• Steam recently changed the default privacy settings for all users. This may impact tracking. Ensure your profile has the correct settings by following the guide on our forums.

Making Tabs More Useful [Concept]

FrozenIpaq

Justin B / Supp. Editor
Enforcer Team
I've had this in my mind for a while but just thought I'd throw together a sketch/concept of my idea, pretty sure it's a common thought by many people but I would really like to see the browser's tab evolve seeing how everything else around them are evolving also.

I spend a lot of time with my browser open, looking at news, researching for school, etc. It's tough to manage multiple tabs and the content on each. My biggest gripe is with internet music players. You can't control them unless you go into their browser tab/window and change it from there, taking focus off of your current tab. Facebook and Gmail and other sites have used the tabs/title bar to display the amount of notifications that someone has, but that's as far as the tech can bring them. Why not allow sites to specify certain links that will be clickable in the tab bar, such as a link to a friends list, main page, photos, an upload option, etc. Most sites make these options available on their pages but why not extend the page beyond the window and into the tab? In theory all one would have to do is extend a webpage into the tab itself rather than the tab grabbing info from the website to display. With this designers/developers can choose what to put on their "tab section" such as playback controls or links, making access easy even outside of the window.

Here's a drawn-up concept:

Emphasis on "Clickable" and interactive elements within the tab
c7a3a2f73de9f991c818155cb8556fae7f2f72b1.jpg



Ok, procrastination over, comments?
 

Attachments

  • c7a3a2f73de9f991c818155cb8556fae7f2f72b1.jpg
    c7a3a2f73de9f991c818155cb8556fae7f2f72b1.jpg
    90.9 KB · Views: 110

Adiuvo

Active Member
That's an excellent idea, actually. Is this possible via the extension capabilities Firefox and Chrome have?
 

FrozenIpaq

Justin B / Supp. Editor
Enforcer Team
That's an excellent idea, actually. Is this possible via the extension capabilities Firefox and Chrome have?

I'm not sure what the capabilities/limits are of add-ons. I've never seen an add-on introduce new elements to the tab area so I don't think so. It might be able to add a new entry to the right-click's context menu however, although not sure if that's even possible on a per-site basis.
 

Josey Wales

Evil Poptart
It feels like theoretically it would be possible, however when it comes to the coding of a browser i cant see it working through an extension - a new feature maybe but i think an extension or add-on might not have the authority to manipulate the data to display on the tab. Additionally, there would need to be some level of website functionality that provides the proper information TO the tab.

Great idea, but just like you im not sure if its possible. Though, im pretty confident in saying it cant exist without both the website and the browser adjusting for this new type of tab.
 

slicer4ever

Coding random shit
i like the idea, but i think it'd have to be written into the browsers before websites would support such capability, i doubt an extension(if an extension can do this) would give much way to web designers actually incorporating it(since only a small portion of web users would benefit)

coding wise, all it would take is giving websites basically a mini dom over the tab control(i.e, <html><head></head><tab></tab><body></body></html>), and all tab based controls/design would be handled in the tab section, as well, javascript would have to be updated to give the website the dimensions of the tab area, which would be relatively easy imo

you should post a feature request of this idea in the mozilla/chrome official websites
 

FrozenIpaq

Justin B / Supp. Editor
Enforcer Team
i like the idea, but i think it'd have to be written into the browsers before websites would support such capability, i doubt an extension(if an extension can do this) would give much way to web designers actually incorporating it(since only a small portion of web users would benefit)

coding wise, all it would take is giving websites basically a mini dom over the tab control(i.e, <html><head></head><tab></tab><body></body></html>), and all tab based controls/design would be handled in the tab section, as well, javascript would have to be updated to give the website the dimensions of the tab area, which would be relatively easy imo

you should post a feature request of this idea in the mozilla/chrome official websites

Took me a while to find a place to put the suggestion but I think I found the right place: http://mozilla.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Interactive-Tab-Elements/122728-7443
 

ultimakillz

Teh Fett Mawn
coding wise, all it would take is giving websites basically a mini dom over the tab control(i.e, <html><head></head><tab></tab><body></body></html>), and all tab based controls/design would be handled in the tab section, as well, javascript would have to be updated to give the website the dimensions of the tab area, which would be relatively easy imo
yes, it seems custom tabs would need to be made for each website, its not something that could be done in one single extension/plugin unless you were able to get them all together. the websites themselves would need to say what goes into the tabs and stuff like that.

great concept though. i would love to see this implemented.
 

FrozenIpaq

Justin B / Supp. Editor
Enforcer Team
yes, it seems custom tabs would need to be made for each website, its not something that could be done in one single extension/plugin unless you were able to get them all together. the websites themselves would need to say what goes into the tabs and stuff like that.

great concept though. i would love to see this implemented.

As far as each site making having to make their own code for it: well that's part of the point, although I'm sure someone with greasemonkey installed can make a script for any given website specifying what they want in the tab
 
Top