xoxoxo e: it's a . . . clustertab!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

it's a . . . clustertab!

I'm trying out Firefox's Cluster Tab add-on, and so far, so amazing. I love grouping and organizing stuff, so would have loved this anyway. I have been trying various methods, some of my own invention, to group large numbers of unwieldy tabs, lately, without the desired effect. I don't have over 100 tabs open at any given time, like some folks, but the amount of "live" websites I need and want on my laptop has increased exponentially recently: tabs for work, social tabs, banking and spreadsheets, email, recreation. These are a few of my favorite things . . .

I tried out some of the other tab-sorting or productivity add-ons, and none quite did the trick. Group/Sort Tabs just didn't group or sort in any way that was useful for me. FoxTab was attractive, but basically a visual approximation of Safari without the usability. I've been hearing about Tab Candy, which is still in its testing phase. It looks cool, but I didn't really want to wait, and am not sure I want such a visual interface—I can still just use Safari, after all. So I tried Cluster Tab, which was ready to go. Now I can group (and regroup) my tabs in whatever combinations I so desire, pull them out and send them back as I need. I can also share clusters online, which opens up all sorts of possibilities. And no, this is not an advertisement, but it is an encouragement to give it a spin.

I've stated before that my favorite type of invention is something that improves on something you're already using, and this little number certainly fills that bill to a tee. Hmmm . . . a cluster tab of all my favorite websites that begin with a tee. . . Excuse me . . .