How to prevent browser tab clutter for Firefox and Chrome?

[brotherS]

Hi,

what solutions do you know of to prevent browser tab clutter? Maybe I'm just too curious, but what frequently happens is that I look up something on the web and suddenly I have 3 more browser windows and a dozen new tabs open... not all of which I can (or want to) finish reading right away. What do do?

There *must* be a better way than the whole system becoming slow because you have 150 tabs open... :-D Is there something like a GTD approach, built into the browser? Like 'putting them to the side' ("maybe read later") if it's unlikely you'll read them soon, or "todo" if you plan to read them the next day, maybe with a browser extension?

Just saving the links in a .txt file is a solution I tried in the past, but that didn't work for me... way too much copy&pasting for my taste. I also tried to bookmark those pages, but what happened mostly was that I never came back to them...

[TaoPhoenix]

Maybe the Session Manager plugin could help - someone tipped me off to it a while back for the same reasons. You can create sessions of any or all of the browser windows.

MilesAhead and I were also working on a SaveSession feature in his Browser Bunch, where it exports the bunch of tab urls and titles into lists, so then you can save those in your notes, so you can pick the 5 pages out of the 100 you want to look at, and just load them copy and paste.

Of course you can mash up both parts. I discovered that you can then take Miles' lists, smash them into a spreadsheet auto-link-maker, triple-export it and maybe upload it to your favorite free web host and then you have a permanent "cloud list" of the links, at which point you just click-newtab them back as you like.

[nosh]

There's Pocket (previously ReadItLater) and Instapaper.

Pocket has a Firefox plugin that lets you add tags to bookmarks.

[f0dder]

Tab groups in firefox - Ctrl+Shift+E.

[IainB]

There's Pocket (previously ReadItLater) and Instapaper.
Pocket has a Firefox plugin that lets you add tags to bookmarks.

+1 for Pocket (ex Read It Later). It's always stable and works in Google Reader too.
I didn't know about the Pocket Bookmark tag plugin(?) - I thought the standard bookmark already had good tagging features. That's the one that gives a little 5-pointed star icon in the address line. Click it once to bookmark, and again to edit the bookmark or add your Tag(s).

Tab groups in firefox - Ctrl+Shift+E.

I have used that but it inexplicably seems to get wiped of the tabs in the groups, so I can't rely on it.

[f0dder]

I have used that but it inexplicably seems to get wiped of the tabs in the groups, so I can't rely on it.
[/quote]If you have multiple firefox *windows*, you need to make sure the one with your groups is the last one you close, since the built in session thingy only saves the session for the last closed FF windows.

This is definitely not optimal, and has bitten me a couple of times, but I've kinda gotten used to it

[Deozaan]

For Chrome, there's Too Many Tabs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJqqw8hcLas

[brotherS]

Wow, thanks guys - lots to read! :-)

I've tried Too Many Tabs for Chrome, but currently I prefer to use Firefox because it has an option to only load a tab when you click onto it - so the browser has to load way less tabs when you reopen it (with tons of tabs saved from the last session).

Tab groups in firefox - Ctrl+Shift+E.

Haha, I once hit that accidentally and thought I broke something!   Not really self-explanatory, but since you brought it up I found http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tab-groups-organize-tabs - the video there explains it quite nicely.  

I have used that but it inexplicably seems to get wiped of the tabs in the groups, so I can't rely on it.

If you have multiple firefox *windows*, you need to make sure the one with your groups is the last one you close, since the built in session thingy only saves the session for the last closed FF windows.

This is definitely not optimal, and has bitten me a couple of times, but I've kinda gotten used to it

How does it behave when you kill the whole programm with something like Sysinternals Process Explorer? Firefox (like Chrome) is very good at auto-saving all tabs when you 'close' it like that, but does that apply to Tab Groups too?

[omnray]

For Chrome, there's Too Many Tabs.

For Chrome there is something MUCH better:

Tabs Outliner
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabs-outliner/eggkanocgddhmamlbiijnphhppkpkmkl

[app103]

Well, I haven't figured out how to keep 150 tabs from slowing everything down, but I do prefer them in multi-row, with a little scrollbar on the side. I use Tab Mix Plus for that.

[omnray]

Well, I haven't figured out how to keep 150 tabs from slowing everything down

Chrome keep 300-400 without any problems or system slowdown. And this is why i switch. And this is why i wrote Tabs Outliner only for Chrome, and maybe will not do this for firefox, till they not fix them. In version 3.6 i easily opened up to the 1000 tabs on them (well, maybe not so easily, but, i really do this, now this is impossible in Firefox )

[app103]

Chrome keep 300-400 without any problems or system slowdown.

That has not been my experience. Can't seem to go over 10 without issues. That's why it is not my default browser.

