Microsoft's new Edge browser will get vertical tabs soon

All modern browsers use a horizontal bar to display open websites in tabs; that has been the status ever since browsers started to allow users to open multiple sites in a single browser window.

Vertical tabs were introduced as extensions, a prominent example the classic version of Tab Mix Plus for the Firefox web browser which was one of the most popular extensions of its kind.

Moving tabs from a horizontal bar to a vertical bar has several advantages, especially if a widescreen or high resolution display is used. Vertical space is available in abundance on these systems whereas horizontal is not. Vertical tabs offer other advantages as it is possible to display more open tabs at the same time without scrolling and easier to manage tabs. Extensions like Tab Mix Plus or Tree Style Tabs added other interesting features to the experience, from defining event behavior to session support.

Firefox users are still waiting for a good vertical tabs extension for Firefox 57 or newer; and while Firefox users are waiting, support for vertical tabs comes from a company that most Internet users would not have expected to release such a feature natively in the browser.

Microsoft published the new article "The top 10 reasons to switch to the new Microsoft Edge" browser to highlight some of the existing and upcoming features of Edge. Vertical tabs are highlighted as the second of the ten reasons.

If you are like me when you research online, you find yourself with dozens of tabs open at any given time. When that happens, there’s less space for me to see which tab is which. I find myself losing track or I’ll accidentally close a tab as a result. Utterly frustrating as that is usually exactly the one page I needed.

Today we announced vertical tabs, a feature that helps you easily find and manage many open tabs at once. Microsoft Edge is the only browser that allows you to manage your tabs on the side with a single click. Vertical tabs is expected in the Insider channels in the next few months.

In other words: Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) users will soon be able to switch between horizontal and vertical tabs in the browser natively. All it takes is a click to switch the display and either display open tabs vertically or horizontally in the browser.

Microsoft plans to introduce the vertical tabs feature in the coming months in the Insider channel. From there, it will find its way into the stable version of the Microsoft Edge browser.

The company highlighted another handy feature that is coming soon: smart copy. Smart Copy makes it "easier to select, copy, and paste the exact content you want from the web and preserve the rich web format". Also upcoming are a password monitor to receive prompts if passwords were found in breaches, and inPrivate Browsing enhancements.