So, Vivaldi has released a new stable version of its web browser, which is also called Vivaldi. Vivaldi 6.9 includes a number of new features that improve customization and options for its users, as usual.
Among the batch of 6.9 features is tab renaming. To the best of my knowledge, it is a first in the browser space, but correct me, if I’m wrong.
Update: Arc Browser supports this as well.
The idea is simple: you can use it to rename any open tab in the browser. To do that, you simply right-click on the tab, select rename, and type the new name.
Note that this works better for unpinned tabs, as pinned tabs show only the site’s icon by default. But even here, it is useful. More on that later.
Once you have changed the name of the tab, it stays. Restart the browser, and you still get the custom tab names after the restart.
While some may wonder what this feature is good for, others may have noticed it immediately. It depends a bit on how you use the browser.
Here are a few examples:
- Make the titles descriptive. Some sites use titles that do not always reflect their name or purpose. If you visit eBay, you get Electronics, Cars, Fashion, C as the visible title. Change it to eBay, and you do not have to look twice. If you are the romantic type, you could change tabs from your crush so that they read I love you, from Bob, or something similar.
- Shorten titles. Many sites use titles that do not display fully. Also, if you open enough tabs, the available space shrinks further. You could assign the letter C to my site for instance or Chip, or whatever, and it is visible for longer.
- Use titles as reminders. Don’t feed after midnight, message mom, or CANCEL are all valid.
- Disguise names. If you fear that someone could catch a glimpse of the sites that you have open, and you do not want that, you could use the feature to change the title to something else. Maybe change Facebook to TikTok to avoid having to defend you still spending time on the site. The site’s icon may still reveal the real site to some bystanders though.
There is the slight chance that you may get confused and want to restore the title. This is done by selecting rename again and deleting the current title. Press the Enter-key and the original title returns. You may use the same method to alter a modified title.
The new title is also shown when you hover over tabs. This is where the usefulness for pinned tabs comes from.
You can download the latest version of the Vivaldi web browser from the official site. If you like customization options, this might the browser for you.
Tab renaming, is that something that you might use, if your browser supported it? Let me and everyone else know in the comments down below.
Tab renaming is indeed a handy feature which I use quite a lot here on Firefox but with a dedicated extension : ‘Tab ReTitle’
Some pages/tabs may have extravagantly long names which makes it cumbersome to spot them on the tab bar.
No idea about Vivaldi’s management of Tab Renaming, but Firefox’s ‘Tab ReTitle’ includes :
– Renaming the tab according to a bookmark pointing to the url;
– Renaming with four options for each page ( with a default preference) :
— Only this time,
— Set for this tab,
— Only exact match,
— Set for this domain
‘Only exact match’ is what I use essentially.
Now, use Tab Renaming with an extension such as Firefox’s ‘In-Site Bookmark’ and you’ll have a toolbar button displaying all pages you’ve renamed with ‘Tab Retitle’, saved with ‘In-Site Bookmark’ accessible each time you land on the concerned domain : very handy.