How Many Tabs Do You Have Opened Concurrently in Your NON-MOBILE Web Browser?

db2k on 11/04/2020 - 15:57
Last edited 12/04/2020 - 01:50 by 2 other users

Hi All,

I was just doing some websurfing and noticed that my tab count (ON MY NON-MOBILE) browser was interesting, so I decided to create a poll and see what the sweet spot is!

Rules
1. Your vote is the number of tabs you have open RIGHT NOW (not your highest or lowest or historical)
2. Don't count tabs from mobiles as the screen size is too small
3. Your device can be tablets, desktops, laptops
4. 1 browser instance only, you pick the main one (e.g. doing work on multiple screens, which browser do you look at the most?)

Please don't go into semantics (e.g. what if my 6.8' mobile is bigger than my 6' tablet)

Vote away OZB'ers!

UPDATE - not what I expected, this is really interesting usage patterns and insight btw

Poll Options

  • 66
    01-05 tabs
  • 47
    06-10 tabs
  • 21
    11-15 tabs
  • 14
    16-20 tabs
  • 11
    21-25 tabs
  • 9
    26-30 tabs
  • 5
    31-35 tabs
  • 6
    36-40 tabs
  • 7
    41-45 tabs
  • 4
    46-50 tabs
  • 73
    50+ tabs
Computing

Comments

  • Debuting on 11/04/2020 - 16:04

    Usually around 7 or 8. It's the sweet spot before it starts getting smaller. Unless there is someway people switch tabs without knowing what is in each one…

    • db2k on 11/04/2020 - 16:20

      Icon of the tab, and also the placement group, eg. all the realestate tabs are grouped together with the same red icon and house showing.

    • ozbjunkie on 13/04/2020 - 00:25

      As db said. Also, "too many tabs" for Chrome can be useful. I just use the dropdown menu at the side of chrome as it lists the tab titles at least.

      • Debuting on 13/04/2020 - 10:35
        -2

        Sadly I'm using Firefox and I don't know if that feature exists. I would use an add-on but then I would have to go in and manually check if there was anything dangerous in the code.

        I opted for Firefox instead of Chrome because it doesn't have that inbuilt software scanning thing that randomly scans your computer. Even if you turn it off in Chrome, it will randomly turn itself back on after updating. I've noticed that happening on my client's computers.

        • ozbjunkie on 13/04/2020 - 14:19

          Yep chrome is a notorious resource hog, and you've just informed me another way in which that's true.

          I just let chrome eat all my ram until whatever videogame I'm playing crashes and I realise it's time to save as bookmarks. Never return to those bookmarks. Restart computer for the first time in 2 weeks.

  • MS Paint on 11/04/2020 - 16:05
    +3

    256gb ram. You beauty.

  • JIMB0 on 11/04/2020 - 16:20

    Where's the option for zero? My computer is shutdown and I'm reading this on a mobile.

    • db2k on 11/04/2020 - 16:27
      -1

      rule #2, mobile screen too small so they're not counted.

      • JIMB0 on 11/04/2020 - 21:08

        Hence the need for the option of zero.

        • db2k on 11/04/2020 - 21:29
          +1

          Hence the need to not vote as it skews the data. LOL. Sorry man 😂😂

          Who opens a web browser and doesn't look at any content? As that is what you are suggesting with 0 concurrent tabs. Is that even possible to have 0 concurrent tabs?

          • ozbjunkie on 13/04/2020 - 00:26

            @db2k: Does the empty set contain itself?

            A maths riddle for the ages.

  • SnowDragon on 11/04/2020 - 16:25
    +1

    I could never understand why somebody would have more than 5 open at the same time. If I am researching something I may end up with 7 or so, but I usually just close them all or some of the first ones as I go along. I don't think I've ever had more than 15 open at once, not because of hardware limitations, but because it's untidy.

    I see people with so many tabs that you only see the icon of the page and wonder how they can keep track of which is which and why they need so many. Worst case scenario just Ctrl + H and find the closed tab or Ctrl + Shift + T to re-open the last closed tab.

    • MagicMushroom on 11/04/2020 - 19:20
      +7

      5 tabs are nothing. When I'm doing research, I open 10 to 20 tabs because you never know which paper you might actually use.

      • SnowDragon on 11/04/2020 - 19:25
        +1

        Oh geez my Uni days are long over but even then I never had that many tabs. I'd cite one, close and go to the next etc.
        I like to write essays and then find sources to back me up lol.

        • ozbjunkie on 13/04/2020 - 00:26
          +3

          Always best to reach firm conclusions before reviewing all the evidence.

    • GangGang on 11/04/2020 - 19:54

      I have 5+ for price matching & beating.

    • Ghost47 on 11/04/2020 - 20:35

      Similar to hoarding Udemy courses, to come back and (never) read those webpages later.

