Last Updated on January 26, 2022
My workplace’s IT folk pick on me about how many open browser tabs I work with. Finally, one suggested a solution to keep the computer running fast.
Whether I’m at work or home, I have a lot of open browser tabs. It’s been that way for a long time.
By keeping multiple tabs open, I am able to go back and forth between sites and refer to information and analytics while I work on a project.
It makes life more convenient.
I hate the thought of having to do it any other way.
The memory problem
As I type this post at home, I have nearly 60 open browser tabs in Chrome. You read correctly: 60! For this blog, for example, I can have a tab open to some detail or story I want to write a post about. It’s more convenient than bookmarking everything or writing up a list of links in Evernote.
I prefer Chrome to most other browsers. For a second choice, I’d choose Firefox. But both Chrome and Firefox can be tremendous memory hogs for a computer.
At the real job, I generally have less than half that many open, but most are necessary. I try, over the course of the day, to go back and close tabs I no longer need.
But whether I’m at home or at work, that many tabs, combined with the browser’s hunger for RAM, can seriously a computer down.
At work, our IT folks pass by my desk and make note — usually in states of incredulity — of how many open browser tabs there are. They poke fun, I explain, they leave. Then, the next time they walk by, they point at the screen and the cycle begins again.
Finally, a solution!
The other day, one of our IT guys asked if I’d ever tried a tab suspender extension.
An extension is to a browser what a plugin is to WordPress. It’s a piece of software you can add to take care of specific functions.
I’d never heard of a tab suspender extension. I had no idea such a thing existed.
But in doing a little research, I found an extension called “The Great Suspender.”
You install it on Chrome or Firefox (or, I imagine, most any other browser you’d choose). You then specify a time frame like 30 minutes or an hour.
If you have a tab open for that long without your going back to it, it will “suspend” that tab. It essentially shuts down the tab without closing it. When you click on a suspended tab, you get a white window that says the tab is suspended. You have a little icon you can click on to reload the page.
It reloads fast because there’s less memory strain.
I now use this fantastic extension at home and at work.
Of those 60 open tabs I mentioned a minute ago, only three are currently active. The rest are suspended and my computer moves like it hasn’t in a long, long time.
So if you’re like me and you like keeping multiple browser tabs open all the time, this little extension might help you as much as it has helped me!
Now I just hope our IT guys don’t look at how many emails are in my inbox.
