen and do a custom search on a website. So if I read a blog post about a certain anime, I can just select the name, choose AniDB, and see the entry there. Or a manga and MangaUpdates. Or a japanese word and Jisho.org. Or search any site.

    A great one for Firefox is the Answers extension. This will allow you to get a definition for any word, a snippet on people, etc, with a clickthrough to the Answers.com website. Very useful.

    • Yumeka says:

      Cool, thanks for all the info. I’m not nearly as Internet/computer savvy as you seem to be. I probably could be if I really wanted to, but the setup I’ve got now works for me and keeps things simple. However, I will check out some of the things you mentioned when I get around to it. I’m always looking for extra Internet conveniences that aren’t too complicated for me XD

  2. rc_1277 says:

    I tend to be quite obsessive with tabs as well. When I first open Firefox, I open my e-mail, the Google Reader and Metal-Archives (a music page), and leave them open for as long as I’m in the computer. I don’t know, I feel uneasy if those pages are not open in the browser :P
    Then, I have all the other pages, forums and blogs (to which I may not be subscribed and I don’t read on GR) in other tabs, so Firefox becomes quite memory consumer most of times.

    I can’t help it, tabs are extremely useful for me, I don’t know what would I do without them!

    • Yumeka says:

      Yeah, I feel uneasy if at least my e-mail and blog dashboard aren’t open all the time (Twitter too, but I have the Firefox Echofan app for that). I know lots of tabs can be a big memory consumer, but I don’t do too much multitasking on my computer anyway, so it’s okay. My computer does make a lot of noise when I access memory-heavy sites, but that’s mostly ’cause it’s old =P (almost five and a half years now).

      I hear a lot about Google Reader so maybe I’ll give it a look one day.

  3. Liza says:

    I usually have at least 3 tabs open at the same time. One for a forums that I live on, another for cosplay.com and a third for me to web browse. Right now I have four though since I’m having trouble with the ds game 999 so I have a faq open as well. I try not to have more than five tabs open at once otherwise it looks too cluttered for me.

    • Yumeka says:

      Sounds like you do similar things I do with tabs – have certain tabs open all the time, have a blank one for searching other sites, and another one open when you’re playing a video game =P However for me, ten+ tabs looks cluttered. Five is normal XD

  4. chikorita157 says:

    Ever since I switched to the Mac back in 2006, I stopped using tabs since I switched to Safari. Since they don’t have a new tab button, I just opened new windows with (cmd+n) since it was easier and I can use Exposè to find the open window. Also, there is no session saver on Safari, so I don’t use tabs whatsoever. When I am on Windows when I play games, I use tabs, but not that much.

    At one time, I can have one or many windows open. I don’t update my lists in the browser since I have programs to update them. I don’t use AnimeNano either since I rather use Google Reader to read my subscribed feeds. Since I have a Google Reader extension installed in Safari, I can see the new, unread stuff I am subscribed to.

    • Yumeka says:

      I haven’t used a Mac regularly since 2005, but I can imagine technology has advanced for them too. I think I know what you mean as far as browsing through windows rather than tabs on Safari. I’ve used Macs a little here and there since then at college and friends’ houses.

      The main reason I’ve been sticking to Anime Nano over Google Reader is ’cause I don’t want to miss out on posts I may be interested in from blogs I don’t normally read. But I will check it out one day.

      • Chikorita157 says:

        Hmmm…. My history with Macs spanned back when I was a child since it had a lot of computer games. Eventually I switched to Windows and several years switched back… Probably influenced by owning a iPod and other things… Of course, I have to use tabs on my iPhone and iPad since I can’t have multiple windows, but I don’t have many open

        Also, you can subscribe to Anime Nano in Google Reader. This will allow you to see all the posts syndicated on the site while subscribed to other blogs. That way, you can see all the feeds in one place and not miss out on other blog posts.

