Alternate Tab Order

Opens new tabs at the end, and snaps back to view the opener tab under certain conditions

What is Alternate Tab Order?

Alternate Tab Order is a Chrome extension that modifies your browser’s tab functionality to closely replicate pre-2010 Firefox. It sends new tabs to the end of the list, and if closed, the user will be directed back to the previous tab. Helpful for multi-tab browsing, like during news reading or story exploration.

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Extension stats

By: https://techknight.com

View on Chrome Web Store

Users: 5,000+

Rating: 4.50 (34)

Version: 1.1.0 (Last updated: 2024-08-10)

Creation date: 2015-02-08

Risk impact: Very low risk impact

Risk likelihood: Moderate risk likelihood

Manifest version: 3

Size: 17.31K

Email: te*****@techknight.com

URLs: Website

Ranking

# 13286 ▲ 6

Other rankings

#24403 in Workflow & Planning ▼ 10 #70 in tab keyword 84 ▲ 2 #176 in story keyword 18 ▼ 4

Other platforms

Not available on Firefox

Not available on Edge

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Extension summary

Analyze keywords

Changes tab ordering in a manner similar to pre-2010 Firefox.

The video explains it best, but by default, this extension does the following:

When a new tab is opened, it is sent to the end on the far-right
If that tab was opened with a left-click, such that it is automatically switched to, closing it will switch back to the tab from which is was opened (as long as no other tab had been switched to in the meantime)

What that means in practical terms is this:

if I have an RSS reader open, left-clicking to read a story immediately will show me an open a tab on the end of the list. Closing that story it will take me back to my RSS reader.
If I queue up a bunch of stories to read by middle-clicking several links, they will all open on the end of the tab list. When I go to read them by clicking on the first tab I opened, closing it will show me the next story.

I recognize how incredibly small the audience is for this exact setup, but there you have it.

Attributions

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.

Pros

Does exactly what it says—moves newly opened tabs to the far right.
Helps maintain a desired tab order without manual rearrangement.
Working well for many users and has been reliable over the years.
Provides a much-appreciated function that is missing by default in Chrome.

Cons

Disturbs functionality of tab groups, causing them to ungroup after browser restart.
Lacks customization options for overriding the tab order in certain scenarios.
Restored tabs open to the far right instead of their previous position.

Most mentioned

The extension is useful for managing tab order.
Issues with tab groups after restarting the browser.
Requests for additional features or settings to improve user experience.

Recent reviews

It does more or less what it says on the tin. It moves newly opened tabs to the far right of the tab bar. What the extension unfortunately also does is disturb the functionality of tab groups. While you are browsing everything works fine and you can normally group your tabs, but if you close the browser and restart it a while later, all those tabs are ungrouped again and to the left of the group banner.1 I work with tab groups a lot, and this issue makes the extension virtually unusable to me.