How many tabs do you have open?

Looking to see how people use browsers.

[tangor]

A conversation elsewhere on Webmasterworld prompted this query:

How do you surf the web? Specifically, how many tabs (least, most, average, etc) do you routinely use?

More tabs, more strain on system (though these days and machines that's not a huge problem). But more tabs also tends toward more conflicts/crashes.

I don't have a TV, but I do have two monitors so one is dedicated to video/music/radio... and sometimes that is a separate browser, a tv card, or local content from my media catalog. That is not two tabs. :)

But on my surfing browser I might have two: one downloading content, the other I am actively using. Rarely will I have three tabs open.

Just curious. How do you "tab" the web?

[lawman]

4 right now.

[engine]

Quite often, ten or more on one machine, but i do use a multiple monitor setup.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I seldom open any more than four or five.

[sem4u]

Usually a maximum of 4 or 5, but often more if I am checking out links from an SEO newsletter or a regular news site.

[Leosghost]

Usually around 250 tabs open,spread across 10 to 20 window instances in FF..no crashes. 4 gigs RAM linux mint maya with mate..runs fast too..

Used to run 200 tabs or so on the same machine using Opera 12..that used to "lock up" and or crash ..

I block all scripts and then allow just what is needed to access what I want on each page as and when..

If I had the space ( and Mme Leosghost could be persuaded ) I'd run more desktop machines ( 10 here now , of which 3 are permanently online with 4 screens between them ) and more screens, the other machines are two screens per machine..

Plus tablets and phones..

[brotherhood of LAN]

Never more than half a dozen almost all of the time.

[tangor]

Usually around 250 tabs open,spread a

Yikes! Your "time on site" metrics must be over the top. More impressive is your multitasking! I can chew gum, walk, and talk at the same time... but much more than that and something doesn't work right (a trip, a gasp, then swallow the gum!)

[lammert]

Normally between 8 and 30 open tabs in Chrome on my Windows 7 notebook with 16 GB. Average memory in use is 4 GB including all other applications so there is plenty of room for more tabs before time consuming swapping kicks in.

[not2easy]

I "surf" with one tab open, though I may work with a dozen or more open. I open them for something and then close them. While I'm in here I may have half a dozen open at any given time, but as soon as I finish a tab it is closed. My desk is messy enough, I prefer to keep something neat. :)

[lucy24]

Usually around 250 tabs open,spread across 10 to 20 window instances in FF..no crashes.

:: tweet tweet ::
:: chirp chirp ::

Is that tabs for ordinary browsing, or tabs when reading tvtropes dot org? In the case of WebmasterWorld it depends on how many new topics have come up since the last time I visited. For a long time I thought one specific knowledgeable member was intentionally ignoring my posts. Finally it turned out he was doing the same thing as me: open a whole slew of tabs at once, and don't bother to refresh even if it's an hour later by the time you get to the oldest ones.

It may also depend on your formative browser-using experiences. Since MSIE didn't support multi-tabbed browsing until the week before last,* some folks never really got into the habit.


* My memory has been known to misplace the occasional year, so I may be off on this recollection by a small amount.

[Leosghost]

The crashes you remember were with Opera ;)

Ordinary browsing..F'rinstance..amongst other things , currently reading 35 CSS hover effects..so have 35 tabs open in a new window instance ( one for each site that the article links to )..plus another ( per site ) to read the code..Plus ( 'nother window ) a whole slew of ebay pages ( stuff I'm interested in up for sale ), other windows, sites in my "niches", other fora..magazines, news sites, you tube, etc etc..

Yes , I'm probably ruining some sites stats..

I do go back and close some from time to time, but then think of something else and away I go and open a new tab for each interest..and of course checking to see if ideas for domain names are taken..This is why I'd like more space, screens, see / read more things at the same time..multi multi tasking is easy, the hard part is explaining / convincing teachers at school ( long time ago ) that one is doing / can do it successfully..and remember what one sees, hears, does etc..

I don't know what tvtropes dot org is..I suspect that I wouldn't want to..

