Adam Stiles notes that Microsoft's IE Tabs Suck Memory like there's no tomorrow:

I never considered the possibility that each IE7 tab would have its own copy of 3rd party toolbars. But that's the direction Microsoft has taken. What's the problem with that approach? Every time you open a new browser tab (which tabbed browser users do much more frequently than single-window browser users), you have to create new instances of any 3rd-party bars. Ouch. Opening a folder of 25 Favorites in tabs? You get 25 RoboForm toolbars, and use much more memory and resources than necessary. Beyond wasting memory and resources, it sounds like IE7 tabs will also waste user interface space. Tony wrote that 3rd party toolbars will now be a part of the tab instead of the IE frame. If I'm reading him right, IE7 could waste valuable vertical UI space, as shown in this doctored screenshot:

Impressively wasteful, no?

Not just slow and annoying, but also memory hogs! W00t!

Posted by jzawodn at June 12, 2005 07:40 AM

Reader Comments
# Rory Parle said:

Asa's post is about the tabbed browsing supplied by the MSN toolbar for IE6. The other article seems to be about tabs in IE7. They're completely separate implementations, and I cn only imagine that the IE7 tabs will be much better than the tacked-on MSN tabs for IE6.

on June 12, 2005 08:19 AM
# James said:

Note that the "slow and annoying" comments that Asa made were about the MSN toolbar beta's tab hacks for IE6 and earlier on down-level platforms. These comments are about an architectural choice in IE7, which is a different thing, made by a separate team.

At the moment, you and Asa seem to be competing to spread FUD about products that haven't been released yet. Shame on you.

(posted from IE, because your blog's comments are still broken from the only alternative I have...)

on June 12, 2005 08:25 AM
# Jeremy Zawodny said:

Ah, you're right! I shouldn't try to post before noon. :-(

Apparently the IE6 and IE7 tab implementations are both broken in their own special ways?

on June 12, 2005 08:29 AM
# Chris DiBona said:

Don't apologize Jeremy. We (yahoo and google) are expected to take responsibility for software we release, beta or no. Why shouldn't Microsoft?

on June 12, 2005 11:52 AM
# anonymous coward said:

jesus h christ - Microsoft engineers cant figure out tabbing is what it sounds like to me.

Anyone else get that glug glug sinking feeling about Microsoft - not from a Linux zealot point of view, but a genuine observation. They really have lost their edge compared to when i worked on Microsoft stuff in the early 90s (when it was all go-go-go and Ballmer doing monkey dances..)

No wonder Gates has joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway... escape route maybe?

on June 13, 2005 06:35 PM
# Sriram said:

The IE team really doesn't have a choice - if they changed the browser helper object model, all toolbars today would stop working and tons and tons of people would be forced to rewrite their code.

As for the memory hog, don't be so sure. Windows shares pages for DLLs loaded into memory, so the extra memory may not be as much as you think.

on June 17, 2005 04:37 AM
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. My current, past, or previous employers are not responsible for what I write here, the comments left by others, or the photos I may share. If you have questions, please contact me. Also, I am not a journalist or reporter. Don't "pitch" me.

 

Privacy: I do not share or publish the email addresses or IP addresses of anyone posting a comment here without consent. However, I do reserve the right to remove comments that are spammy, off-topic, or otherwise unsuitable based on my comment policy. In a few cases, I may leave spammy comments but remove any URLs they contain.