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Ask HN: Do you have loads of browser tabs open at once?

5 points by Ramario ↗ HN
Hi, I am considering building a browser extension/website that saves your browser tabs for you. I have a problem of having lots of browser tabs and not wanting to close any of them when I want to shut down my mac. Are you having this problem too? Would you use a browser extension/website that allows you to save your browser session and recover it on any computer/browser anytime?<p>Thanks in advance for the feedback.

20 comments

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celeb
Usually 30+ and use the built in functionality within chrome to save all tabs to a folder labeled by date.
Ramario
Thanks for your response. So, do you feel the need for a more efficient tab manager? Or are you satisfied with the built in one for chrome?
godbolev
That sounds really cool!

Sorry but could you please send me the link to the extension? Or if its an inbuilt thing a page of instructions? I Googled it and I got back your post as the first result.....

Ramario
Hi, thanks for the feedback. I haven't fully completed it yet, I wanted to actually find out if people would use something like this before I wrote any more code. I could send you an email when it's complete.

By the way, which browser do you use?

logn
Not sure this extension is necessary. Chrome and Safari have this built in, so I suspect you're using Firefox, in which case I'd expect them to clone this functionality soon.
Ramario
Thanks for your response. Yeah, I'm using firefox, that's why. Just tried out Chrome, seems they have already solved this problem.
co_pl_te
I also tend to have over a dozen tabs open at any one time, and sometimes keep multiple windows open, each with tabs that are (loosely) centered around a given task.

I think a lot of people have the problem of having too many tabs open, but for me, I've never used a browser in recent memory that couldn't restore my previous session even after quitting unexpectedly. Being a Safari user on a host of Apple devices, I also don't have too much of a problem with syncing tabs, though the solution is far from perfect. It would be interesting to access your current session on any device using any browser seamlessly, though.

I'd really be interested in an alternative to tabbed browsing that intelligently categorizes the web pages I have open according to the task or activity to which they relate. Like most people, I have multiple things I'm working on on my Mac that have corresponding tabs open all in the same browser window. The issue is that it becomes increasingly difficult to access the relevant information the more tabs I have open. It would be cool to just be able to ask 'Siri, show only those tabs I have open that correspond to the article I'm researching.'

I'd also be interested in a dead simple way to 'flick' the web page I'm currently viewing on my iPhone to my Mac or iPad. For example, I'd love to be able to flick this comment from my iPhone to my Mac and finish typing it there.

In any case, I think you've definitely hit on a problem that could use a better solution.

Ramario
Thanks for your response. I'm definitely having the same problem, If I do built this, you will be able to have tab categories and more advanced features.
co_pl_te
Go for it. Tabbed browsing is like the sliced bread of the Internet. It's hard to imagine surfing the web before it, but it's become such an integral part of the browser that it suffers from "it's good enough" syndrome.

Hope you look into it further. Sounds like it could solve a problem most people might not realize they have.

Ramario
Sweet, I'll send you a link when it is finished.
toomuchcoffee
Something that auto-retires tabs after some egregiously long delay, with some kind of latent tagging functionality (based on tags for similar pages I've bookmarked) might be useful.

Then again, it will probably just encourage me to open more and more tabs...

Ramario
Hi, thanks for your response. The goal of this would not be to stop you opening more tabs but, to help you manage those tabs. Kind of like Dropbox for tabs, I think. Would you be interested in using something like this?
toomuchcoffee
Yesss but there's lots of apps like that do similar / overlapping things that you'll sort of have to steal/borrow from. In particular, some form of social bookmarking/tagging would seem to be a necessary component of a service of this kind.

The trick then is to pull this off without drowning in your own web of complexity.

Ramario
Thanks for your response. Some people have tried to tackle this problem but, I feel it can be done much better and as you said, incorporate some kind of social elements.
mhd
Plenty. Which is why I'm back to Firefox after a longer stint with Chrome, due to the Tree Style Tabs add-on, which makes managing them pretty easy. Quite often I've got a bunch of related tabs under one node at the very tob, as some sort of "read later" deal (e.g. several sites about vim customization, extensions etc.).

With recent Firefoxes, this takes none to little memory, and is definitely save from restarts - I use the dev channel build (Aurora), so I often restart the browser at least daily.

Syncing between several computers would probably be nice, but I don't need and want a total sync between e.g. work and home, so I would need to pick the tabs I'm loading in the other browser. And the only option of me using a given extension like that is if it would support the aforementioned tree extension, i.e. wouldn't just give me a flat batch of tabs.

Ramario
Thanks for your response
benaiah
I'll have any from 20-200 at any given time, depending on what I'm doing. I've been using Chrome lately, and it's quite frustrating that tabs are only saved in the last closed window. Some sort of way to save an entire session (i.e., window), would be quite nice.
tusker42
Session Buddy. The best tool I have used so far!