Best Ways to Manage Your Browser

More, more, more. Everything's always better when there's more, and your browser toolbar space is no exception. With compelling online content behind every click, it's easy to find yourself overwhelmed by too many open or saved web pages.

Whether your bookmarks bar is jammed with countless interesting sites or your tabs bar is overloaded, here are some simple ways to maximize the real estate in your browser toolbar.

1. Pin Tabs

In Chrome and Firefox, you can pin tabs to minimize them to their favicons ("favorite icons") in the toolbar. To do this, simply right-click on a tab and select "Pin Tab."

2. Minimize Bookmark Icons

You can also create more room in your Chrome and Firefox bookmark bars by simply removing the names for each bookmark. This, again, will leave the bookmark with just the site's favicon.

To do so, leave the "Name" field empty when you bookmark a site, and the browser will save the favicon alone. If some of your sites don't have favicons, check out the I Hate Your Favicon app, which allows you to upload custom icons.

3. Folders

This may be a no-brainer, but folders help you organize and declutter your bookmarks bar. Just right-click your bookmarks bar, and select "Add Folder" in Chrome or "New Folder" in Firefox and Safari.

4. Add-ons and Extensions

If you still prefer naming your bookmarks as opposed to just seeing the favicon, try using browser add-ons and extensions. Different browsers offer a variety of tools, though there are more stable bookmark add-ons for Firefox than there are extensions for Chrome.

Smartest Bookmarks Bar allows you to see the names of your bookmarks when you hover over them.

Another option is the Roomy Bookmarks Toolbar, which has similar functions. It allows you to also add multiple rows of bookmarks, though this feature is a bit buggy.

 

5. Bookmarklet Combiner

The Bookmarklet Combine allows you to put all of your bookmarklets in one place. While this can be done with a folder function in the toolbar as well, the Bookmarklet Combiner provides additional functions that may prove even more helpful, including the option to run all of your combined bookmarklets at once, and various display options.

 The Combiner is simple to use: Copy the javascript URL of each of your bookmarklets (which can be done by editing your bookmarklet's properties) and past it into the respective field. Then follow the simple directions, and you will have an all-in-one bookmarklet for all of your bookmarklets.

6. Add New Toolbar in Firefox

For shortcuts rather than bookmarks, you can add an extra toolbar in Firefox. To customize your Firefox browser, right-click on an empty section of your tab strip and select "Customize." From this menu, click "Add New Toolbar" and give it a name. To save it, you must immediately drag something from this menu onto the toolbar.

You can't actually drag individual bookmarks onto this bar (though you can choose to drag all of your bookmarks onto this bar), but it does provide another accessible menu for shortcuts, including History and Print.

 

Do you have any tips for getting the most out of your browser space? Share them in the comments below.