I always feel like I'm one of the odd ones because I usually will close almost all of my tabs at the end of the day / end of working on a project. If I need to save the URL for any reason, and oddly I don't (usually) use bookmarks, but instead add the URL to whatever project management/task list I need it for. I sort of treat it like inbox zero in a way - basically? Too many tabs makes my mind spin and I need to get rid of them!

Yes, 100%. Tabs are my stream of consciousness—a time machine that will transport me through weeks and months of history of what I’ve been working on and thinking about. It’s my todo’s, my read later, my bookmarks. Sure, it’s a bit chaotic, but it’s at least chronological 😅

Arc browser's treatment of pinned tabs as a form of bookmarks has changed the way I use tabs. It has basically broken down the barrier between temporary tabs and permanent bookmarks.

Every page that I might possibly come back to at some point in the future just gets moved up above the "today" line in the sidebar and sorted into folders. Don't have to worry about closing a tab because it will still be right there where I left it, just "closed". Opening into a pinned tab keeps it right where it is in the sidebar, just "open".

I've formed a mental map of where my most used tabs live in the hierarchy of each space, each space has a different purpose, and corresponding space-specific "profiles" do a great job of keeping all work and personal accounts/logins/history/plugins totally separate while still coexisting within the same browser.

If you've got hundreds of tabs open at all times, Arc could be worth a try.

I get vertigo when I see so many tabs open on someone’s computer. I organize important links on Google Sheets or Evernote and use Raindrop.io for the hard-to-categorize.

I laughed at the intro - 72 tabs open?! What a lightweight. :)
I have 225 going on my "Personal" uncategorized main group of tabs, another 10-15 in the work one, 20-30 in each of my hobby project tab groups - and that's just Safari. Firefox has another 20 or so; Chrome ditto (opened only when reading foreign language sites because....Chrome).
(32GB RAM on both the laptop and iMac seems to be able to manage it reasonably well)

What I find absolutely fascinating is how quickly a technical concept like browser tabs can conquer space in every day language even when it is not computer related. Like I am quite often hearing people say „I currently have too many tabs open“ when they are telling me about all those projects and everyday tasks they are struggling not to get overwhelmed by. As a metaphor browser tabs seem to fit neatly into some empty linguistic space.

Isn't this what browser history is for? My Chrome history tracks everything at home, work, and on mobile.

I couldn't help think of Matt Thompson's thoughts on Vannevar Bush's yet-unrealized memex machine when revisiting this thread.