Google Chrome finally gets long-awaited vertical tabs feature
What's the story
Google Chrome has finally added the much-awaited vertical tabs feature, a capability that was made popular by Arc browser. The tech giant announced the development on Tuesday, saying it will give users an option to enable vertical tabs. This way, you can move your tabs to the side of the browser window for easier navigation and management of tab groups.
User advantage
How to activate vertical tabs in Chrome
The new vertical tabs feature will stay enabled by default until you choose to disable it. Google says the feature can be activated anytime by right-clicking on a Chrome window and selecting "Show Tabs Vertically." There is no hard limit on how many tabs you can open with this feature, making it ideal for power users or researchers who often juggle multiple open tabs in their browser.
Market influence
Vertical tabs in Chrome
The introduction of vertical tabs also shows how modern browsers have influenced Chrome's evolution. The feature was previously tested in an earlier decade but never made it out of beta. However, Google has now decided to go ahead with the development, possibly due to the popularity of alternative web browsers like Arc and others from AI makers.
User experience
Reading mode gets a full-page interface
Along with vertical tabs, Chrome is also rolling out a refreshed version of Reading Mode. The new mode will provide a full-page interface to reduce on-screen clutter and focus on text. This comes at a time when webpages, especially news sites, have become cluttered with ads and prompts to subscribe to newsletters.