A piece with a lot of screenshots about the close tab behaviour in Google Chrome | Hacker News Reader

A piece with a lot of screenshots about the close tab behaviour in Google Chrome

theinvisibl.com

283 pointscallahad100 comments

I'm really done with tabs only at the top. I use the Tree-style Tabs extension for Firefox and can't imagine going back.

You will notice an increase in browsing/research productivity because you don't spend so much time managing tabs that have gotten too small/short to tell what they actually are. You'll find you can work handily with dozens of tabs open if you have them in a readable list on the left.

Before I used tree-style tabs, I usually maxed out at, like, 10 tabs open. And then I was somewhat sad and started my "tab GC" to close the least needed ones. Right now, I have 40+ tabs open in Firefox 3.5 and it feels just as breezy as it does with ten. More so, actually, because I have all my varied research in different trees that I can collapse/hide if needed.

Give me Chrome with the tabs on the side, preferably in a tree hierarchy, and you've won.

Edit: Link, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5890

As a long-time OmniWeb user, I've become quite attached to thumbnailed tabs in a drawer on the side of the window. There's a Firefox extension called TabSidebar that approximates this, but it's an inferior implementation. Tabs at the top of the window are almost completely useless, though---far too little visual information to associate the tab widget with the page it controls.

Thanks for that.

I'll have to adjust to it, but I can tell right away that this extension improves the browsing experience by giving some type of order to tabs and child tabs.

For the common user with 1~5 tabs, the issue is still relevant.

Come to think of it, it's possible to have tree-style tabs in a horizontal top bar. I hope someone more clever than me implements this idea sometime.

The Tree-Style Tabs extension lets you put the tab bar on any of the four sides of the window, although you don't get the fancy collapse/expand features at the top or bottom.

It's really nice to see a blog post with a simple, clear headline. Some other bloggers would have chosen something like:

"10 things I hate about tabs", or "Why I'm quitting Chrome", or "The death of browser usability"

Kudos to the author for having the seemingly rare gift if common sense.

It's good to hear how much thought and effort they put into the UI. Nevertheless, I have my own list of gripes with Chrome tabs and windowing.

1) Closing the last tab closes the browser: Yes, I get that it's a fast browser and restarting a new instance is quick but when I close all the tabs, I am not ready to stop browsing. I am only trying to close the current tabs so I can go to some other site. Let me choose if I want the last close-tab to shutdown Chrome also or not.

2) No warning before 'close all': Seriously. Every browser has this. If I have a bunch of tabs open and by mistake I click the close button in Chrome, it just immediately shuts down. Let me choose if I want this to happen or not.

3) Top-left 'system menu': Every Windows application lets you left-click on the top-left corner of the window to get the system menu, while double-clicking the same top-left corner closes the window. Except in Chrome. Right-clicking the title bar does work but it's not the same.

4) Tiny '+' button for new tab: Sure I can use keyboard shortcuts but it's not always easy on a tablet. There's enough space in the tab-bar. Make the '+' a little wider. Also, use the top infinite space above the '+' icon.

5) Can't put the tabs on the bottom: That would be a nice option to have, though I'm ok with the tabs being on the top.

6) No simple way to open bookmarks in new tabs automatically.

7) No way to set if newly opened tabs (via a-href target=_blank or right-click 'open in new tab') should go to background or get into foreground.

8) Permanently pin a tab: I'd love to always have Hacker News, reddit, gmail, and my todo list pinned. If I restart Chrome, the pinned tabs go away. It's not the same as putting all of them in the startup list.

This being said, I recently switched to Chrome on all 3 of my regular PCs/laptops after 6 years of Firefox/Firebird/Mozilla. Chrome is super fast, finally has some ad-blocking, syncs my bookmarks (though that's not perfect), and is standards-compliant.

6) Ctrl+open (open being mouse-click, enter-key, or similar) or middle mouseclick 7) Same as (6), including Shift

Re #3: It's also annoying that the right-click menu isn't the system menu. I regularly use the right-click menu on the task bar to move stuff between virtual desktops. Doesn't work in Chrome.

I wish application programmers learned to leave the system part of their windows alone. It messes up my work flow at no benefit whatsoever.

This addresses your 8th point:

http://lifehacker.com/5422014/make-google-chrome-open-with-p...

I use it for 3 different pinned tabs at startup and it works great. It would be nice to have it configurable from the options menu, but I will take what I can get.

