When was the last big usability feature introduced in your favorite browser? One that is new and unique? Not speaking of tab groups and vertical tabs support in Firefox. While great and new to users of the browser — if you ignore extensions and Mozilla’s decade-old attempts, they are not particularly new features.
Google and other Chromium browsers supported tab groups for quite some time, and some browsers, like Vivaldi, supported vertical tabs as well. Opera introduced AI-powered tab commands recently and an AI browser operator that acts as the user’s agent.
Opera announced three new features for its gaming browser Opera GX the other day. Not all of them are new as well, but some are. It is a browser for gamers, featuring gaming news and all kinds of gaming related features, including themes and sounds that Opera thinks appeal to gamers.
It is not my preferred browser, but Opera continues to introduce features to it that I find interesting. This particular update introduces three:
- Split tabs — this enables you to display two open websites side by side. Opera says this is ideal for keeping an eye on the game you are playing while using another tab to chat or look up information.
- Tab traces — if you have lots of tabs open, you know that it is sometimes difficult to switch to a tab was active recently. While most browsers on the desktop support the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Tab or Ctrl-Tab to go back to the previous active tab. Tab traces in Opera GX highlights the five tabs that were active previously, making it a tad easier to switch back and forth between tabs. The minimum number of open tabs for the feature in Opear GX can be configured in the settings.
- Automatic tab islands (tab groups) — Opera GX will create tab groups automatically, if you open links from a page in a new tab. This bundles all links together, so that you get handy options, such as collapsing all tabs at once.
You can check out the blog post on the official Opera blog for additional information.
Split tabs is a useful feature, provided that the browser window is large enough to display two websites side by side without side-scrolling. Tab traces sounds like a useful feature, as it may enable you to locate the previous tabs quickly. Good option for users who do not use shortcuts.
What is your take on these features? Good additions to the browser? Do you use similar features in your browser of choice?
Opera GX is probably the most openly political software. Last thing I want in my software are political takes.
I don’t understand the need for so many tabs and all this time and energy spent organizing them.
I do sometimes have 3, maybe 4 tabs, when comparison shopping for instance but not often enough I need help organizing the tabs.
Why have all those different pages open when you can’t see them and they load in milliseconds?
I usually have only one case for “many tabs” situation. When I open a large gallery of images, I open images at the same time in consecutive tabs. Sometimes it’s 10, sometimes it’s 100. And then I scroll through tabs, downloading images I want.