114

You know how when you get to 10+ tabs open in your browser (in this case Chrome) and you can't tell which tab is which anymore? I'm sure there are some good extension or something - what's the best solution to this problem?

enter image description here

Improve this question
3

15 Answers 15

Reset to default
10

As of 2021, there is a native Chrome feature that allows you to scroll through all of your open chrome tabs (as well as some recently closed ones).

To access it, click on the dropdown arrow next to the minimize tab button. enter image description here

It will open up a scrollable dropdown with all tabs open in Chrome.

enter image description here

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    This is just amazing, thanks for pointing it out
    – sktguha
    Aug 2, 2021 at 17:51
  • 3
    hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+A
    – Carson
    Sep 15, 2021 at 6:23
84

Start Chrome's task manager, and then you can double click on the title of whatever tab you need.

Microsoft Windows

Hit Shift+Esc to bring up the Chrome task manager.

Alternatively, on Chrome's More tools menu, select Task manager (source)

Mac OS X

On the Chrome Window menu, select Task Manager.

ChromeOS

Hit Shift+Esc to bring up the Chrome task manager.

Alternatively, on Chrome's More tools menu, select Task manager (source)

Improve this answer
7
  • 2
    Thanks! I'm in a VDI environment, and all my extensions are unavailable due to a synchronization problem. It's good to see a built-in solution. Normally, I would be using Session Buddy to manage this.
    – GuitarPicker
    Jun 8, 2016 at 15:52
  • 2
    It should be pointed out that this solution does show you all tabs across all instances of Chrome, different profiles or otherwise. I have three profiles running at work, and that makes the task manager a bit overloaded with unrelated tab groups. Could be very useful for those that do want this behavior, of course.
    – shmup
    Jul 20, 2016 at 15:01
  • 3
    This does not work in Chrome on Mac OSX (Yosemite).
    – aqn
    Jul 25, 2016 at 15:14
  • 1
    Though Chrome's Task Manager still exists on OSX and presumably all we would need to do is add a key binding for it.
    – Joe Atzberger
    Jul 28, 2016 at 20:18
  • VERY helpful: double-click on the tab title
    – Bob Stein
    Aug 17, 2016 at 15:03
76

This works in all versions of Chrome, on Mac, Linux and Windows:

chrome://inspect/#pages

Chrome inspect tabs screenshot

Unfortunately, this won't show tabs that haven't been used in a while. But for recent tabs, no need to install any extension, and you can also search in the tab names - great when you have many tabs. To open a tab, just click Inspect.

Improve this answer
7
  • I know this wasn't in the original question, but is there a way to open the tab from the Inspect Pages page?
    – wisbucky
    May 1, 2015 at 11:16
  • 1
    @wisbucky: of course, you click Inspect. (You can close the Inspect side bar by pressing F12 on Windows or Cmd + Opt + I on Mac).
    – Dan Dascalescu
    May 1, 2015 at 20:53
  • 1
    Ah, I found the issue. It doesn't switch tabs if Chrome Developer Tools is undocked. After I redocked CDT, then this method worked.
    – wisbucky
    May 2, 2015 at 0:49
  • 3
    This was very useful to me for getting a text list of all of the tabs open in Chrome. Use it after teaching a class and opening a bunch of tabs to collect that list for easily sharing. Thanks
    – justinxreese
    Sep 1, 2015 at 21:26
  • 1
    Just like the task manager, this does not list tabs which haven't been used for a while (as of 2018).
    – hashchange
    Feb 12, 2018 at 16:26
29

Install TabsOutliner extension -

The ultimate windows & tabs manager for Chrome:

enter image description here

Not only it is show all the tabs and windows, it allow to add notes to them, freely reorganize everything, rescue all of this on Chrome crashes and give possibility to unload tabs without deleting them from tree - "in place" - very cool and handy, a lifesaver for me, and for any other tab addict.

Improve this answer
4
  • What's cool: it supports splitting and merging groups of tabs into windows.
    – Vadzim
    Apr 7, 2017 at 16:15
  • For me, this appears better than Vimium. Both Chrome store pages provide explanatory videos. The videos appear to say that Vimium provides a simple list, while TabsOutliner offers hierarchical (i.e., outline) structure. In the list, tabs opened from a page become a subset of that page. A new Chrome window has its own new list. You can still have the list even with no Chrome windows open, and can restore only selected tabs if desired. And more.
    – Ray Woodcock
    Jul 26, 2020 at 12:51
  • @RayWoodcock I use TabsOutliner and Vimium - shift-f in Vimium finds a tab quickly, as well as all the other stuff, and TabsOutliner allows me to organise, close, sleep and copy tabs.
    – drkvogel
    Apr 11, 2021 at 12:45
  • In TabsOutliner I particularly like the way you can copy tabs to text with ctrl+c or right-click, copy; in a format that is almost Markdown syntax, which I can paste into my notes which are Markdown format. I then have to add square brackets around the page title manually to make it a link in, or I made a Chrome extension to do this: drkvogel/linkify
    – drkvogel
    Apr 11, 2021 at 12:48
23

I've been using the Quick Tabs extension for a while, does a good job.

