You hit on a huge key point: context. For me, that can include:
- Selected text
- Current scroll position
- Partially-filled form fields (I try to avoid this, but it happens sometimes anyway)
- Pages with unbookmarkable modal popups
- The back-stack (and forward-stack), or the "trajectory" as you aptly put it
None of those are retained when you bookmark and close a tab. (In fact, not all of them are consistently retained when you restart the browser, either.)
When I leave a tab open for a long time, I almost always have a reason in mind for doing so. However, I can't always remember exactly what that reason was when I return to it, especially if it's been a while. That's the kind of information I'd like to store in a bookmark.
Because of this and other problems, I've often imagined some sort of non-linear visualization of your browsing history. This might look something like a git commit tree, with branches indicating when you opened a new tab from a link, along with other information and "tags" along the way. (One important aspect of this is that just like a VCS, you wouldn't lose your history stack when you hit back a few times and then click on another link within that same tab.) Theoretically, this could even store page states that normally aren't stored in a browser's history, e.g. filling form fields, scroll position, and so on. You could then view your bookmarks, tags, etc in that same interface, with a robust system for filtering and searching of course. Something like this could revolutionize the way I save and recall things online. Plus, I think it'd be pretty cool to be able to see your entire browsing history visualized like that.
If you use TreeStyleTab (or Tab Groups) then the hierarchy is a major context as well.
Not to mention that creating a bookmark feels like a big decision. Something you want to keep for ages. While a Tab might be simply some a page in a reference manual.
Comments
You hit on a huge key point: context. For me, that can include:
- Selected text
- Current scroll position
- Partially-filled form fields (I try to avoid this, but it happens sometimes anyway)
- Pages with unbookmarkable modal popups
- The back-stack (and forward-stack), or the "trajectory" as you aptly put it
None of those are retained when you bookmark and close a tab. (In fact, not all of them are consistently retained when you restart the browser, either.)
When I leave a tab open for a long time, I almost always have a reason in mind for doing so. However, I can't always remember exactly what that reason was when I return to it, especially if it's been a while. That's the kind of information I'd like to store in a bookmark.
Because of this and other problems, I've often imagined some sort of non-linear visualization of your browsing history. This might look something like a git commit tree, with branches indicating when you opened a new tab from a link, along with other information and "tags" along the way. (One important aspect of this is that just like a VCS, you wouldn't lose your history stack when you hit back a few times and then click on another link within that same tab.) Theoretically, this could even store page states that normally aren't stored in a browser's history, e.g. filling form fields, scroll position, and so on. You could then view your bookmarks, tags, etc in that same interface, with a robust system for filtering and searching of course. Something like this could revolutionize the way I save and recall things online. Plus, I think it'd be pretty cool to be able to see your entire browsing history visualized like that.
If you use TreeStyleTab (or Tab Groups) then the hierarchy is a major context as well.
Not to mention that creating a bookmark feels like a big decision. Something you want to keep for ages. While a Tab might be simply some a page in a reference manual.
You can bookmark entire trees, though, preserving the hierarchy.