(Guide/Review) lesstabs for Chrome archives old open tabs automatically for more space and memory

[Karlston]

lesstabs for Chrome archives old open tabs automatically for more space and memory

How to deal with tab overflow syndrome on Chrome? If you use the browser or have used it, you may know that Chrome runs into a "too many open tabs" limit fairly quickly. You can try it out yourself by opening new tabs until the browser's tab bar is completely filled. The two main issues that arise from this are that a) Chrome removes any indicator from the tab so that you don't know anything about the site opened in a particular tab, and b) that new tabs that you open don't get added anymore to the tab bar; the tabs are there but you only get access to them from the tab bar if you close others.

 

Extensions are the main way to address these issues in the Chrome web browser. The new extension lesstabs introduces a simple option that may work well for some users.

 

 Basically, what lesstabs does is archive any open tab that has been inactive for at least 24 hours. The extension does not touch pinned tabs but will archive any open tab that has not been active for at least 24 hours.

 

The extension takes over the New Tab page of the browser to display archived tabs on the page. The links are removed from the New Tab page when you activate them again.

 

 

The extension comes without options at this point in time. Since it is fairly new, it is possible that new options and features are introduced at a later point. I'd like to see a preference to change the period that sites need to be inactive before they are archived. Another handy feature would be a whitelist of sorts to prevent some tabs from being archived. While you can pin these tabs, it is not always an option.

 

You may open the extension's options in Chrome to look up its activity log. The log displays the API calls that the extension makes

 

The developer of the extension has published a video that demonstrates the extension's functionality in Chrome.

 

 

The extension should work in other Chromium-based web browsers as well.

 

Google plans to launch tab groups to address this and improve manageability of tabs in the browser. Other Chrome browsers, e.g. Vivaldi, already support tab stacking functionality.

 

Landing Page: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lesstabs/gpdnlknekkniebhjbflbcglgibnfcaah/

 

 

Source: lesstabs for Chrome archives old open tabs automatically for more space and memory (gHacks - Martin Brinkmann)