I don’t like Tabs
The introduction of Google Chrome into the already cluttered web browser market has enthused the web users and, as expected they are going ga-ga over it. I’m given to understand that an important feature in Chrome is that each browser tab is a separate process in Windows OS and hence, unlike how it happens in other browsers, if something causes a tab to crash, it does not crash the entire browser instance (with multiple tabs).
This brings me to the question of the usefulness of tabs in the first place. The tab feature was introduced into IE in version 7 (presumably taking a cue from the competing browsers) ostensibly to “reduce the clutter in the taskbar” that would be created by multiple browser instances. But the tabs prevent me from seeing the pages I have opened in my taskbar and also from doing one of the basic things I do when working with multiple windows - “Alt+Tab” to switch between windows. The former is also the reason I don’t use the “Group similar taskbar buttons” feature available in Windows XP as it doesn’t give me a good view of what is open. I also have the “Alt+Tab” problem when I work with multiple tabs or worksheets in a single spreadsheet. Of course, people can tell me that I can still use “Ctrl+Tab”, but it is not as useful as “Alt+Tab” simply because “Alt+Tab” orders the windows based on usage rather than on when the windows were created.
Even before IE introduced the tab feature, yahoo add-ons enabled the tab feature even in the earlier versions of IE. But I found the tabs more annoying than even a cluttered taskbar, so I never went for it. Tabs also seem to have the problem of a single tab crash bring down the whole browser instance with it, that Chrome claims to solve. To me this is akin to adding a bug in the code and adding a fix to solve the bug.
In the near future, I expect some new browser version to introduce a “new feature” of listing all browser tabs in the taskbar, defeating the very purpose of introduction of tabs 
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- General | Time: 3:04:14 PM (UTC+8)
Actually I am annoyed using IE right from the beginning which made me use to Netscape/Opera 5-6 yrs back and now I’m using Firefox extensively..
Comment by Subbaramamn — September 5, 2008 @ 10:34:53 AM
Dude, have you ever used Ctrl Q in IE? That might help you in case you’re using multiple tabs. I like the idea of ordering the windows by usage.
Nut all said and done, the tabs are only an optional feature. You can still use multiple windows of IE like you used to, just that you have got an additional option, and it really helps those of who are slightly obsessed with taskbar cleanliness (like moi).
Comment by Rohan — September 10, 2008 @ 11:49:18 AM