[omnray]

Chrome keep 300-400 without any problems or system slowdown.

That has not been my experience. Can't seem to go over 10 without issues. That's why it is not my default browser.

After 600-700 tabs in Chrome (if flash is disabled, and no any heavyweight javascript, in some page, is runned) Windows start experience problems with available handles to draw other applications. This is something real, this limits can be tuned, i have in the end of the Tabs Outliner page in the Chrome Web Store comment how to raise there limits. But actually this will be not needed if you install it, as its main goal is to prevent this situation ; ))

But 10 tabs, or windows, cannot hit about this limit. CPU most of the time is not an issue (but worth to check task manager, maybe some of you favorite sites execute some DNA computations in background using javascript, yet situation with Firefox will be worse in this case, as it is have more slow JS engine, so this is unlikely). So i can only guess you have only 2 or 4 gig of ram. And the best advise - buy more ; ) Cannot insert more? - buy a new PC - they are realy rock now, and i think you will not need new next 10 years : )

Yes, Chrome use more ram, maybe much more, i never compare, but to start new Firefox instance when you have 200-300 tabs in it need to wait a minute, and new Chrome start instantly even if you have 600 tabs. And work as fresh one (not the case with Firefox)

Definitely Firefox is not an adequate browser for tabaholics. Even with all of its really mega useful addons and features which allow to manage this situation i switch to Chrome only because of this, long before i have working Tabs Outliner - but now, when it is exist and work, there really no reasons to continue use Firefox (yeh, yeh, this is only my IMHO, and i am biased as hell ; ).

[TaoPhoenix]

Tab groups in firefox - Ctrl+Shift+E.

Good tip that I never knew, but it feels a little weird, so I'll one day try it later.

[TaoPhoenix]

You guys are incredible. I can't process more than some 30 tabs at a time. So I'd save them in session groups. I couldn't imagine 700 tabs. It just feels "wrong". (yikes).

[omnray]

You guys are incredible. I can't process more than some 30 tabs at a time. So I'd save them in session groups. I couldn't imagine 700 tabs. It just feels "wrong". (yikes).

If you not need to shut down you Chrome daily there is no real need to close tabs (I move pc to a sleep at night, not shut down it).
Closing tabs take time (actually a lot), and mental energy, so i prefer open new one if i need, and even if i know that they already open - it is faster to open new one than to search old (even with tabs quick search extensions). And I clean up everything only once in a week or two, all at once. This is real clean up session:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=yMqao38jkY8&v=VvlK1ttZ3dI
(you maybe already saw this video as it is referenced from TO overview video)

In past, before TO was done, there was real problems in this scenario - because of accident crashes or restarts, and there will be no any observability, but now i am even never mind if everything will crash, even not reopen anything.

Microsoft Windows start to work unstable when there is ~800 open tabs. So when i come close to 400-500 is simple save everything and continue work with one tab. So i close everything only when i forced by OS limits - maybe you forced to do this every day, so you not accumulate so big pile.

I have 16 gig of ram. But 800 Chrome tabs rarely consume more than 5-6 GB.

[omnray]

I have 16 gig of ram. But 800 Chrome tabs rarely consume more than 5-6 GB.

Except if you have flash enabled, as many advertising banners use it. This is quote from my help text:

If you open a lot of tabs - set flash plugin in “Click to play mode” - there is how:
www.mytechguide.org/9445/disable-flash-content-google-chrome, really useful
for saving your PC resources and to prevent videos autoplay. Actually without this
it is impossible to having open several hundreds of tabs.

Then pray for Flash so it will not die to HTML5 completely (as occupyflash.org
horde crave) - as it is hard to control HTML5 rich media content so easily. Note
that even if you click play you can unload downloaded by Flash content from
RAM, stop video downloading and bandwidth usage, CPU usage, and free
resources without closing the page, simple by clicking refresh - this is not at all
so easy with HTML5 based solutions meantime, and I think it will not be so.

[f0dder]

Yes, Chrome use more ram, maybe much more, i never compare, but to start new Firefox instance when you have 200-300 tabs in it need to wait a minute, and new Chrome start instantly even if you have 600 tabs. And work as fresh one (not the case with Firefox)

Nope.

In recent versions, FireFox by default only reloads the necessary tabs - and in previous versions, there were addons for this functionality.

Also, Chrome does a process-per-tab (might have moved to groups of tabs per process in a recent version, like IE9 does) - which means it'll always use quite a lot more memory than firefox (there's pros and cons to the multi-process approach, but it's not a definitive win). Not everybody has or can afford extra RAM.