#6 is the main reason I haven't switched to Chrome. I have a set of bookmarks I like to read daily and a set I read weekly. In Safari cmd-click opens them all, I haven't yet figured out how to do it in Chrome.

There's a Firefox add-on with the rather ungainly, but lucid, name of My Weekly Browsing Schedule - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14199 - that you can use for this.

ctrl+click

Thanks. I'd prefer if it was cmd and if it just opened them all without the context menu, but way better than nothing!

middle mouse button click

To my eye the tabs in Chrome make more sense visually too. The tabs appear connected to the document being viewed and not to the address bar like they do in Safari.

Apple tried to fix that by placing the tabs on top of the address bar like Chrome does. People complained. It looked a little funny.

http://www.macworld.com/article/139026/2009/02/safari4tabs.h...

I really liked those Safari tabs. I guess I was in the minority though. It prepared me very nicely for Chrome tabs, though.

The top tabs do indeed make a lot more sense in a number of key aspects. But it's important to remember that the entire concept of tabs in OS X windows has long been criticized by a contingent of hardcore apple fans who argue it breaks from the one-document-per-window model. And they have a point, and it is part of why tabs in OS X are hard in general. Plus, in the safari beta they were pretty ugly and visually messy.

Fascinating how history can limit a UI designers choices...

It's more of ideology and design principle.

I loved those tabs, and I was really annoyed when they removed them in the next beta after that. I stuck with the same beta for months because of that.

I kind of liked the Apple take on it, but I think Chrome out did them by making the tab only take up most of the vertical titlebar space. If Apple did that, I think it would have worked out better.

Great user experiences are meant to fade into the background. This is a great example of something that they clearly put a lot of thought into, specifically so you wouldn't notice it.

Chrome has a masterful UX, and I'm curious to see if it continues to remain that way as the app ages.

In placing the close button on the right, Google have assumed that in the majority of cases, users are going to be wanting to close the most recently opened tabs first (likely to be the ones to the far right of the tab group) and have accordingly placed the close button on the right. Why? Because not only does this give the user the ability to close a number of tabs in one go without moving the mouse pointer (which Safari does not), it also means that the app does not need to exhibit the ever-so-slightly less normal behaviour of the ‘delayed resizing’ in the most-common case.

I would also wager that while Chrome is available on other operating systems, it's probably catering to Windows users by keeping the close buttons (be it a Window or Tab) on the right where most user expect them to be. Similarly, Safari, more at home on OSX than any other OS, would cater to those users by keeping it on the left.

As for the slick behavior Chrome emits when working with Tabs, I'll admit I never noticed it. But maybe that just proves the author's point, "It just works!"

The Arabic localization suggests that Mac vs Windows UI habits were not the main driver.

Unless the Arabic localization is just a straight-up vertical (or horizontal?) mirror of the layout and layout-handling code.

I've always thought this feature was particularly well thought out in chrome. Another thing I've noticed is that, when closing tabs via middle click, the wait for auto-resize doesn't happen until mouse out - in fact I barely even use the close buttons anymore because of this.

This is the kind of minute feature that completely converts someone when they catch it.

I've been using chrome since it came out, and I noticed the tab features (the close tab button on the right was not apparent as a feature because I am used to it being there) right away because they made a HUGE different. Chrome is amazing.

"Here’s Google Chrome in Arabic..." WOW!

Why wow?

Because it does the right thing.

Ditto. Bidi in application UI is so rare as to be nonexistent.

Pun intended.

As a non-native speaker I only find the pun when someone says it's pun. Thank you!

There is a hidden feature on many tabs - They close with mouse middle click! This is extremely important on tabs, because they always seems to have the smallest x button possible.

I've tested it to work on Firefox, chrome, IE, Visual studio and other applications.

Not really hidden, it's very common (and extremely useful - Fitts's law FTW) user interface convention.

I already became conditioned - I keep middle-clicking to close tabs automatically in every application, feeling something is broken when it doesn't work.

Though Mac people don't usually have more than 1 button, so I kind of understand obsession about workarounds :).

This doesn't work with Safari, however.

The old firefox had a single X that worked on the current tab. It was superior in every way. Took up less space, prevented accidental closes, easily allowed rapid closing. They got rid of it, and I never could figure out why.

You can still make it work that way if you want. The about:config option is browser.tabs.closeButtons, and the value you want for a single close button for all tabs is '3'.

