Tabbed browsing is a way of viewing multiple web pages simultaneously, but without opening multiple copies of your web browser program. Using tabbed browsing is very convenient but it can lead to a few minor issues if not done with a few guidelines.
When you open a web page on your computer, tablet or smartphone, the web browser opens the initial web page on a “tab”. Next to that tab is a partial tab with a ” + ” sign on it. Before tabbed browsing came along, if you wanted to go to another web page, you would click on the current web address, type a new web address and hit enter — so you would leave one page to go to another web page. Now, with tabbed browsing, instead of leaving a page to go to another, you can click or tap that ” +” and open a new tab which you can use to go to another web page, while keeping the existing web page open.
OPEN TABS FROM WEB PAGE LINKS
You can also open a new tabbed page by “right” clicking on a web page link (or tap and hold on the link if you are using a tablet or smartphone) and a menu should come up. Click or tap on “Open in new tab” from the menu and that web page will open up in a new tab, while keeping the current web page open.
After doing this, you would have two tabs and a partial tab with a ” +” (for opening a third page). Then you can go to a new web page on the new tab and you’ll have two pages open at once. You can click back and forth on the tabs to view either page.
With two pages open, you can click the ” + ” to open another tab to open a third page. You can keep this up as much as you like, opening more and more new pages. Then you can flip back and forth through them by clicking on their tab to view that web page.
Tabbed browsing is definitely a convenient way to view multiple web pages on your device — especially when you are shopping or making comparisons between different products and services.
Many people use Tabbed Browsing regularly by keeping three or four browser pages open all the time so they don’t have to keep re-opening pages they visit often. But when shopping or comparing, that’s when Tabbed Browsing really shines. You can open a main shopping page (e.g. Craigslist.org) and then open new tabs for each item you are interested in so you can flip back and forth to compare them.
THE PROBLEM WITH TABBED BROWSING
Now, here is where the problem comes in. For people that purposely open too many tabs OR simply aren’t aware they are opening new tabs every time, their screen will start getting filled with tabs. There could be so many tabs, you can’t even see what page they are pointing to. Not only does it make it hard to effectively use your tabs but this takes more resources on your device to keep this many tabs open so your device may run slower, drain its battery faster, or have indirect issues involving other programs that have issues with your browser tabs.
Some web browsers don’t just make the tabs smaller, they start hiding the extra tabs like a deck of cards so you have no idea how many tabs are open or what web pages they are holding. Then you can get yourself in even more trouble because you won’t realize how many tabs you have open. There IS a solution!
When you begin to create too many tabs (a rule of thumb is whether you can still see the title of the web page after the icon), you just click the ” X ” on any tab(s) you are not actively using.
If you have too many tabs that you can’t even see the ” X ” on the tab, then look at the last/active tab or click/tap on any tab to make it active and then you’ll see the ” X ” and you can click/tap on it to close that tab. Keep clicking/tapping tabs and clicking/tapping the ” X ” until you’ve closed out enough tabs that you feel comfortable leaving the remaining tabs open.
If you have any questions on Tabbed Browsing, please let us know!
