When you have a lot of browser tabs open it can be very hard to tell
them apart, especially if they're from the same site: Since monitors are wide and websites are tall, we should very clearly
put tabs on the side in a vertical stack. I was a heavy user of these
in Firefox, and when I switched to Chrome I used their experimental --enable-vertical-tabs flag. When they removed it I
wrote a post about how I
love side tabs and switched back to Firefox: I did end up switching back to Chrome as my primary browser (no post,
sorry!), valuing speed and stability (relative to the Firefox of the
time) more than side tabs. When I started at Google in 2012 I asked the Chrome team if they could
restore support for it, or at least make it be the kind of thing
extensions could do. They told me that while they got this request a
lot from Googlers, real users generally find it too confusing. And
they were trying to build a "great defaults, no
options " culture, to keep Chrome simple . They've finally come around, however, and have added a "Show Tabs
Vertically" option: It does exactly what I want: I suspect they came around on adding it because competing browsers supported it natively , and they
were worried about losing users. I considered switching over this but
it wasn't enough to get me to move: I trust Google's security team the
most of these, and browser security is critical. Still, I'm glad
others did, and now I have my favorite UI back after fifteen years! Comment via: facebook , lesswrong , mastodon , bluesky
Vertical Tabs in Chrome
Brief
Vertical tabs in Chrome have been added as a native "Show Tabs Vertically" option, restoring a UI users once accessed via the --enable-vertical-tabs experimental flag. Jeff Kaufman recounts asking the Chrome team in 2012—when they rejected it citing user confusion and a "great defaults, no options" philosophy—and says competitive pressure ultimately prompted the change, which he welcomes after fifteen years.
Why it matters
Chrome has added a native "Show Tabs Vertically" option, restoring the vertical-tab UI that users previously accessed via the experimental --enable-vertical-tabs flag.
Key details
- Author Jeff Kaufman says he asked the Chrome team about vertical tabs in 2012 (they declined then, citing user confusion and a "great defaults, no options" culture); competitive pressure led to the feature being added and he now has the UI back after fifteen years.