      You should see how many tabs I have archived in my OneTab extension….

  • D C on 11/04/2020 - 16:31
    +5

    50+

    50+? Those are rookie numbers, you need to pump those numbers up. I've got 1309 in one window and 240 in the other, giving 1549 in total.

    I'll give closing a few a bit of thought…

    • db2k on 11/04/2020 - 21:36
      +1

      Are you serious? i cant actually tell …. if so why?
      🙄

      • D C on 11/04/2020 - 22:50
        +3

        I must admit the number surprised me a little.

        It's essentially random crap I've found interesting and will get back to one day.

        Some people will bookmark it, more organised people will use some sort or logging app (OneNote etc) but I just leave the tab open. I'll forget about it for a while but when I remember it'll still be there.

        If I start a search the browser will show matching open tabs, good. Finding something the second time can be a pain.

        eg I was looking for water pumps on AliExpress, there's about 10 tabs open for that and then shipping went tits up… I didn't buy so they didn't get closed. Plus a few more open for LEDs and solar panels. (China seems to be shipping again plus the dollar has gone up so…)

        I also don't do the click a topic, read it, click 'back', click the next topic etc a lot of people do. I look down the list, middle-click (open in new tab) everything of interest so there might be a dozen new tabs. Look thru the tabs I just opened, close the boring ones and leave the good ones open for when I need them.

        Think of it as being similar to how people read books. You don't buy a book, read it, then go buy a new one. You buy a bunch, add them to the pile, read a bit of one, buy some more, pull one from the bottom of the stack and read that, buy some more…

    • sacah on 11/04/2020 - 22:47
      +1

      Yeah, I have Firefox with vertical tabs, accidentally closed my main window with another one open and it asked if I wanted to close my 1900 tabs.
      For me, these build up over time, I'm looking into something, have a bunch of info open on tons of pages, then I get side tracked for hours, days, weeks, sometimes even months. I will often come back at some point and pick up where I left off, and it's useful having it all open still to jog my memory back.

      • D C on 11/04/2020 - 22:53
        +1

        Yep, that's it. There must be dozens of us!

        We're the 'messy' desk folk.

        Firefox says it's only using 3GB and bugger all CPU, so fine.

        • sacah on 11/04/2020 - 22:57

          I always say "Empty desk, empty mind" (-:
          I tried Chrome many many years ago when Firefox went through a rough patch, Chrome killed my pc with hardly any tabs open, thankfully Firefox sorted themselves out and is all I can use.

        • skid on 12/04/2020 - 08:20

          How did you know my desk was messy?

  • bazingaa on 11/04/2020 - 17:03

    definitely way more than 50 hehe, usually I restart the whole PC after a while, last week Firefox was using almost 15GB RAM

    • sacah on 11/04/2020 - 22:54
      +1

      Take a look at something like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vertical-tabs…
      It helps being listed vertically, also it can unload sites while leaving the tab open, allowing you to operate with huge number of tabs open.

      • bazingaa on 11/04/2020 - 23:38

        Thanks mate! just installed :)

      • the Unforgiven on 13/04/2020 - 14:37

        Cheers. I just installed it & next time I have 89 tabs open,
        I will see it all down the side of my monitor - cool :)
        Do you know if I can change the font to a bigger size for my old eyes?
        I could not see an option

        • sacah on 13/04/2020 - 18:56

          Menu -> Help -> Troubleshooting Information
          Profile Folder -> Open Folder
          Go into a folder called 'chrome', if there isn't one, make it.
          Create userContent.css if it isn't there.
          Edit it and put in
          :root {
          —vtr-tab-font-size: 18px!important;
          }

          Save, restart Firefox and it will be 18px large now.

          If it's not, go
          Menu -> Options -> Fonts and Colors -> Advanced
          Make sure 'Allow pages to choose their own fonts' is selected.

          • the Unforgiven on 13/04/2020 - 21:10

            @sacah: Thank you very much for that,
            but I think the coding might have an error in it.
            I found the .css file & opened it with notepad++ to edit it,
            but it kept having this red bar across '—vtr-tab-font-size'
            I tried to put it in one line, I tried it with gaps here & there,
            but I am a total noob at that stuff & I am too old to keep anything up top to learn now.
            I just enjoy the scenery
            It is called my 3 monitors :)
            Thank you anyway, I have a magnifying glass coming in the mail soon.
            In the meantime, I will use the glass I use to use drink my 'shine' out of :p

            • sacah on 13/04/2020 - 21:56

              @the Unforgiven: ah, it didn't copy/paste properly
              :root {
              --vtr-tab-font-size: 18px!important;
              }

              • the Unforgiven on 14/04/2020 - 01:29

                @sacah: Cooee
                That still didn't work.
                Still gets an error & when I go to check it later, it seems it did not save either.
                It must of been that been that even the file didn't want to keep it.
                I left out the first line & it fixed the red marks but that did not fix the text problem.
                Don't worry about it, she'll be right mate

  • kanmen on 11/04/2020 - 17:04

    I love a good incognito window to keep things like work/emails separate to fun/general browsing though, didnt count them. Is this in total or nah?