        • MacGuy says:

          Safari has tabs, just incase you don’t know now. Also, it saves your session. Go to History > Reopen all Windows from Last Session. Not sure what Mac OS you have but in Safari 5 you have the option of using extensions as well such as ad block and all those other goodies. Sorry for budding in, I just like to help other people who have Macs. I’ve been using them since 8 or so and am a sucker for trying to master everything it has to offer. Though, Expose definitely makes things pretty easy.

          ——————-
          Now for my thoughts, I don’t intentionally do this but I can have two windows with about 20 tabs open in total. It’s hard to keep the number down because there are articles that I’d want to read or respond to later and some images or videos that I got to see. Not to mention the “work” that I need to do requires multiple tabs and I like to view other stuff while I’m doing that too :P Not to mention the fact that I got around 60 feeds to read that gives me about 300-600 new things to check. Need to minimize there…

          Like the first comment though, I think you can make your life far easier here. There are plugins that automatically refresh a page, for example, under a provided time interval. I think it would also be better to use some email client and a RSS application to make your life a lot more organized and easier. Probably sounds like a lot of work though but it’s not that bad. I’d do it for you if I could! And Chrome >>> Firefox for it’s speed and simplicity but it may take time to grow on you. If it crashes, there should be an option to recover your last tabs. I know it can be done with Chrome and Safari at least.

          To make my life easier, I’ll have a place to dump my articles that I want to read later (instapaper) or an app to put all the random stuff that I’d like to save such as PDF articles or some sites (yojimbo). For images I just save all the anime and funny photos to iPhoto. Read all my RSS feeds from Reeder, which I also have on my iPhone, along with instapaper, for reading on the go. Lately though I have been keeping all the tabs onto one window. Less clutter and with all the services I use, it makes everything more manageable. That’s just a preview of how I work… I’ve probably made it into an art of sorts xD

          • Yumeka says:

            Wow, that’s some impressive web browsing organization you’ve got there XD I don’t have nearly as many sites/feeds/forums/articles that I’m interested in reading on a daily basis, so I probably don’t need all that stuff you mentioned. I’ll check out a few things when I get around to it though.

  5. I’m obsessive about tabs as well. At home and at work, I have at least five tabs open (a non-anime forum I frequent, AS, both the 2ch Haruhi threads, and AOD) that I make sure are open everytime I open the browser. When I’m working on something (like my current post) I’ll have more tabs open so I can cross-check between windows. Thanks to big widescreen monitors it doesn’t get too clumped, but there have been times when it does.

    I can’t help but have tabs open and refresh them to see what’s new since I last checked. One plug-in that I found works well is “Tab mix plus”. It restored tabs before Firefox put that feature in and it allows you to open tabs you’ve closed up until ten past. It’s very helpful when I accidentally close something I didn’t mean to.

    This blog is the only thing I’ve RSSed, but that’s because I don’t really have anything else to RSS. Cartoon Leap posts on Twitter, so I can check the new posts from those links.

    • Yumeka says:

      Yeah, my tabs don’t look nearly as cluttered on my 40″ HD TV XD

      I actually post a link on Twitter when I write a new post as well, so technically you don’t need me in your RSS feed anyway. But you can leave me there if you like, it’s flattering that I’m the only one ;)

  6. Joe says:

    I think I discovered tabs sometime in 2007 or 2008. I don’t remember how I used to live without them.

    Incidentally, I read this entry in Google Reader but had to open it in a tab to leave a comment.

    • Yumeka says:

      Hmm, I think I started using tabs around then too. It started when I switched to the e-mail I have now, started this blog, and discovered all the lovely anime-related Web 2.0 sites such as Tokyo Tosho, MAL, etc., that were constantly updated.

  7. q says:

    That’s nothing. “Even if I don’t want to look at them right now, I might later.” So I tend to have at least 100 tabs open…

    • Yumeka says:

      Holy crap, a hundred tabs? The most I’ve ever had open at once is maybe 15-20 0_o FireFox tends to crash if I have too many. Do you have a picture of what your browser looks like with one hundred tabs open? I’d like to see that.

  8. Mystlord says:

    I assumed that tabbed browsing was common behavior for a lot of people. Using Google Reader for me is really great for efficiency since I don’t need to need to fear missing posts from certain blogs or anything like that. I follow a lot of various blogs too, so I think I’d die if it didn’t exist.

