Microsoft’s Edge browser has only become much more attractive. Following a preview four months ago, Microsoft will be introducing vertical tabs to all users this month.
Web browser designers have come together around the idea that tabs belong in a horizontal bar at the top, which reduces the amount of space for a website to appear and increases the need for browsing. As ultra-wide monitors become increasingly popular, Microsoft believes there is a better way.
As shown in the animation below, with the new Edge feature, you can keep tabs in a vertical window on the left. To obscure too much of a website, you can use the UI change to reduce the text of a simple logo to a simple logo with one click.
Chrome can mimic these features to some extent with extensions like these, but as far as we know, developers can not hide the original tabs, which means you have even less space for the actual website.
Interestingly, vertical tabs were a feature in Chrome a decade ago, but the company killed them for lack of recording. “As an experiment, silk tabs were not a success – a small number of people loved them passionately, but in the end it was not enough to make the cut,” a developer wrote in 2011.
The developer lamented that the company ‘delayed the experiment too long’ given the seizure of the feature developed by so many users afterwards, explaining that such difficult decisions are essential to keep the browser as simple as possible.
“We torture ourselves over such things – it comes down to painful decisions to keep Chrome lightweight,” the developer continued. We know that a feature like this is really important for a number of users (and Chrome developers!), But at the same time we have to constantly cut and trim things, knowing that the cuts will irritate people so that Chrome does not change in inflatables that satisfy no one. ”
But a decade is a long time in technology, and the adoption of ultra-wide monitors is higher in 2021 than in 2011. Microsoft believes the time is right to revive vertical tabs – and if the company’s instinct is correct, it would be very surprising if people like Chrome, Firefox and Safari did not follow suit for fear of losing widescreen users to a competitor.
Vertical tabs aren’t the only upgrade Edge is getting this month. Microsoft also brings along ‘startup boost’, which launches the browser in the background when users turn on their device. The company reckons it will reduce Edge’s startup time by 29% to 41%. This is of course an illusion if it uses system resources by working silently in the background.
The browser history is also being reworked. Instead of recording an entire page, it will now appear as a drop-down menu on the toolbar and can be pinned to the side for convenience.