Browser Tabs -- do you really need them?

[classical_hero]

I use tabs alot. I love them.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

You seem to neglect that some use tabs in conjunction with multiple windows. I'm chaotic by nature

 

[tR1cKy]

This is not related to tabs. You can do the SAME EXACT THING without tabs using things like the Google tool bar (in the Options you set it to always open a new window when typing in something and pressing enter -- if you type in a web address, it will open up the website in a new window)

But you need the Google tool bar to do it. Mozilla and Firefox do it on their own.

 

[Souron]

I dislike tabs becouse I can't swich between them using Alt-Tab. This is also the reason I dislike IE on Macs; they have seperate apple-tab and apple-` commands for switching between programs and swiching between windows of the same program.

Edit: Just realized it's Apple-` not Apple-~. not a huge difference considering it's the same key.

 

[tR1cKy]

I dislike tabs becouse I can't swich between them using Alt-Tab.

Use Ctrl-Tab and you'll be fine

 

[Souron]

Use Ctrl-Tab and you'll be fine

You did not read the rest of my post did you?

I did not know about Ctrl-Tab, but I expected something like it existed. It is still not the same as using Alt tab to swich between other programs and multiple web pages by pressing two buttons a few times. It would be inconvineint (and has been inconvienient on Macs) to have to swich to the web broser first, then to swich to the desired window/tab of the broser, then to swich back to an other aplication, then back to the first web page. Yet I have found need to do this when there are multiple web pages that I am using as a reference.

 

[tR1cKy]

You did not read the rest of my post did you?

I did read it. But since i don't own a Mac and i know very little about them, i simply abstained to comment it. About it being inconvenient, what to say? It's your opinion. Personally i find very easy to press Ctrl-Tab and Alt-Tab in rapid sequences, but someone may find it unpratical.

Uh, don't worry for the Ctrl-Tab suggestion, it's free.

 

[Gogf]

On a Mac, command-option-left/right arrow works fine for switching tabs.

I did not know about Ctrl-Tab, but I expected something like it existed. It is still not the same as using Alt tab to swich between other programs and multiple web pages by pressing two buttons a few times. It would be inconvineint (and has been inconvienient on Macs) to have to swich to the web broser first, then to swich to the desired window/tab of the broser, then to swich back to an other aplication, then back to the first web page. Yet I have found need to do this when there are multiple web pages that I am using as a reference.[/quote[

But alt-tab means that you'll have to go through all of your other programs before getting back to the first window.

 

[wit>trope]

Speaking of switching between tabs, I found the easiest program that does this is Crazy Browser. IIRC, you can switch by just pressing F2 (left) and F3 (right). So if you want tabs go with Crazy Browser. Crazy Browser is also more powerful than Firefox and Opera. It has things called Groups which no other web browser to my knowledge has. If you open a Group it will open all the websites in that group. So it's like Favorites except you get top open multiple favorites at once. And you can have as many Groups as you want. So it's a kind of Meta-Favorite function.

Once they upgrade the Crazy Browser -- which is completely free -- I'll probably get it and use it. Right now it doesn't seem to work well with PDFs.

Crazy Browser also has customizable keys in addition to the Ctrl-Enter that comes with Internet Explorer (you can change this and like three other key combos to whatever you like using parameters ... so you could set it to automatically search the result from google, wikipedia, or whatever ... obviating the need for things like a Google tool bar or any separate bar in Firefox, etc. ... you do it all from the same single address bar.

 

[Gogf]

Opera changes tabs with "1" and "2"...

Also, you can right click on a favorites folder to open them all in Firefox, not sure how in Opera.

It's more powerful than Firefox and Opera? Is that a statement that you can back up, or just an advertisement?

To clarify what I said earlier: the tabs look more permanent in Opera than the do in Firefox (using the default skin in both). Of course, I'm comparing Mac Opera to PC Firefox and Mac Firefox, so I may not have the same tabs as everyone else.

A note: I highly like both Firefox and Opera. If Firefox's looks and speed were combined with Opera, that would be perfect.

 

[wit>trope]

Opera changes tabs with "1" and "2"...

Also, you can right click on a favorites folder to open them all in Firefox, not sure how in Opera.

It's more powerful than Firefox and Opera? Is that a statement that you can back up, or just an advertisement?

How could it be an advert when it's absolutely free? I have no association with Crazy Browser maker.

I can back up the statement with a specific example right now! In Crazy Browser you can make Groups which is able to replicate the exact same functionality you mentioned but is ALSO able to create other functionalities -- i.e. you can put ANY combination of Favorites into ANY Group. So for example you could put one favorite from this folder and two favorites from that folder and four favorites from that folder into the same group. You can't do this in Firefox BY YOUR OWN ADMISSION since in Firefox you can only group-open favorites that happen to be in the same folder.

