With the release of Opera 11 beta for testing this week, Opera Software’s innovative platform promises to take tabbed browsing to the next level. Though the Norway-based browser maker only holds 2.3 percent of the browser market according to Net Applications, each successive release of the company’s platform has sported trend-setting features. Opera 11 beta is no exception.
Opera’s new browser further builds on the tabbed-browsing innovations it has pioneered, such as closed tabs management, visual tabs, and private tabs. The latest evolutionary step, called tab stacking, is comparable to working with paper documents stacked into related materials on the desktop.
“Because so many of us wrestle with tens or even hundreds of open tabs, we needed a way to simplify tab management,” said Opera Vice President Jan Standal. “Just like stacking papers for future reference, stacking your tabs is an intuitive way to organize and collect your open web pages.”
Working with Multiple Tabs
Using tab stacking in Opera 11 beta is straightforward. “To try tab stacking, simply install the beta and drag one tab over another,” Opera blogger Aleksander Aas wrote. “This will create your very own tab stack.”
This stacking approach dramatically reduces browser window clutter while making it easier to identify and work within multiple tabs containing related content. Hover the mouse over a stack of tabs to access a pop-up mini-dashboard that contains thumbnails of all web pages residing in the stack.
To open a stack, click on the expand button. The contents of any stack also can be organized and edited using the same click-and-drag capabilities available for tabs in the browser’s main window.
Mozilla likewise offers a tabs-organization feature in Firefox 4 beta. Called panorama, the new feature gives users the ability to drag and drop tabbed pages into folders that can be viewed from…