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Share Every Open Browser Tab in 5 Seconds – Tab Bundles Tutorial

Chrome + Tab Bundles + Bit.Ly = Browser Tab Sharing Perfection

Overview: You will learn how to create one link to every open browser tab in 5 seconds using Tab Bundles and Bit.Ly URL Shortener.

Save Time Sharing Links

When I am researching something on the Internet I usually have several browser tabs open. I recently found a handy tool that lets me save the URLs of every open tab in a single click. The Tab Bundles browser extension for the Google Chrome Browser gets the URLs of every open tab, and puts them on a single page. The Bit.ly URL Shortening Service then creates a short link to this page. Now, you can Email, FaceBook, Tweet, or Bookmark this collection of pages. The whole process takes about 2 – 3 seconds. Really, it’s that fast.

Creating a Tab Bundle

Let’s say you were researching which fancy new camera that a friend should buy. You narrow it down to 5 or 6 choices that they should consider. Let’s create a single link that will give them a brief overview of all of the pages that you have open.

Install the Tab Bundles Extension for Google Chrome

Start out by using Google Chrome to do your research. Then, go install the Tab Bundles extension in your browser.

You will see a small () icon on the Chrome menu. Click the Tab Bundles button.

A new tab will open to Bit.Ly, which is a URL shortening service.

You will see the URL of every tab that you had open in a text box.

Click the Shorten button to create shortened links for each of the URLs.

Bit.ly will create a shortened link for all of the original URLs. You can copy any of the short links now, but what’s the fun in that? Let’s get create a Bundles that will hold all of these links.

Click the Bundles button.

A new page will be created that you can give a unique title to before you share it. This page contains the Page Title, Page Description, Thumbnail Image, and of course a Link to all of the pages that you had open.

Now, you can share a link to this page by copying the shortened URL on the right hand side of the link bundle.

You can even go back there and view statistics on how many clicks each of the links received.

Once you learn how to do this, the whole process can go from a mess of tabs to one short Email, Twitter, FaceBook, etc ready link in about 5 seconds.

Possible Uses for Tab Bundles

OK, this all looks pretty easy, but what are some cool ideas for using Link Bundles?

• Sharing any type of research with friends, family, and colleagues
• Christmas & Birthday lists
• Sending a bunch of restaurant choices for your friends to peruse before a night on the town
• Sharing a several cool news article on a current story
• Posting a Resource Roundup to Twitter and FaceBook

I would love to hear what you would do with a Tab Bundle. Put your amazing idea in the Comments below.

Creating Tab Bundles – Video Tutorial

See how to create your own tab Bundles in the video below.

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The Shifting Sands of the Browser Wars

Winners Losers and Dodo Birds

I constantly track the browsers used by the visitors of this site and compare and contrast them with the "at large" statistics. One of the things that I have been noticing (in both figures) is that tech community darling FireFox’s meteoric rise has not only stopped, it has retracted.

I have been the biggest proponent of FireFox since the pre 1.0 days. I strong-armed all of my family, friends, and colleagues into converting with the zeal of a missionary. I always thought that it was great to see that so many visitors on this site were among the "enlightened ones".

Initially, I thought that Google’s Chrome was nothing special and would go nowhere. It was this stripped down, featureless toy that didn’t do much other than crash. Chrome’s market share was virtually nil, even on this site.

Then, a funny thing happened. FireFox started getting bigger, slower, and buggier with each update. All of the features that I love(d) so much were giving it a case of morbid obesity. When a stable build finally came out for Mac, I decided to give it a try. (I’m not a fan of Safari.)

While all of these FireFox problems built up, Chrome slowly, and steadily added more features. While the features and stability grew, the speed (mostly launching, not rendering) never wavered.

Why FireFox Lost the Browser War

Here are the main factors that are contributing to FireFox’s demise (IMHO):

Google – Having the biggest site on the web pushing a good, free product down the world’s throat at every turn is pretty good for market growth. Also, Google has always been one of Mozilla’s main benefactors. When they turn their attentions (and money) inward it’s a lot harder to fight the good fight.

FireFox – Their code bloat and bugginess have turned what was once the reinvention of the web back into the World Wide Wait.

