Ok seriously, we’ve got to stop this tabs on top thing before it spreads any further. That top bit of a window – it’s for dragging the window around and I really don’t want to have to watch carefully to see where I’m clicking in case I accidentally change tabs or grab a tab and throw it headlong into it’s own window. With Chrome I told myself it was justifiable because all the tabs are separate processes so clearly each process rendered it’s own toolbar and UI so essentially the tabs had to be at the top. This justification is of course rubbish but it made me feel better. Besides, Chrome is a Windows-only browser and they do all kinds of stupid things like that over there. Clearly that would never fly on Mac…
Bugger. The one saving grace is that it does solve the odd tab dragging modes that John Gruber so rightly complained about a while back. Well, that and the fact that the other improvements are really very nice and it is indeed lightning fast.
Hoàng Đức Hiếu says:
Most X11 window manangers can move windows with Alt+holdLMB, maybe Mac has something similar?
ISTR in Windows one has to unmaximize a window before one can drag it, and the Chrome title bar is still seperate in non-maximized windows.
Adrian Sutton says:
I can still just drag the window from the title bar, the point is that I want to do it more easily and exotic key combinations aren’t going to solve that. Nothing beats the mouse for moving windows around.
The dragging around wasn’t so much directed at Chrome as it was Safari – it’s mostly just weird and ugly to have the tabs at the top, but Safari does add usability problems to the concept.
Fart says:
Couldn’t agree less my man. Making an entire window draggable by pressing and holding the Alt key isn’t exotic, it’s convenient. If you find that exotic, there’s not a lot of keyboard shortcuts that you will find useful.
Adrian Sutton says:
I think assuming that alt-drag is the most useful keyboard shortcut possible might be overstating it just a bit don’t you think?
Spyder says:
I actually think Safari got title-tabs right, and I’ve been using Chrome since it was first released. Google had to leave a gap at the top of the window for moving the window because tabs are 100% dragable; it’s always kinda bugged me that Chrome’s tab mechanic is better but not perfect.
Safari tabs can only be dragged at the right edge, drag from anywhere else and it’s like you’re dragging the title bar. I’ve only been using it a few minutes and I can already see myself replacing Chrome on my Windows box.
Ross Martin says:
I’m not liking the tabs-on-top paradigm because it forces the mouse cursor to travel farther for frequently-used functionality.
Guy says:
I blame wide screen monitors. People wouldn’t be so desperate for vertical space if we were still using 4:3 monitors.
Adrian Sutton says:
The tabs take up just as much vertical space irrespective of being above or below the address bar.
I think Ross has hit the nail on the head with usability. Personally, I don’t like them mostly for aesthetic reasons. The placement of the progress spinner and the way it keeps appearing and disappearing as you move the mouse over tabs is really getting annoying though.
Uggh says:
So glad to see I’m not the only one disliking tabs on top, see
http://swedishcampground.com/safari-4-hidden-preferences
to make life better again (tabs back where they belong, blue address/progress bar and more).
Glad to help.
W says:
I actually really like the tabs on the top, gives them a sort of “unified yet independent” feel. Safari’s attempt seems kinda cramped though, I much prefer having some margin around each tab like what Chrome has done.
I would like to see someone apply this to all OS native windows so you can group any apps in a single tabbed interface. Could be useful for grouping programs by what you’re working on. You might have a couple browser tabs, Eclipse, a text editor, maybe an SSH terminal or two all snapped together under one heading. Makes it simple and easy switch tasks, just restore, minimize, or close all related apps at once.
Nathan says:
Hmm, until reading this post I hadn’t really paid much attention. I run dual monitors and chrome is always fullscreen on the right side. In this scenario title bar has no use, so the tabs along the top are really intuitive, sort of the complement of the windows task bar (which is on the other monitor).
When i un-maximize the window, I notice that there’s a blue bar around the tabs which allows moving, but I must agree it’s kind of ugly and doesn’t match the usual windows UI L&F. Since I run in full screen it’s thankfully a non issue for me, and for everything else I find chrome so much more user friendly than firefox on windows.