    • kerfuffle on 11/04/2020 - 17:09
      +1

      I sort of do this; I use Chrome for work related stuff and Firefox for non-work stuff

      • bazingaa on 11/04/2020 - 21:13
        +1

        me too :D

    • db2k on 11/04/2020 - 18:01

      Good point, updated with point 4 below …

      1 browser instance only, you pick the main one (e.g. doing work on multiple screens, which browser do you look at the most?)

    • AncientWisdom on 12/04/2020 - 13:48

      You can also use profiles for this in Chrome.

  • peterpeterpumpkin on 11/04/2020 - 17:21

    I remember reading an article years ago that people that keep more than 50 tabs open may be polymaths: http://www.50plustabsmaybepolymaths.com.

    I think the website also mentioned something about the same people having a fear of forgetting fleeting thoughts and making up website URLs to justify behaviour.

    • ihbh on 11/04/2020 - 17:32

      Another way of looking at it is: When you research something on wikipedia, do you get sidetracked by the links and after 3 hours reading haven't come back to what you were originally researching?

      I realised this when I used to do reading hard copy encyclopedia entries when I was a kid.

  • FireRunner on 11/04/2020 - 17:45

    I usually have 3 to 8 but usually have more than one browser window open.
    Currently 4 in one and 3 in another

  • Caped Baldy on 11/04/2020 - 18:08

    87 tabs in 4 windows. Using Firefox with treestyletabs (slow since the last couple of updates) and Groupy.

  • Cluster on 11/04/2020 - 18:08

    Just 67. That's too many. But I can't bring myself to close them.

  • Blue Cat on 11/04/2020 - 18:21

    15 tabs (including 3 OzBargain tabs) on not-important-fun-rubbish stuff window,
    2 tabs on actually important stuff window.

    Tho sometimes the fun window gets up to 30 tabs but I never worry because I never noticed a slowdown or lack of RAM.

  • pegaxs on 11/04/2020 - 19:02

    Me, 5~10… my dad… I dont think he has ever closed a tab in his life. He will have Chrome, Firefox and Internet Exploder all open with multiple windows and 10~15 tabs in each. Then comes the “this computer is so crap, it’s always slow and never works…”

    • ozbjunkie on 13/04/2020 - 00:29

      I observe the opposite with oldies (who don't work in IT) - They don't know what a tab is. How do you even use the internet in a single tab. Must be like a choose your own adventure, never knowing where you've been, what's around you, or really how you got there.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2020 - 19:47
    +5

    I just read this epic thread: Sold Item on OzBargain - Buyer Threatening Police Action & required eleventy million tabs open just to follow the various plot twists & turns.

  • cimrak on 11/04/2020 - 19:54
    +1

    I currently have a total of 185 tabs open, across 29 chrome windows. Generally I use a new chrome window for a particular topic (i.e. a "work" window with all my work-related tabs, a "car" window with search results for a bunch of things I want to fix on my car etc).

    Two Chrome extensions things help immensely;
    1. Tabli - drop-down list of the tabs per window. Also has a search bar to filter things
    2. The Great Suspender - I've set it to "suspend" a tab after 12hrs. This releases the memory but keeps the tab there and reloads when I go to it.

    Chrome is also set to reload everything if the browser crashes or I reboot.

    • macfudd on 11/04/2020 - 20:38

      Thanks for the recommendation, grabbing both those extensions now.

      I'm running a historical low of 114 tabs (across 11 windows) currently. Set myself the goal to close off/bookmark 20+ every day for the last 3 weeks as my 32gb of ram wasn't coping.

  • MatthewTeng on 11/04/2020 - 21:51

    I run 3 Chrome profiles.

    Each has multiple windows.

    The numbers below are how many tabs per window on each profile.

    Brings me to a total of 309 tabs today across 18 windows. I usually separate tabs to a new window when I hit about 25-50 otherwise the icons become hard to navigate.

    Profile 1
    50
    49
    34
    24
    21
    20
    7
    1

    Profile 2
    44
    3

    Profile 3
    17
    16
    13
    4
    1
    1
    1
    1

    • SnowDragon on 11/04/2020 - 22:31

      How many screens do you have and why do you have 3 different profiles? I assume to log into separate email/other accounts.

      • MatthewTeng on 12/04/2020 - 04:27
        +1

        I only have 1 screen.

        As a web developer 3 profiles means I can have separate cookie profiles (so yes multiple accounts) and run them through different countries for testing.