    Aside from that though, I usually have tons and tons of tabs open. On average I keep around 20-40 tabs open at all times. It would be more, but there’s a handy little Firefox extension called Read It Later that I use to save a bunch of tabs that don’t need my immediate attention, but are still interesting.

    • Yumeka says:

      Wow, you’ve got me beat when it comes to tabs XD

      I’ll have to check out Read It Later (as well as Google Reader) one of these days. It sounds handy.

  9. Oh lord. I’m such a tabs addict. I’ve always got two or three windows open and full of tabs, some of which get to the point where they are literally weeks old. The worst culprit? 4ch /cm threads -_-

    • Yumeka says:

      Just curious, why not put all your tabs on one window instead of having two or three open?

      LOL, I sometimes keep tabs open for longer than I’d like too. Usually it’s some extensive page that I had initial interest in but then lost the motivation to read through it. Usually if that happens, I’ll just close the tab ’cause I know I’ll probably never get to it and it’s just cluttering up my browser. In a way I’m kinda glad I don’t go on forums that often – I would end up having way too many tabs open if I did XD

  10. Yi says:

    I do that too. I’d browse to some site, and start opening tabs from links… etc. and just keep them there so I don’t forget them later. I also do that with emails, google groups, and subscriptions and stuff.

    Tabs are so convenient. Btw. nice firefox theme. ^ ^

    • Yumeka says:

      Heh, what you do sounds just like what I do XD It’s just so easy to leave the tab open so you can read it later.

      If you mean the Firefox persona, yeah, it was one of the only Haruhi ones I could find =P

  11. Shance says:

    Ever since the beginning of my life in the Internet, I always have the habit of memorizing the sites I visit, so that when I start browsing the moment I open the computer, I know where to go, branch out from there, and keep the tabs in a minimum. As long as you have a set rhythm on browsing, tabbing shouldn’t be a problem.

    • Yumeka says:

      The only time I regularly used a computer other than my own was when I was away at college and would use the ones in the library. I too developed a habit of always starting off my web browsing by opening up tabs for my e-mail and blog dashboard at least. I’ve been doing it for so long now, I too have developed a web browsing rhythm =P

  12. glothelegend says:

    I’m a huge tabber too, when I start my browser I immediately open about 6 different sites. This is the main reason why I switched to Google Chrome, because it’s 30385854 times faster when you have 204883 tabs open. I used to always say Chrome was stupid until I tried it myself. The only drawback is that it has way less to choose from in terms of personas. There’s a K-On one and a vocaloid one (did I even spell that right? Who cares vocaloid sucks). There’s no good anime ones, so I went with some cool artistic one.

  13. Wingless says:

    You’re too awesome. I never knew about pinning tabs until I read this. SO USEFUL. I do it all the time now, muahaha! Thanks!

  14. Justin says:

    Huh. I never think about how many tabs I have on one screen. It just turns out that way! Sometimes I don’t have many tabs, but I think the most I’ve had was five. Which, in some way, is kind of lot :D

  15. Kal says:

    I love tabs :) I always have Gmail, hotmail, facebook (sometimes, don’t use it much), youtube, and the tab I browse on… I also have 2 monitors so I can do all that and play WoW or watch anime at the same time :)

    Also, if you place your bookmarks under separate folders, you can right click one folder, and select to open all bookmark in tabs! So you can open all the tabs of a certain kind without having to manually open each and every page. Tabs are awesome stuff.

  16. Bass says:

    I’m exactly like you. Except that I recently swapped from FF to Chrome because of an app that made it so much easier to keep track of my manga reading > http://bit.ly/gUvWmc

    I always have my dashboard, blog and google analytics open, along with a few manga tabs of stuff I’m currently reading. Then, there’s the 4-5 tabs of unread articles about stuff I enjoy, like gaming, sports, movies etc.

    Thanks to the “pin tab” chrome feature, my tabs are not too hard to keep track of on my tab bar but damn, it’s a real mess at times.

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