That option may be superior in every way, as you say. Well, unless you want to close a tab other than the current one. Since that is something I sometimes want to do, I don't like it.

Also, when you open a new tab in Chrome, it opens to the right of the current tab, not at the end of the line. Very nice when you use it.

Firefox 3.6 does this too, I like it.

That "tree" ordering is subtle, but when you realize what it's doing, it's genius.

What a wonderful way to start my day, with a reminder that:

1. There are no boring apps if you have some creativity.

2. You don't have to achieve feature parity before you start improving on the competition.

3. You can do anything you want, even redesign a well-established UI idiom, as long as your users find it intuitive!

I can live with the close button being on the right, but I strongly prefer the way Safari does it. I accidentally close more than one tab fairly frequently, and while I know and love the "History -> Recently Closed Tabs" workaround in Firefox, it is a workaround for the bad UI of having a close button I don't want to press pop up right under the close button I'm clicking on. I'm not the most dexterous person (to put it mildly), and further punishing my klutziness by requiring precision work with the mouse is not my idea of a good UI.

I agree, happens to me all the time. The problem is that destroying a tab doesn't happen instantly, and you click again and again. Since the click is buffered, it will apply the action after the tab is closed.

Safari feels much more thought out I have to say, but the feature/bug mentioned here seems just a result of full space tabs while in FFox/Chrome they are acting as fixed width.

Rule of UI: count on and compensate for human errors and behaviour. Safari wins there for me (UI wise).

Both Firefox and Chrome let you right click on any tab after closing another one and reverse that action ( FF: "Undo close tab", Chrome: "Reopen closed tab").

Control-Shift-T will reopen the most recently closed tab in Firefox (the equivalent command in Opera is Control-Z).

And Chrome too.

The linked article appears to be offline for me, so here are a couple of alternative links:

Coral cache: http://www.theinvisibl.com.nyud.net/news/2009/12/08/a-piece-...

Google cache: http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:Oc9JEdMaZuoJ:www.theinvi...

It could also be seen as a benefit. It prevents accidental double closings. However that could be solved with an "unclose last tab" feature. Firefox has that, but safari doesn't. It has an unclose last window though, but it doesn't work with tabs.

Chrome has the feature too.

More importantly, Firefox and Chrome preserve browsing history. That, along with good keyword searching, is why I never switched to Safari and waited until Chrome's Mac Beta.

Chrome has that feature, but unlike in Firefox you lose your history for that tab, so no way to go back. You get the page you were on and that is it.

Nope: when I Ctrl+Shift+T I get the tab back with history on the Chrome Mac Beta.

I've always loved this feature in Chrome. I mainly use Chrome on my netbook, and this really helps because moving the mouse a lot when I'm trying to close a lot of tabs is hard with the tiny trackpad on my Eee PC. Thanks, Chrome!

One thing that annoys me about Chrome is that on closing a tab with Ctrl + W, it will always open the tab that's on the right of the closed tab. In Opera you have the option to activate the last active tab on closing. That way, you can just click on all the tabs you want closed (no need to hit the tiny close tab button), and then press Ctrl + W until they're all gone. Or you can open a bunch of google search results in background tabs, read through them and easily remove them afterwards.

You can just click on all the tabs you want closed

Another way to do this is to middle click on the tabs you want to close.

This reminds me of Joel Spolsky's take on UI. "A user interface is well-designed when the program behaves exactly how the user thought it would."

Never once while manipulating tabs in Chrome have I done something and then asked, "Now why did that happen?" The tabs do what I expect them to do so I don't have to think about them.

As a side note, I also find the "duplicate" feature in the right-click menu useful, something at least Safari lacks.

> Never once while manipulating tabs in Chrome have I done something and then asked, "Now why did that happen?"

Agreed, except for Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab.

More Chrome-fu (Windows): Shift+Esc brings up the Chrome Task Manager which shows memory usage of the browser, tabs and extensions. (In line with Ctrl+Shift+Esc for the Windows Task Manager)

This window also has a "Stats for Nerds" link, which opens up an about:memory tab. Nice.

I like conkeror's interface better. I never even think about "tabs"; I just create a new buffer when I want one. I couldn't tell you how many I have open right now, but I could instantly switch to any "tab" I think might be open. Very convenient.

(The mouse is also not used.)

