Google Contemplating Removing Chrome 'Close Other Tabs' and 'Close Tabs to the Right' Options (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Chrome engineers are planning to remove two options from Chrome that allow users to quickly close a large number of tabs with just a few clicks. The options, named "Close other tabs" and "Close tabs to the right" reside in the menu that appears when a user right-clicks on a Chrome tab. According to an issue on the Chromium project spotted yesterday by a Reddit user, Google engineers planned to remove to menu options for many years even before opening the Chromium issue, dated itself to July 31, 2015. After several years of inactivity and no decision, things started to move again in September 2016, when usage statistics confirmed that Chrome users rarely used the two options they initially wanted to remove. Seeing no new discussions past this point, Chromium engineers assigned the issue in February, meaning engineers are getting ready to remove the two menu options it in future Chromium builds.

Comments

I use them quite a lot

[Harold Halloway]

As someone who tends to open new links in a new tab and who ends up with a dozen or so open, I've always found those options to be very useful, especially the 'Close Tabs to the Right' one. I'm not sure why Google would want to get rid of them - the options hardly seem like a security risk or a burden on processor or RAM resources. I'll miss them if they do disappear.

Re:I use them quite a lot

[Frobnicator]

The story says the engineers found it was used rarely, citing that as the reason for removal.

However, doing something rarely does not mean it is used never, nor does it mean removal is appropriate.

I rarely use a fire extinguisher, yet I keep one in my kitchen and my vehicle. I rarely use my window shutters, but I'm absolutely glad the house has them as they can save a fortune during a storm. I rarely print documents, but I still maintain a printer.

Just because it is rarely used does not mean it isn't useful, nor does it mean it should be removed.

Re:I use them quite a lot

[Altrag]

In TFA, it even has a ranking of several features. Close to the right is used more than say, Mute Tab.

And they're still keeping "bookmark all tabs", a feature with 1/10th the usage of Close to the right.

Makes you wonder if someone in the "feature"-assigning group is on Microsoft's payroll. Chrome and FF keep removing features and getting slower while MS at least is trying to make a useful browser (pretty unsuccessfully so far but hey if all they have to do is wait for the competition to implode, they'll still win at the end of the day!)

Huh? I use these all the time.

[bfwebster]

I can't be the only person who uses these on a regular basis.

Unless...I am.

Mind. Blown.

No, seriously. Is usage that rare? Because I do use these a lot. ..bruce..

Re:Huh? I use these all the time.

[EvilSS]

I can't be the only person who uses these on a regular basis.

Unless...I am.

According to their telemetry, yes, you are the only one.

Re:Huh? I use these all the time.

[Anonymous Coward]

According to their telemetry, yes, you are the only one.

Odds are, people who use advanced features are more likely to turn data harvesting off. Thus making those metrics questionable. Then again, anyone who is opposed to being monitored is not part of the Google's target audience.

If it ain't broke...

[jenningsthecat]

Assuming that those options aren't problems from the code maintenance or security points of view, and if users haven't complained about them, then why remove them? I'm sure some people use them; in Pale Moon I have Tab Mix Plus set up to handle tabs in a way that most users would never even think of, and honestly, I'd be lost without it.

I know it's heresy to suggest that Chrome might actually be configurable to suit individual needs and tastes; that said, why can't they they just have a preferences setting to show or hide those items? There's a difference between taking the lowest common denominator into account, and catering exclusively to it; and I'm tired of features being stripped away from both software and hardware because the average non-demanding user isn't sufficiently sophisticated to make use of them.

Re:Features? Look Elsewhere

[Anonymous Coward]

It's what I call "New Coke Syndrome".

When a product becomes very popular and widely used, the people who work on the product have a problem. They can't just stop working on it. They can't stop going to work and just say "we're number one, so there's no need to do anything. Send me my paycheck.".

And so they keep working. Adding new features, removing old features. Making all sorts of "improvements" that in reality actually make the product worse. It happened to Windows. It happened to Firefox. And now it is apparently happening to Chrome.

never understood removing features

[_Shorty-dammit]

Removing features simply because they're not used by everyone every single day never made sense to me. Even if it is something only a very small percentage of users use, so what? It's not like you have to write that code again every time you compile. It just sits there minding its own business. Leave it alone and mind your own business. It doesn't affect any other work, so why remove it? To save a few bytes of memory? We all have nine zillion memories now. Who cares? Some people use it. And if more people knew about it they'd probably use it, too.

Most people power on their machine, use the web browser, and office apps. That doesn't mean it would be beneficial to stop making all other programs just because most people don't use them. Same thing.

Re:Wrong reasoning

[jeremyp]

The flaw in the logic is that "rarely use" is not the same as "would be fine if it didn't exist". The reasons for removing the feature look bogus to me in that they seem to satisfy an aesthetic quality that the developers want rather than provide any benefit to the users of the browser.

Re:What I want back

[lgw]

Remember the good old days, when software companies added features that the user base wanted? It's true - many moons ago, the great software companies wanted to please their users, instead of their "designers". It was a grand old time.