Google Brings Vertical Tabs and Improved Reading Mode to Chrome

Interesting - I tried the reading mode in Chrome some time back, and laughed out loud at how bad it was to use a little sidebar for "reading mode" vs. how Safari remakes the entire window. Figured it was because Chrome wouldn't want to detract from all those ads on the original page, many of which were likely sold by Google, so I assumed they'd never do a proper reading mode.

The side tabs could be useful if they have included a way for them to expand/withdraw easily, similar to the "peekaboo" dock setting on the Mac, where it only shows when the cursor is nearby. Otherwise, you're taking a several inch wide strip out of the window's width, which mostly won't go over well.

Vertical tabs, like anime, is for perverts.

You may be reading something in Chrome but Google’s reading you. 🕵️‍♂️ 👀

I switched to Firefox when Chrome started reducing ad blocking functionality. Firefox already has vertical tabs and a reader mode!

I thought this had already been available for a couple of versions now. Either way, it's about time. I've been using this in Ungoogled Chromium and it's far superior, especially since Google removed the scrollable tab strip. Amazing to me that they consider tabs becoming invisible to the strip acceptable behavior. I just wish the sidebar was a more macOS-native implementation. The sidebar can be resized, but changes don't seem to persist across restarts. The scroll view is a janky mess with no elasticity, a non-native scrollbar, and sometimes leaves the currently-selected tab outside of the viewport when navigating tabs with the keyboard until you hover over the sidebar with the cursor. Hopefully it improves rapidly.

I actually gasped aloud. I know everyone here loves to hate on chrome but this is still the default browser for most and improvements are welcome.