Tabs. Tabs Tabs Tabs Tabs Tabs.
I don't know how you might have found my blog but if you did then I'm sure you know what tabs are in a web browser. At least, I'd be willing to bet money that you do.
If you don't then hopefully I can educate you. Remember back when the Internet first got popular? (HINT: If you do then you're probably old enough to be in the primary group of people this post is geared towards.) If you do then you'll remember the day of only being able to view one page at a time. In it's infancy, the web was far less exciting than it is now. Now, we have Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, a forum for anything imaginable and more pr0n than you can shake a stick at. Any modern browser has a feature called tabs. Webopedia actually has a great explanation of it. They describe it as "a function of some Web browsers that allow uses to surf and view multiple pages by loading the Web sites into 'tabbed' sections of one page, rather than multiple pages. This allows the user to view a selection of favorite sites in one window, view multiple search results at the same time, and would allow you to set several pages as your home page, rather than just one."
Unfortunately, as a Technical Support rep, I run into older customers who tend not to understand what tabs are and for the life of me, I can almost never find a way to explain it to them. I've tried explaining what's around the tabs, had them notice the change when doing Ctrl+T (Go ahead, try it), but nothing seems to work well. It's frustrating because it seems like when people get it, they just get it but when they don't, it's absolutely impossible. Getting them back to another tab is as simple as having them close the entire browser window, open up a new browser window, and then going to the site that they already had open in another tab.
I've included pictures below of most modern browsers and where the tabbed portions are located.
Google Chrome. It's one of my favorites since it's painfully obvious what part is the tabs. No multiple menu bars (I'm mad-doggin' you, IE7!), no tool bars added by default, no separate boxes for addresses and searches; Just the essentials and it it does it well.
Internet Explorer 9. I don't use it much since I'm quite happy with Chrome but I've heard that it's a huge improvement over previous versions. I know, it's 1337 to hate on IE but it was THE browser to use before Firefox, Chrome, and all the others came around. It too puts tabs front and center.
Opera 12. Recent versions of Opera have made their tabs stand out and I like this. I like Opera but I also hate using it at the same time. They were the first browser I saw with the SpeedDial feature. Instead of making one page your home page, you could make a set of, say, 9 of your most visited pages your home page, all available in 1 click. However, despite being innovative, they also can't get the little stuff right. Sometimes it's a text formatting issue, sometimes it's as simple as messing up the copy/paste functions.
If you don't then hopefully I can educate you. Remember back when the Internet first got popular? (HINT: If you do then you're probably old enough to be in the primary group of people this post is geared towards.) If you do then you'll remember the day of only being able to view one page at a time. In it's infancy, the web was far less exciting than it is now. Now, we have Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, a forum for anything imaginable and more pr0n than you can shake a stick at. Any modern browser has a feature called tabs. Webopedia actually has a great explanation of it. They describe it as "a function of some Web browsers that allow uses to surf and view multiple pages by loading the Web sites into 'tabbed' sections of one page, rather than multiple pages. This allows the user to view a selection of favorite sites in one window, view multiple search results at the same time, and would allow you to set several pages as your home page, rather than just one."
Unfortunately, as a Technical Support rep, I run into older customers who tend not to understand what tabs are and for the life of me, I can almost never find a way to explain it to them. I've tried explaining what's around the tabs, had them notice the change when doing Ctrl+T (Go ahead, try it), but nothing seems to work well. It's frustrating because it seems like when people get it, they just get it but when they don't, it's absolutely impossible. Getting them back to another tab is as simple as having them close the entire browser window, open up a new browser window, and then going to the site that they already had open in another tab.
I've included pictures below of most modern browsers and where the tabbed portions are located.
Google Chrome. It's one of my favorites since it's painfully obvious what part is the tabs. No multiple menu bars (I'm mad-doggin' you, IE7!), no tool bars added by default, no separate boxes for addresses and searches; Just the essentials and it it does it well.
Internet Explorer 9. I don't use it much since I'm quite happy with Chrome but I've heard that it's a huge improvement over previous versions. I know, it's 1337 to hate on IE but it was THE browser to use before Firefox, Chrome, and all the others came around. It too puts tabs front and center.
Opera 12. Recent versions of Opera have made their tabs stand out and I like this. I like Opera but I also hate using it at the same time. They were the first browser I saw with the SpeedDial feature. Instead of making one page your home page, you could make a set of, say, 9 of your most visited pages your home page, all available in 1 click. However, despite being innovative, they also can't get the little stuff right. Sometimes it's a text formatting issue, sometimes it's as simple as messing up the copy/paste functions.
Firefox 13 or so. I'm not a huge Firefox fan but they, along with most of the others, make their tabs very apparent. Again, I like this. Firefox used to be the favored, lightweight alternative to IE but is now often regarded as bloated by many.
Safari 5. I don't use it and haven't found any reason to use it over any of the others. To each their own, right?
I pray to the Support Gods that you can see the tabs.
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