Microsoft – As lame as this sounds, the fact of the matter is that Internet Explorer 7 & 8 are A LOT better than the now infamous I.E. 6. If new computers come with a "pretty good" browser built in, most people don’t feel the need to add additional ones.

Mobile – The amount of browsing that has shifted to mobile devices is pretty significant. FireFox has taken forever to get its mobile act together. Everyone is either using Safari (iPhones), Chrome (Android), BlackBerry (RIM), and Opera (just about any phone). I love me some FireFox, but it aint on my phone.

What can Mozilla do to Right the Ship?

Stop working on features at once! Put every single developer they have on one thing – LEANESS. Stop gobbling up so much damn memory. Seriously, I have a Macbook Pro with 4 gigs of ram and it runs like a dog.

Maybe ridding the app of the memory hogging processes will also iron out the flaky performance too.

Then, the need to get into the mobile game for real! Put a good browser out that will run on all of the major smartphone platforms. While they’re at it, they should innovate in the same way that they did on the desktop.

Where the Browser Market is Going

Chrome – They will probably be the biggest player out there in a few years. Not Internet Explorer circa 2003 big; more like 40% big. They are on every desktop OS, and the fastest growing mobile platform (Android). I’m sure that they will figure out a way to get onto iPhone/iPad, BlackBerry and Palm soon too. I initially missed the boat on Chrome, but I won’t make that mistake again.

Internet Explorer – Market share will continue to decline. Windows is at 90% and it’s still losing ground. They will probably end up in either second or third place.

FireFox – They will slip into a second place / third place battle with Internet Explorer.

Safari - Same as I.E. Facts are even Apple faithful prefer the company of others. It’s available to 99% of the world and they have ZERO market share. It looks like they finish out of the money (fourth or fifth place)

Opera – They’re like Apple of 10 years ago. Constantly making a better product that nobody wants. Problem is, they can’t even give it away. And I don’t see them having an iMac, Macbook, iPod, iPhone, and iPad up their sleeve either. It’s over Johnny!

The Rest – Give it up. Why would you keep pounding your head against the wall?

What I’m Currently Running

I have several machines between Home and Work. Here is what I run by operating system in order of usage.

Windows – FireFox (Most non-work stuff), Chrome (on my old, slow machine), Internet Explorer 6 & 8 (believe it or not, my work is still on I.E. 6).

Mac – Chrome (most stuff), FireFox (checking analytics and stats), Safari (Private Browsing comes in handy for certain things.), Opera (almost never), Flock (curiosity)

Linux (Ubuntu & Mint) – FireFox (most stuff), Chrome

iPhone – Safari (by force, not choice), Opera (5 %,just for comparison purposes)

Google Chrome Just Might Catch On

Could I Possibly be Wrong?

I’ve been reading all of the news about Google Chrome, the blogosphere’s newest darling. I downloaded Google Chrome and tested it on a few machines to see what all of the fuss was about.  Overall, I think it’s OK, but not as good as Firefox, Flock, or even Opera. I don’t really see it taking out Internet Explorer or Firefox any time soon. It lacks that extensions and customization of Firefox and it won’t be bundled with the Windows or Mac operating systems.

When ever I look at the possible adoption of new technologies like Linux, Firefox, or Google Docs I always ask, “Will my mom use this?”

A few tech news sites are reporting that Chrome is being used by as much as 8% of their readers and predicting when it will pass IE and Firefox. My initial thought was that these sites are read by tech geeks that installed and tested out Google’s new toy. I would be curious to see what Yahoo, AOL, or MySpace are seeing.  For the record, VitaminCM.com is seeing right around 1%, which is just behind Opera.

My “Wakeup Call” to Chrome’s Mainstream Potential

So I see my phone ring at 7:55 AM this morning and it’s my mom. I figure that something really bad must have happened down in Del Boca Vista, so I answer. No deaths, hurricanes, or tragedies, just this:

I was reading about this new browser, “Google Chrome” in the free local paper. Have you ever heard of it? I decided to try it out.

Well that cinches it, the “Will my Mom use it?” threshold has been met.

Maybe I was wrong, this thing might take off. I’m still taking a wait-and-see attitude about how much market share Chrome will actually gain.