Quick Tabs

Improve this answer
8
  • This one would have been perfect if it weren't so slow :(
    – andrecarlucci
    Mar 31, 2014 at 14:36
  • 2
    i've been using chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabman-tabs-manager/… which is a pretty similar solution. maybe won't be as slow for you?
    – kenwarner
    Mar 31, 2014 at 14:38
  • 1
    Nice, I added ctrl+q as the shortcut for this in chrome://extensions/
    – KCD
    Jun 30, 2016 at 0:15
  • Quick Tabs is fantastic. Using this with Ctrl-Space will drastically improve my productivity in the browser.
    – treehead
    Aug 5, 2016 at 18:34
  • Take a look at Taptab. It's the simplest solution for the problem. Just a button that drops down the list of tabs for the window. Now it's archived so, it's a bit more difficult to install, but worth it.
    – user77376
    Nov 9, 2016 at 9:56
16

The Chrome extension called Vimium will let you search and go to any of your open tabs if you press T, amongst many other things that it can do.

http://vimium.github.io

Improve this answer
2
  • This is the best option for me, thanks! No extra extensions except Vimium. "amongst many other things that it can do." - YES, it does!
    – graceman9
    Apr 13, 2020 at 15:25
  • This is the best options! Still!
    – oshliaer
    Jan 8, 2021 at 6:30
12

Mac OS X (with trackpad)

In the search bar write:

about:flags

and click enter. Now enable Tab Overview.

Tab Overview

A three-finger swipe will now reveal something like this:

More tabs

Here's 20 tabs for good measure:

20 tabs

It works really well. I can't browse without it these days.

Improve this answer
7
  • 3
    Do you know if there's any way to use this in Windows?
    – nhinkle
    May 31, 2011 at 7:44
  • @nhinkle: Not sure sorry. It'd be a shame if it didn't work in Windows. I've only tried in OS X.
    – boehj
    May 31, 2011 at 9:01
  • @nhinkle There doesn't seem to be AFAIK
    – Ivo Flipse
    May 31, 2011 at 9:51
  • 1
    I cant find this option in yosemite
    – Matt
    Jun 10, 2015 at 18:56
  • 6
    This is gone now. Removed per chrome devs. src.chromium.org/viewvc/…
    – gooddadmike
    Aug 10, 2016 at 17:52
3

Type about:flags into the address bar, and then enable Side Tabs:

Adds a "Use Side Tabs" entry to the tab strip's context menu. Use this to toggle between tabs on top (default) and tabs on the side. Useful on widescreen monitors.

enter image description here

Improve this answer
3
  • I was not able to find any "Side Tabs" menu in the latest chrome versions. Can you elaborate your method a little more. Thanks!
    – manav m-n
    Oct 7, 2013 at 6:44
  • 10
    It looks like this experimental feature was dropped at some point.
    – James B
    Nov 10, 2013 at 11:19
  • I can't find this option
    – Matt
    Jun 10, 2015 at 18:59
1

Another altenative with expose-like functionality:

TooManyTabs For Chrome

Features include:

  • Bird's eye view of all opened tabs
  • Clear preview of each tab's content (fills up gradually as you use)
  • Instant tab search
  • Sort tabs by creation time, domain or title
  • Restore recently closed tabs
  • Suspend idle tabs and save memory, organize with custom columns
  • Custom themes

Bonus

How to Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts For Any Extension in Google Chrome

Improve this answer
1

I personally prefer an overview of the windows as columns, especially on a wider screen. I used to use Cluster, but because of lack of support I have now switched to the TabManager.io Chrome extension.

enter image description here

Improve this answer
0

Go to History. There you'll see the list of opened tabs if you have synced chrome with google account on both the computers.

Improve this answer
0

my favourite chrome app for listing all tabs: fast tab switcher.

Improve this answer
0

The OneTab extension is pretty great. It consolidates all tabs into a single tab that then acts as a dynamic tab manager page so you can reorder, reopen, close, save, etc.

Improve this answer
0

I created a simple extension: console

  • It's lightweight
  • Completely free

for watch tab's title

typing: list or ls on the input box. done! (clear screen cls)

There are some other features. If you are interested, you can download and typing the help to see.

Improve this answer
0

May be will be useful for somebody...

As of version 120 of Chrome, they moved all tabs drop down from the right (near minimize, split and close buttons) to the very left side before the first tab. Good that short cut is still the same Ctrl + Shift + A

enter image description here

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .