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Ask HN: How do you use multiple browsers? Dealing with history in all at once?

3 points by DmitryDolgopolo ↗ HN
I started using a few browsers at the same time. Moving to Brave/Firefox from Chrome that still has all my passwords + a browser for work + Safari for reading. Is there any way to deal with history that you know of? (now I need to search everywhere sometimes) Are there any other problems with having multiple browser usage? Do you know many people that use more than one browser? (I know only two)

8 comments

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dylz
I use 5+ daily during web development. Most people I know use a combination of Safari/Chrome/Firefox/Edge, pick at least 2.

I use separate browsers for work/play too, due to overlapping SSO domains.

DmitryDolgopolo
I see. It's nice to know I am not alone :) How do you deal with bookmarks and history? Do you just save it in one browser?
dylz
Yes. Since for games, personal email, etc, I use one browser exclusively, it doesn't bother me.

I don't usually go to the same sites bookmarked (like javadocs for fun, who needs that? goes straight in the "work" browser)

dodoc
Firefox with containers for multiple work accounts/social/browsing means I only use one browser now. Before containers I’d only open Safari/chromium for any form of social media. Bitwarden for cross-device password management can help too.
DmitryDolgopolo
Thanks for the suggestion. I love firefox for the privacy and being light-weighted yet they are lacking some features (zooming with touchpad on mac like in chromium browsers) and have some bad bugs (e.g. column-reverse flex not scrolling). Do your separate accounts lead to the same history tab or are they stored separately?
nextos
Same history.

You can take this approach further with Temporary Containers, where each tab is isolated from the rest e.g. if domains differ.

It's excellent for privacy.

sharmi
Firefox is my daily driver. I have last pass installed on it. This helps me share my passwords with other browsers. I don't share any other state between browsers.

I use Chromium when I need to use a browser without adblockers.

DmitryDolgopolo
Thanks for the reply! How do you solve the history/bookmarks problem? It's just that it frequently happens to me that I start looking for something in my history and I will need to go through each of my browsers until I find the right one.