I just saw a coworker with something like 30 tabs open in Chrome. I also know someone who regularly hits the 500-tab limit on their phone, though I suspect that’s more about being messy than anything else.
When I’m researching something, I might have 10-50 tabs open for a while, but once I’m done, I close them all. If I need them again, browser history is there.
Why do people keep so many tabs open? Is there a workflow or habit I’m missing? Do they just never clean up, or is there a real benefit to tab hoarding? I’m genuinely curious. Why do people do that?
I do for work because I usually have to recall information and don’t want to look it back up every time.
Pro tip: Auto-unloading the tabs (via extensions) certainly helps retain memory.
You know every modern browser has bookmarks, and I think all of them have a bookmark toolbar, and the ability to organize bookmarks into folders…
right?
I’m fully aware, however, I am not about to start bookmarking job’s labelled as #20000 -> 50000 and all their PDF’s, documents an such. Some jobs last 2+ years, like bridge projects, whereas other last a couple weeks to a month, easier to just leave tabs open for what I am focusing on within that current month.
Edit: If I really wanted to do that I could just self-host a bookmarking service that way bookmarks stay centralized, but then I’m taking work home, so screw that.
You might get some use from Jira or a similar tool…
Yeah, but they you gotta organize it, and garden it, and maintain it. Or it’s just another useless dump of probably useless information. This can be difficult for folks with ADHD and similar.
Not to mention that many tabs are transient, they are not meant to be permanent. Making them permanent means they are out of sight out of mind and will pile up even more
I have ADHD. Open tabs lose context, I forget why they’re open, so they are useless. Bookmarks are categorized and that organization keeps the context apparent. I currently have 5 tabs open, and after submitting this reply, it will be four.
I should have used softer language which I have changed it to be.
Everyone’s experience with neurodiversity is different. If you have a system and that system works for you then that’s awesome. Developing systems that work for your needs can be a significant hurdle.
That’s fascinating. While many here blame ADHD, others argue the opposite. It seems like people like you keep things organised because of ADHD. Based on the comments here, you’re not alone. There are many others just like you.
I view my tabs as very transient, but I’ve learned that many people consider them much more permanent than that. Some even compare them to the files on your computer, which is mind blowing to me.
However, everything that is out of sight and out of mind will pile up. For example, various work related files, like documents and spreadsheets tend to accumulate over the years. Most of them are just there waiting for that one day when I might need them. If someone secretly deleted 50% of my files, it might take years before I would notice.
But that’s an interesting point about tabs. If you can’t see them, they will pile up. Totally agree with that. However, many people still prefer to keep sites as tabs rather than bookmarks specifically because they can see them all the time.
Interesting. I should look into that. What’s your favorite auto unload extension?
I use This Firefox extension to auto unload after 15 minutes of inactivity and This extension to rename the tab title.
Hope this helps.
Thanks! Just saved them to Raindrop. Planning to test them properly when I get back to an actual computer.
Protip: Installing more ram makes for more convenience on keeping tabs alive forever
There’s a reason I plopped in another 32GB stick
For research purposes it’s usually not necessary to keep every tab loaded, though. Extensions like Auto Tab Discard make open tabs about as resource-intensive as bookmarks, for a lot less extra work and much cheaper than new RAM.