How to Control and Manage Chrome Tabs

Start your workday by opening your inbox. Check the news, social media, and click intriguing links. Before you know it, your Chrome browser is filled with tabs. How do you keep track of them?

1. Tab Manager

Tab Manager is an extension that efficiently manages open tabs. It offers an icon overview of all tabs in the current window and other windows. Additionally, there is a search bar for easy access to hard-to-find tabs. Options available include Add Window, Pin Tabs, Delete Tabs, and Change layout.

If you don’t like the icon view layout, simply click the layout icon on the bottom right to change the view. This view provides more details about each tab, including a search bar and options to the right (such as pinning and deleting tabs). Above these options, you can also close the current tab or open a new one.

This extension excels in its ability to search and show tabs from multiple windows of Chrome. It displays a list of all open tabs, allowing you to effortlessly jump to the desired tab simply by clicking on it.

I personally prefer to keep 2 Chrome windows open, one for work-related tabs and the other for social media and personal mail. With Tab Manager, you can conveniently view all tabs from all your open Chrome windows in one place.

2. TooManyTabs for Chrome

Another great extension to try is TooManyTabs, which we mentioned before. This extension is visually appealing and provides a card-like view to easily identify each tab. It can be customized, and there are sorting options for tabs such as Name, Web Address, and Creation Time. The icon also shows the tab count for a quick overview of open tabs.

The extension provides a “You are here” identifier, indicating your current tab among others in Chrome. Clicking the yellow arrow moves it to the Suspended Tabs section. This is similar to pinning a tab, temporarily closing it for later access.

While the extension doesn’t show open tabs across multiple Chrome windows, it does offer the option to export tabs to Firefox without affecting your existing Firefox tabs. This can be found in the extension’s Options menu.

There is an option to back up your tabs as a text file to Google Drive, but I personally don’t find it useful. Note: We have also reviewed Tabs Outliner, which may be more suited for power users.

3. Quick Tabs

Quick Tabs is similar to Tab Manager in appearance and tab handling. It displays all open tabs in organized rows with a search box at the top. Additionally, there is a Recently Closed section at the bottom that shows recently closed tabs. This feature is also available in Google Chrome, but it is easier to access in Quick Tabs.

This extension shows the number of tabs across multiple Chrome windows, but not as a separate section like Tab Manager. However, it does display a tab count on the icon itself, indicating the number of tabs open across all Chrome windows. Right-click on the icon and select Options to access additional choices provided by the developer.

Not all keyboard shortcuts work, but the developer is working to improve the extension.

Avoid Clutter

Here are some options that can help users keep track of their open tabs in Google Chrome. Can you think of better solutions to avoid clutter while browsing? Let us know in the comments below.