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Google Chrome browser tabs get a ticket to ride

Soon, Google Chrome users will be able to access live tabs on a range of devices, including tablets and smartphones. 

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Reuters
Google Chrome tabs are now portable. Here, the Google logo is displayed on a screen at Google HQ.
  • By Matthew Shaer

The scenario goes something like this: You've opened up approximately 734 tabs on your browser. You're looking at a news site, and at directions to the nearest cinema, and also a website that features photographs of cats – hypnotic, all-consuming pictures of cats. So all-consuming that you're half a mile away from your computer by the time you realize you forgot to write down the correct movie times. 

Tab-lovers with low-attention spans, take heed: Google has the solution for you. This week, the company took the wraps off a new functionality for its Chrome browser, which allows you to access active tabs remotely, via another computer or on your smartphone. To fire up the feature, Google engineers Nicolas Zea and Patrick Dubroy wrote this week, navigate over to the "other devices" menu on the New Tab page. 

"With a click, you can find and open the tab with your directions and be on your way," Dubroy and Zea added. "The tab’s back and forward navigation history is also included, so you can pick up browsing right where you left off. If you use Chrome for Android Beta, the tab will also be available on your phone, right there in your pocket when you hit the road."

Google will roll out the functionality gradually over the next couple weeks. In the early-going, you'll need to have the latest version of Chrome Beta or Chrome for Android Beta, which are available here and here, respectively. 

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