The benefit of running tabs in the sidebar, either left or right, is the same as running the Windows Taskbar at the left or right side of the computer screen: Space.

A vertical placement can display more information and more tabs openly than a horizontal tab bar can.

firefox tabs sidebar

This is especially obvious if the computer uses a widescreen monitor, as most websites do not make use of the full screen width, especially on large resolutions such as 1920×1200. This resolution for instance often means more than 400pixels of white space on the left and right side, if the browser is running in full screen mode. The display width is usually sufficient to display all website contents on the screen, the height however is not. More horizontal space means that the website has more space to display.

Rarst has already mentioned how to switch to a vertical tab bar in Opera ( Right-click tab bar > Tab Bar Placement). I have decided to take a look at the Firefox browser instead.

Firefox does not offer vertical tab placements out of the box. Add-ons have been created that can move the tabs to a sidebar. One of the add-ons is Tab Kit.

The add-on automatically moves the tab bar to the left sidebar upon installation and restart of the web browser.

The colors that are initially displayed can be deactivated, the position of the bar switched to the right side, top (default position, or bottom.

The display can be further customized in the options. It is here for instance possible, and advised, to display a close button next to each tab. By default, the close button is only displayed at the bottom of the screen, which is not very functional to say the least.

tab kit

Tab Kit supports mouse gestured to quickly switch between tabs, and it is of course still possible to display the first ten tabs by pressing CTRl-[1-9] on the keyboard.

The benefits of running tabs in the sidebar

Below are the benefits of running tabs in the sidebar, the disadvantages or situations where you should not do that are listed in the next paragraph instead.

• If lots of tabs are often open at the same time, especially if that means that not all tabs are displayed all the time in the horizontal bar.
• If width is not a issue, e.g. on widescreen monitors.
• If every pixel of height is of importance.
• If you prefer to have the page titles visible all the time

When you should not run tabs in sidebar

There are situations where it is not advised to run tabs in a sidebar.

• If the computer monitor is only capable of small resolutions, e.g. 1024×768.
• If only a handful of tabs are opened all the time
• If the sidebars are already occupied
• If the user likes to align windows on the screen so that the web browser is only displayed in part of it.

There is one last thing to address. Should you place the tab bar in the left or right sidebar? This again depends on a few factors. If the left sidebar is already occupied you may want to move it to the right. The right side has the additional advantage that the scrollbar is there as well, which usually means that the mouse is often located in that area to navigate the page.

The left sidebar placement on the other hand is closer to the browser menus and the url form. It is however more distracting on the left, especially in the beginning after making the switch.

Where is your tabbar located? Are you using a vertical or horizontal placement, and why?

It is a pretty solid walkthrough that unfortunately lacks images to go along with the article. The tips and tweaks are divided into these five subjects:

• Give tabs more space
• Prevent unwanted close
• Change tab logic
• Use hotkeys
• Show tabs in full screen mode

Most of the tips and tweaks describe Opera settings and options that can be changed to make it easier and more convenient to work with many tabs in the Opera browser. Probably the most useful tip for a “minimal user interface” type of user like me is the description of how to remove interface elements from the toolbar to provide more space for the tabs.

The article is worth a read for all users who work regularly or partially with the Opera web browser.

One could say it’s an software update tracker that tracks all the good free software of this world. The first week saw a nice start of the service although there has not been much coverage besides the initial three blog posts linked above. The RSS feed subscriber count is scratching at 1000 subscribers. The 50 Twitter followers would bring the total count above the 1k mark which is great for such a young service.

I have added the RSS feed to the sidebar here at Ghacks which will from now on display the five latest software updates that directly link to the software developer sites. If you have not already subscribed to the Appnews feed I suggest you do so as it will keep you up to date with software developments of great programs that have been covered at our sites.

We are still collecting ideas on how to proceed from here. Some suggestions are offering a widget for websites to include, a directory of programs that are monitored and the inclusion of additional websites that provide the same expertise and quality in their free software reviews.

His post got me thinking about aspects of tech blogs that I dislike and I came up with enough stuff to make my own /diggworthy/ list. Interestingly enough that is also number one on my list..

1. Writing For Digg or Other Social Networks

The 10, Top 20, The Best.. Many articles that are written to make the Digg crowd digg the article. They seem to love top lists. And yes, I’m very well aware of the irony that this post is one.. Many people love those posts but I have to say that I avoid them at all costs unless they are special. Consider that before writing about the Top 10 Firefox extensions everyone should use or the Top 50 iPhone applications for iPhone owners.

2. It is English

My English is not perfect and I get regularly bashed in the comments because of mistakes I make. But, there are some blogs out there that are really hard to understand because of the grammatical structure and choice of words. If I read something and have to guess what the author meant because of the grammar then it is game over for that blog. Unless it is really unique.

3. Repetition

Seeing articles about the same news story that originated from one source on dozens of tech blogs is something that makes me click the Delete button in rapid succession. I do not want to read about it if all that you are doing is repeating what the source already wrote. Adding information or opinion is required to keep my fingers from itching.

4. Not Linking To The Source

There are actually two aspects that annoy me here. The first is when a blog is not linking to the source it got the news from. One rule of journalism and scientific writing is to always mention the source. If you do not mention it you land in the trashcan. Yes, many respected online magazines do not like to link to (or only sparsely) other websites.

Some sites on the other hand link directly to a file that they reviewed instead of the developers homepage. That’s a no-no

5. Blogs That Are Not offering Full Feeds

Offering only partial feeds might be a way to get a little bit of traffic from visitors who read the first paragraph of an article in their feed reader. It will on the other hand annoy many tech savvy users who do not have the time to visit hundreds of websites each day to read all the articles that they could not in their feed reader. If an article is interesting enough the readers will come because they might be interested in the comments as well.

6. Advertising Instead Of Reviewing

Some companies like to buy reviews to get backlinks and exposure on the Internet. This would not be a problem if the author of the article would disclose that fact. Sometimes they do not. If it is to obvious the blog will be deleted from the feed reader.

7. Writing Unrelated Articles

Stick with the tech stuff if you run a tech blog. I’m usually not interesting in reading stories about stuff that is not tech related. If it happens occasionally that’s fine but if it’s a regular thing I’m gone.

8. Internal Linking

Linking internally can be a great way to provide readers with additional information about a certain aspect of an article. Some websites overdo it on the other hand and always link certain keywords to certain pages on their website even if the information is not related at all.

9. Dividing articles on pages

Dividing a top 10 list on ten pages might increase the pageviews tremendously. It will however annoy the hell out of many readers who have to use the print feature to read the full article on one page. It gets complicated if these sites do not offer full feeds or a print option.

10. Filling a Top List To Make It Look Better

People digg top 10 lists but they might not like your fabulous top 17 list. That’s why you have decided to fill it with three not so fabulous entries to be able to post a top 20 list. And yes, this is another excellent example of a filler..

Your turn. Got anything to add? Let us know in the comments.