Visualizing browser tabs in a useful way
The Tab Viz Project

Potential Visualization Data

This is a list of tab characteristics that could potentially be used to visualize open browser tabs in a meaningful way:

Visualization Data
tab characteristic behaviors supported
tab age – when was the tab opened leaving the browser open for extended periods
last viewed – time since you last looked at that tab leaving the browser open for extended periods
opening relationship – which tab was opened which other tab
unread – whether this tab is still unread opening several tabs at once
domain – tabs from the same domain (e.g. *.umich.edu) task organization
viewing time – the duration of time that you spend on a tab
tab groups – tabs that are either automaticallly or manually grouped by individual projects, tasks or topics task organization
sticky/constant tab – tabs that you have open nearly all the time and that you would like to always have in the same place (e.g. Gmail, CTools, …) tabs as a reminder, tabs in order
timeframe/session – tabs that have been opened during a special timeframe or browsing session (e.g. “yesterday before name”) task organization
physical location – grouped by the physical location that you opened the tab (home, work, coffee shop), which could potentially be determined by your IP address task organization

These are other projects that we found which visualize certain tab characteristics:

  • Ctrl-Tab
    Shows open tabs in a matrix view in most-recently-used order.
  • Autodial 3D
    Visualizes tabs in a 3D space.  More frequently visited tabs being in the foreground and less frequently visited ones in the background.
  • Chromatabs
    Gives each tab a unique color based on a hash build from its domain. The rationale is that you can easily recognize certain websites/tabs based on their unique color.

There are certainly more extensions out there that visualize tabs in some way, but this give you a short overview over some noteworthy ones.

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