        I read all my email through Thunderbird, very rarely will I ever open one through the browser.

  • Mechz on 11/04/2020 - 22:29

    Suddenly I don't feel so bad for running multiple pinned tabs across multiple browsers.

    Chrome - 10
    Brave - 6
    Firefox - 20

    The main reason is having multiple subforums for different sites open and just hitting refresh when I want to look at them. Also multiple email accounts etc.

    I liken it to apps on your phone. Being able to swich over easy for whatever takes your interest.

  • Hopscotchy on 12/04/2020 - 09:32

    This was an interesting idea. Nicely done OP!

  • affable on 12/04/2020 - 09:54

    I have 13 Chrome windows (one for each "topic" eg Realestate, Ridesharing, Covid-19) and each Chrome window has between 3 and 30 tabs. Very satisfying to close off a Chrome window when I'm done with that topic….yep Covid-19 I'm talking about you!

  • the Unforgiven on 12/04/2020 - 10:13

    All those with 50+ tabs open, yeah right, how much RAM do you have? 128MB?
    I have 32MB & my comp slows down at around 30+

    • kerfuffle on 12/04/2020 - 10:14
      +2

      If you only have 32MB RAM, no wonder it slows down at around 30+.

      I have 16GB RAM on my 8-year-old VAIO; works fine with my 190~ tabs open on Firefox

    • AncientWisdom on 12/04/2020 - 13:55
      +1

      I'd guess most of us use extensions to hibernate the tabs we're not actively using to conserve memory usage.

      What browser are you running? There's a few good suggestions in previous comments.

      • the Unforgiven on 12/04/2020 - 14:13

        I use fireFox, but I also run other programs as well;
        if I don't run other programs, it doesn't slow down that much.

        I check my private torrent site for shows, apps, music, etc
        I try to check everyday, but I have been busy & now I am 6 days behind,
        so there will be plenty of tabs open today :p

        I stopped after 1 day & went through them while watching some wrestling & eating crumpets.
        Now I am up to day 2.4 & I have 29 tabs open. CPU 9% memory 31%

  • the Unforgiven on 12/04/2020 - 10:17
    +1

    OK, 32GB of RAM, I am still drinking my coffee :P

  • smashman42 on 12/04/2020 - 13:50

    Jebus, I start book-marking or just straight up culling tabs when I hit 30ish (usually in the 12-20 window of static tabs pinned tabs)

    If I'm researching something it might creep up to 50ish temporarily, totally baffled people can get shit done with so many tabs open all the time.

    I mean, yeah new hardware with 16GB+ of RAM won't give a shit if you have 200+ open, but my old PC with a first gen 2c4t i5 and only 8gig of RAM chugged when the tabs got up somewhere between 50-100ish (was older shittier Firefox at the time though)

    You'd think OzBargain would be full of tight arses that upgrade as little as possible (eg: gamers limping along on old CPUs and just upgrading GPUs until they get badly CPU bound, non-gamers upgrading RAM and SSD but keeping old rigs alive indefinitely) but the rate of crazy high tabs seems to contradict that.

    • AncientWisdom on 12/04/2020 - 13:55
      +2

      See my comment above.

    • macfudd on 12/04/2020 - 19:36

      I see leaving the tab open as a more convenient way of bookmarking.

      • ozbjunkie on 13/04/2020 - 00:31

        Lower initial energy investment but disorganised and thus less effective and efficient

  • pegaxs on 13/04/2020 - 10:12
    -3

    ITT: lots of people who are full of shit with saying they have 150 ~ 300+ tabs open. Get ya hand off it…

    Apart from the fact that you couldn’t remember what you had open, the average computer at home wouldn’t handle it and would need 16 terabytes of RAM installed to handle it.

    • AncientWisdom on 13/04/2020 - 14:18
      -1

      Not that hard to manage both points with the right extension. The arrogance in your comment though…

      Ever thought that maybe you don't know everything?

      • ozbjunkie on 13/04/2020 - 14:22

        That and peg's apparent presumption that people think more tabs is boastful - I'm pretty sure everyone recognises there is an optimal number of tabs, probably less than 50 or less than 30, after which more tabs lends to less organised approaches to research, and reveals someone is hopping a scattered set of interests, perhaps never to completely explore any particular avenue of enquiry.

        • D C on 13/04/2020 - 19:35

          and reveals someone is hopping a scattered set of interests

          Yep.

    • sacah on 13/04/2020 - 19:02
      +1

      You might find this interesting https://www.zdnet.com/article/firefox-can-open-over-1500-tab…

  • F1ProjectOne on 22/04/2020 - 14:38

    1620 tabs right now.

  • Hellcrusher3304 on 17/05/2020 - 21:43

    When I'm doing assignments, I can easily have 50+ tabs opened. Otherwise, I usually have 5-10.

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