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?

  • Unquote0270@programming.dev
    19·
    2 days ago

    For me it is not about being unable to organise them but once it is bookmarked it is basically gone from my sight and memory.

    • kratoz29@lemmy.zip
      3·
      14 hours ago

      I am 33 years old (so not a new internet user) and I somehow feel bookmarks need a redesign… Not exactly sure how I’d improve it (tags, AI grouping? Daily bookmark to see section? I don’t really know) but if the site I have saved doesn’t show up in the FF search bar… It might as well be lost forever (and that feature is case sensitive).

    • twistypencil@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 day ago

      This. If I spend the time organizing them, I’ve spent more time on the tab than I originally wanted to, but didn’t end up taking care of what the original reason I have the tab opened was.

    • Mesophar@pawb.socialEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      I want to ask genuinely, how is the bookmark different than a tab with tab grouping in this instance? I have the bookmarks bar always visible, and have folders organized on the main bar (rather than the drop down extended bar). Wouldn’t tab grouping do the same thing, just slightly higher?

      • Unquote0270@programming.dev
        5·
        2 days ago

        It probably is functionally not too different. I have the bookmark bar open but I mostly have all the sites I regularly go to there. Additionally, I have thousands of bookmarks from many years so wading through them for something I briefly saw and was interested in last week but can’t remember enough detail on to find isn’t very fun or easy. And where do I look for it? One bookmark could be categorised in many ways so I also have to remember where I saved it. Tags are good but I have too many for that to be very useful or quick.

        I do use grouping as well, and I really like it, but this just causes me to have even more tabs because there is less pressure to trim down the endless list since I can hide them.