As for JavaScript speed, that's an ongoing battle - it's nice that there's some competition between the browsers. Currently, Chrome has the lead, but the foxy devs are working hard on changing that :-)

[brotherS]

If you not need to shut down you Chrome daily there is no real need to close tabs (I move pc to a sleep at night, not shut down it).
Closing tabs take time (actually a lot), and mental energy, so i prefer open new one if i need, and even if i know that they already open - it is faster to open new one than to search old (even with tabs quick search extensions). And I clean up everything only once in a week or two, all at once. This is real clean up session:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=yMqao38jkY8&v=VvlK1ttZ3dI
(you maybe already saw this video as it is referenced from TO overview video)

I haven't had time yet to check out Tabs Outliner in detail, but I just watched that video. I love the sheep icon being used for the clone option! So cool... 

[omnray]

Not everybody has or can afford extra RAM.

Really?
16gb (2x8), for notebook, cost 70$
cannot afford this?

Take note that unused ram is utilized as prefetch cache by system. So you will also seriously speed up all you disk operations and the system in general.

[omnray]

I love the sheep icon being used for the clone option! So cool... 

What else can represent cloning process : )))
Not even remember is I think about some other options or not : )

[f0dder]

Not everybody has or can afford extra RAM.

Really?
16gb (2x8), for notebook, cost 70$
cannot afford this?

Yes - for some people, that's half a month of dinners.

I'm glad I'm not there anymore, but not everybody are as lucky.

[omnray]

Yes - for some people, that's half a month of dinners.

Such people anyway have more important tasks than sit in front of the net and open crazy amount of tabs ; )

BTW I am practicing freelancer. And i work for example through odesk. Even Philippians - who always be the lowest paid workforce now work
for 12-14$ per hour... So yes, there really exist somebody for whom this is a year salary, but most likely they not have a PC and electricity in a first place.

[app103]

Yes - for some people, that's half a month of dinners.

Such people anyway have more important tasks than sit in front of the net and open crazy amount of tabs ; )

BTW I am practicing freelancer. And i work for example through odesk. Even Philippians - who always be the lowest paid workforce now work
for 12-14$ per hour... So yes, there really exist somebody for whom this is a year salary, but most likely they not have a PC and electricity in a first place.

How much ram is in my spare computer that I am stuck using is the last thing on my mind. I am just happy it's more than 64mb. Been down that road before...2008, when the only working computer I had was an old 9x pc from 1997.

+$560.00 Current household income
-$955.00 Rent
-$100.00 Utilities
-$100.00 Phone/internet
-$000.00 Food (local churches are feeding us)
------------------------
-$595.00 Total

Christmas 1984, I bought my husband a beautiful gold rams head ring, very similar to this one, but without the rubies.. It was our first Christmas together. He loved that ring. He sold it yesterday morning to help pay the rent and bills. He got less than $300 for it. I almost had to sell my wedding band too, but Google Adsense deposited money in my account recently, so I may not have to sell it till next month.

There is no money for buying ram for my spare pc right now, no money to fix my main machine, no money for buying food. No money for anything extra till my husband has another job. He has been out of work since July 4th.

Early yesterday evening, after dropping off a job application, as he was returning home, my husband was hit by a car while crossing the street. He may be in bed for the next few weeks, so the likelihood of him finding work this month is going to be pretty slim.

We might not make it through this. We might become homeless and lose everything we own next month.

Do you think I am worried about how much ram is in my computer?

If you are earning enough money to not only survive, but afford to buy extra ram, consider yourself fortunate. Some of us are really struggling right now, just to keep a roof over our heads and our lives together.

Besides, this is a Chrome issue. I do not have this issue with any other browser. I can have a lot more tabs open in Firefox, Opera, K-Meleon...and even run all 3 at the same time with 20 tabs each...no issues.

This is a Chrome specific problem, which always seems to have trouble when there is more than 10 tabs open. If it were an issue with my machine not having enough ram, do you think the problems would carry over into full system slowness and affect other things, not just Chrome?

Also, Chrome does a process-per-tab (might have moved to groups of tabs per process in a recent version, like IE9 does) - which means it'll always use quite a lot more memory than firefox (there's pros and cons to the multi-process approach, but it's not a definitive win). Not everybody has or can afford extra RAM.

And don't forget, a process per active extension, too. This is why I refuse to install any that I can live without, which is almost all of them.

[brotherS]

All the best to you... I know how bad one can feel in situations like yours. It's important to not lose trust in yourself.

Humans are quite wonderful beings. I know a guy who was so broke he literally lived in the woods for a few years... just protected by an old construction trailer (he didn't want any government support). In the summer that thing was like a sauna, and in the winter he had to get up twice in the middle of the night to put more wood onto the fire. Now - 3 years later - he drives a very nice Porsche and lives in a real house again. He just never gave up...