 

[Zelig]

cierdan: Crazy Browser isn't a browser, it's just an IE shell. Which happens to not work on my computer. You can customize keys to do the search dealy in Opera too, not sure about Firefox...

Just click on "Open all folder items" to open all the folder items in Opera btw.

 

[Goober]

I love Tabs. I could do without them, but they are simply too cool. Right now, for instance, I have 10 Tabs. No way in heck am I going to have 10 separate Windows open. Tabs rule.

 

[hbdragon88]

One of the things I really love about Firefox compared to Opera is how it looks. The tabs look much less static, and the responding time for closing/opening a tab is much less. I also hate that little "X"s on my tabs in Opera.

Changing from one tab to another with ctrl-tab, and shift-ctrl-tab (apple-option-right and apple-option-left) in Firefox is much easier than alt-tabbing from one window to another. You also can't close or open a window my middle-clicking it.

You can change the "X's" in Opera (at least, I don't have them). Also, funny how you note that closing and opening is faster in FF than in Opera - it's the opposite for me.

Crazy Browser is also more powerful than Firefox and Opera. It has things called Groups which no other web browser to my knowledge has. If you open a Group it will open all the websites in that group. So it's like Favorites except you get top open multiple favorites at once. And you can have as many Groups as you want. So it's a kind of Meta-Favorite function.

Crazy Browser also has customizable keys in addition to the Ctrl-Enter that comes with Internet Explorer (you can change this and like three other key combos to whatever you like using parameters ... so you could set it to automatically search the result from google, wikipedia, or whatever ... obviating the need for things like a Google tool bar or any separate bar in Firefox, etc. ... you do it all from the same single address bar.

Don't throw crap around. Firefox is infinitely powerful because of extensions to do anything; Opera is pretty darn customizable. The groups you talk of - I can pick a folder in my favorites and have all of those bookmarks open as well. There's no distinction between groups and favorites; they're the same, with a similar function to Crazy Browser's "Groups." And I can customize my Opera search bar (search.ini) to search in the address bar with keywords (i.e. "g" for google, "w" for Wikipedia).

 

[wit>trope]

The groups you talk of - I can pick a folder in my favorites and have all of those bookmarks open as well. There's no distinction between groups and favorites; they're the same, with a similar function to Crazy Browser's "Groups." And I can customize my Opera search bar (search.ini) to search in the address bar with keywords (i.e. "g" for google, "w" for Wikipedia).

First the Groups are not the same as the Favorite Folder opening function. Saying they are the same would be like saying traditional folders (like in email) are the same as LABELS in gmail. LABELS have MORE functionality than folders and the SAME THING is true of Crazy Browser's Groups versus Favorite Folder opening in Opera. The fact that there is no distinction between Groups and favorites in Opera is PRECISELY what the problem is. With Groups -- just like in LABELS -- you can organize them HOWEVER you want and one website can be in more than one group and your groups don't have to conform to any folder structure present in your favorites. Why is this supremely useful? Because websites can belong in more than one category and more than one category of use. Say you have your Favorites organized like this:

Folder A: game review websites
Folder B: general purpose review websites that review more than one kind of thing (some including game reviews and some not, etc.)
Folder C: movie review websites
Folder D: book review websites

Well with your Opera functionality how would you be able to open all of folder A as well as the specific general purpose websites that just happen to review games as well as other things in folder B. You would have to folder-open Folder A and then open one by one the ones in Folder B. With Crazy Browser you don't have to do that. You just put all the websites in Folder A into a group and put all the websites that review games as well as other things into the SAME group and call that group: "all websites that include reviews of games" .. and then with a single click or two you have all the websites open at once. Incidentally, with groups, the website in a group doesn't even have to be in your favorites.

Technically you can replicate this functionality with Opera but then your favorites folder would become very redundant and extremely hard to navigate. The same website could be in like 5 or 10 different folders and there would be so many folders that it wouldn't fit any sized screen.

Secondly, with Crazy Browser you don't have to press any keyword. You just press Ctrl-Enter, Shift-Enter, Ctrl-Shift-Enter, etc just like you normally do with Enter. And what happens is PROGRAMMABLE using parameters. IOW, you don't have to customize from a finite set of options. You literally have an INFINITE number of values that you can give your variables (there are actually variables that you set to certain values). It looks something like this (this is going to be wrong in the details but it is the basic idea)

%a%z%b

%z is what you enter in the address bar like you normally do.