I prefer the option provided by the Firefox 'Tab Mix Plus' extension: a single close button on the far right of the tab bar. Never moves no matter what you do, frees up space for more text on every tab.

In the mean time... Ctrl-w

And middleclick.

Tabs do not show the close buttons for me in Opera, it wastes too much of precious space.

Nice trick, I never use the close button but never had the idea to remove it to gain space.

Eureka! I knew there was something funny going on with the tabs. It's been disheartening seeing them sliding around on their own. I thought I was losing my mind.

Both Safari and Firefox have by now had a chance to copy this behavior, but neither have, even though both have added other features to their tab bars.

Doesn't optimizing for closing multiple tabs without moving the mouse increase the chances of closing two tabs when you only intend to close one?

Oh noes, accidentally closing a tab! As it turns out, on Chrome simply pressing ctrl+shift+t reopens the most recently closed tab, pressing it again reopens the one closed before that, etc.

A nice feature and a partial mitigator, but just because a destructive action is undoable, it doesn't mean there doesn't need to be any concern over the action being accidentally triggered. Both because accidental actions are annoying and because many users won't know how to undo it.

As someone pointed out, the new tab page also has a "recently closed" list, so even if you didn't know the keyboard shortcut this feature is still readily discoverable.

In general I think the better UI model is based on low friction w/ undo (lowering the cost of mistakes while streamlining normal use) rather than based on high friction using confirmations etc. (lowering the likelihood of mistakes but raising the cost of legitimate actions as well).

(Not that this might not be outweighed by other considerations such as the ability to close multiple tabs quickly, of course.)

There is also an afordance for this in the history area: "Recently Closed"

Same thing in Firefox, but very few people seem to know this.

Alt+Backspace in Opera or Ctrl+Z.

Accidentally how? Like you double click when you mean single? Or are you on a touch screen or some similar flaky thing?

Does anyone know of a Firefox add-on to emulate the Chrome behavior of not resizing tabs as you close them until you mouse away?

In the spirit of the Windows 7 Taskbar (or OSX dock), what about merging main-bookmarks and tabs? I for one would use it.

My only gripe: I wish the tabs weren't on top. Though, I'm sure I'd get used to it.

I like that the tabs are on top.

If the tabs are at the bottom and your Chrome window is not maximized, the tabs may not be visible. You have to drag Chrome up in the screen to make the tabs appear.

I like it, because it uses less space. Firefox (and others) have redundancy in that the top part of the window has the same text as the tab.

It's not redundancy, it's a title. No tab that I have open has room for it's title in Chrome, and almost no tab ever will. If you believe seeing page titles is important, than you have to agree that the Firefox/Safari/etc. approach is superior in that particular regard.

But I, like most people I suspect, don't really care about page titles.

It's a title and redundant; some of my tabs do have enough room, and for those that don't, I only really need to see the first word or two.

At this rate, Google will eventually surpass Apple in design.

What is the joke with Gruber ? I don't understand it.

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/12/08/chrome-for-mac

and

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/12/10/safwat-chrome-ta...

Thank you.

I really, really hate people who are so anal about mac UI guidelines. Get over it people. Mac users like this make me hate apple platform for many years.

I use a Mac now, but I'm not a Mac

It's a big part of why Mac applications are so consistent compared to Windows and Linux, which is a big part of what makes Macs more usable than those other platforms.

So those users might, indirectly, be part of the reason you are using a Mac now.

Anal? It's the damn close button! I'm all for bending and breaking UI guidelines if it's useful - but not when it comes to something as fundamental as a close button.

So basically Chrome's tabs works like they have done forever in Firefox and Opera.

yawn

In my Opera 10.10 tabs get resized immediately after closing.

So they do what opera has been doing for ages. Got it.

See, it's the smugness people don't like.

Seriously though, I just fired up Opera (v. 9.63 - I never use Opera) and it does not have this behavior. Tabs resize as son as they are closed, from the left, middle, and right. So in addition to being smug, you're also wrong. To give you the benefit of the doubt, I upgraded to Opera 10.10 and tried again. Still the tabs resize as soon as one is closed.

Maybe you're thinking of something else?

It depends on the skin you're using for Opera, and whether you allow wrapping in the tab bar or not.

So, you're saying that by extending Opera in some way you can get it to do this? Because it definitely doesn't do that by default. I don't think my Opera install could get any defaultier, and I'm not seeing it.

Yeah. Not by extending it, but by changing some of the already available settings.

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