[aakk9999]

28 right now in FF. Around further 3 in IE and 2 more in Chrome (testing something).

[incrediBILL]

I usually have 20 pinned tabs always open for things such as twitter, Facebook, 15 web mail accounts, WebmasterWorld, etc.

Then I have about 50 or more working tabs which just grow like weeds, then I shut them all down, then they all open again, it's crazy.

That's just one browser ;)

Then I have Chrome open for testing and other stuff, 10-20 tabs there...

Crazy stuff

[piatkow]

5 at the moment

[GreyBeard123]

30 on average in FF

[dcheney]

23 tabs spread across 2 windows (on separate monitors)

[creative craig]

10 tabs at the moment - 3 that never close. There are times when it gets a little of control and goes up to 50 then I have to cull back as it gets a little daunting when I am trying to work

[Brett_Tabke]

5-10 most times.
Every morning I have a "morning run" session that opens about 25 news sites in tabs.

Then I have my "SE Eliminator" script that can open a huge number of tabs. It does a se search and opens each of the results from the SERP(s) in a new browser tab. It does up to 50 results from Google, Bing, or a combo of both. I can set it to never open more than 1 tab from a any domain (so that dumps duplicates). I use it alot (written in WXPerl and only works with Opera and Firefox). It is awesome when doing lots of research related searches where you dig through result after result. I do a search and come back in a couple minutes when 50-100 tabs are open with the results.

[toidi]

What the members of this forum do is in no way similar to what joesephine public does. I keep open as many tabs as i am using at any given time but my wife insists on closing the second tab every time she thinks she is done with it, even though it irritates me to no end when i am helping her to have to keep reopening something that was just open.

I think the public probably tends to use just one tab.

[incrediBILL]

I think the public probably tends to use just one tab.

Back when Coke still made Tab, I only used one at a time too ;)

[Leosghost]

I keep open as many tabs as i am using at any given time but my wife insists on closing the second tab every time she thinks she is done with it, even though it irritates me to no end when i am helping her to have to keep reopening something that was just open.

Her sister says "Hi" :)

[tangor]

Though it has not been mentioned... I surf low tabs and reopen sites simply to refresh/get the new. Some sites do not auto refresh and I don't want more of the same "old news". Then again, there is the refresh button.

I do have 30ish links on my favorites bar... and I suppose I use those the same way as "tab" folks, clicking those the same as clicking a tab.

I am intrigued by the comments above in that the browser has (in part) taken over the position of the OS and applications for ordinary work and stream. We have come a long way from "word processor", "spreadsheet", and "database" as the browser gives us a bit of all those in a single app. Of course, that would not be possible if not for the world wide web and all that it means.

Hope to hear more on the subject, as I suppose that stock traders might have dozens of tabs, engineers on sources, webmasters (seo, content, etc), have found ways to do more with a browser.

And Aunt Jean, too. :)

[lucy24]

Back when Coke still made Tab

They still do, only now it's called Diet Coke ;) Change in consumer/marketing preferences.

Since it's so easy to reopen a closed tab or window from the browser's history menu or "recently closed" list, why bother to keep a tab open when you're pretty sure you're done with it?

If nobody but www professionals used multiple tabs, browser makers would never have bothered to add the functionality.

:: keeping this tab open because modem and/or ISP is having hiccups* ::


* First I thought Woo Hoo, WebmasterWorld is doing something fun with its server! but then I moved an obstruction and saw the flashing lights. Since I live in an area where internet connection is ultimately tied to a single physical cable running under a coastal highway, I hope it's something local.

[incrediBILL]

Has anyone tried the vertical tabs?

I installed them, lets you open a lot more on my portrait mode screen but I didn't like them in the end.

They still do, only now it's called Diet
Coke wink Change in consumer/marketing preferences.

I don't think so at all. I drank both and I'm sure the flavor was not the same. Tab was a sweeter flavor than Diet Coke to me anyway.

[lucy24]

I'm sure the flavor was not the same

Well, neither was the flavor of Coke itself the same :)