%a is a variable that YOU set to WHATEVER you please that is text and %b is also a variable that you can set to WHATEVER you please. So if you set the parameters properly you could have it do anything ... like even set it automatically search SPECIFICALLY CFC using google's site search ... or set Ctrl-Enter to search the playboy website with Safe Search On and set Shift-Enter to search the playboy website with Safe Search Off and Ctrl-Shift-Enter to do a google image search of the playboy website with Safe Earch On, etc. ... whatever you want, and NOT a pre-packaged finite set of options or extensions to choose from.

Hurray! I discovered that a new version 2 of Crazy Browser has been released. However it's confusing because there's two websites for it with one naming the browser "AM Browser" ... but the website content is otherwise exactly the same.

www.crazybrowser.com
www.ambrowser.com

The two files from each website also are not exactly the same bit wise (which is not surprising since they would different program names placed on the windows presumably) ... anyone know what's up with the different browser names and different websites?

 

[Mise]

This is not related to tabs. You can do the SAME EXACT THING without tabs using things like the Google tool bar (in the Options you set it to always open a new window when typing in something and pressing enter -- if you type in a web address, it will open up the website in a new window)

Yeah and even if that is true, how can you say it's better?

It's like saying, "Cars -- do you really need them?", since we can do the SAME EXACT THING with bikes or public transport.

 

[wit>trope]

Yeah and even if that is true, how can you say it's better?

It's like saying, "Cars -- do you really need them?", since we can do the SAME EXACT THING with bikes or public transport.

It's better because it can do certain things that Opera and Firefox cannot do. This as it so happens is not one of those things. But the two other things I mentioned in the thread are.

 

[hbdragon88]

Say you have your Favorites organized like this:

Folder A: game review websites
Folder B: general purpose review websites that review more than one kind of thing
Folder C: movie review websites
Folder D: book review websites

Well with your Opera functionality how would you be able to open all of folder A as well as the specific general purpose websites that just happen to review games as well as other things in folder B. You would have to folder-open Folder A and then open one by one the ones in Folder B. With Crazy Browser you don't have to do that. You just put all the websites in Folder A into a group and put all the websites that review games as well as other things into the SAME group and call that group: "all websites that include reviews of games" .. and then with a single click or two you have all the websites open at once. Incidentally, with groups, the website in a group doesn't even have to be in your favorites.

Technically you can replicate this functionality with Opera but then your favorites folder would become very redundant and extremely hard to navigate. The same website could be in like 5 or 10 different folders and there would be so many folders that it wouldn't fit any sized screen.

You wouldn't have to open all the favorites one-by-one in Folder B; just right-click on the folder and hit "open" and all of htose will open up too.

Of course, if you group things in different folders - like you mention - then yes, Groups are probably a good thing to use. I personally don't ever need to open up a whole bunch of pages at a time; I usually open them when I need them, and for this I use Opera's nickname keyword (say, if I wanted to open up CFC's Off-Topic, I would type "cfc ot").

 

[wit>trope]

You wouldn't have to open all the favorites one-by-one in Folder B; just right-click on the folder and hit "open" and all of htose will open up too.

No, no, no. You don't understand my example and the concept. In Folder B, you would have NOT JUST websites that include reviews of games. You would have websites that have reviews of multiple subjects NOT NECESSARILY including games. (An example in terms of books would be metacritic.com vs ign.com -- they both review more than one kind of thing but the latter doesn't review books while the former reviews books). So you might have two websites in Folder B that review both movies and books, three websites in Folder B that review books and games, and two websites that review movies, dvds, and games. So if you were to use your method, you would be screwed because you would end up opening (for your current purposes), 2 utterly useless websites (namely the two that just review movies and books). Do you see what I mean now?

Of course, if you group things in different folders - like you mention - then yes, Groups are probably a good thing to use.

Hmmm maybe you already understood the concept but not the example (which I guess I could have been more precise about). The thing is that almost all things can be naturally categorized in more than one way. If given 100 random things, there's going to be definitely more than 1 way to categorize them, and including more than 1 way that is a useful categorization for these purposes.

I personally don't ever need to open up a whole bunch of pages at a time; I usually open them when I need them, and for this I use Opera's nickname keyword (say, if I wanted to open up CFC's Off-Topic, I would type "cfc ot").

It doesn't need to be a "whole bunch" It could be just three but that just happen to exist in different Favorite folders (you could have put these in the same Favorite folder but then that would cause another potential three or four websites that you won't be able to open from the same Favorite folder ... it's like Godel's proof, there's no way around it ). But if by "whole bunch" you mean any number greater than say 2, then maybe Opera is for you I like Opera's cool name, but it sounds a little "nasal"

 

[Padma]

Do I *need* tabbed browsing? No. Do I *like* tabbed browsing? Yes.

At work, I am forced to use IE, and I find all the windows tedious. At home I fire up Opera, and enjoy my browsing.