Ideas for essentials for a better Zen than Arc.

[N3UR00]

Sidebar column sort order:

1. ‘Pinned tabs’, the same as how it works now.
2. ‘Essentials’, which are actually one tab, but with a history structure called an essential tree.
3. ‘Derived tab groups’, which are groupings of tabs opened in a particular essential.
4. ‘Tabs’, which is exactly how it works now.

• Each essential can be renamed.
• A derived tab group is grouped by the essential that derived it.
• Derived tab groups are opened exclusively by one group.
• The Essentials column has only one tab at the top, and always shows the most recently selected essential in the Essentials tree, or the one that is open in the Derived Tab Groups column.
• Each essential in the Essentials tree does not change its own URL; instead, it creates a set of derived tabs.
• You can also use the go back and go forward buttons to navigate to the parent or child essentials in the essentials tree.

This structure basically includes the pinned tabs of Arc, but it's better.
A blank page essential is a folder of sorts.
You could probably use this as the default behavior for adding folders.
The essentials tab's navigation is limited to the essentials tree only, but it creates a derived group of tabs, which is more consistent.
Everything new won't be shoved in as an unpinned tab like it was in Arc, which should help maintain context quite a bit.

It's also more space efficient in the non-expanded sidebar.
The Essentials tab is just a tab, so it takes up very little space.
You can show the essentials tree on hover, right-click the go back button to show a list of all parent ancestor hierarchies, and left-click the go forward button to show a list of children if there are more than two child essentials.
I'm sure it would still work well on the horizontal tab.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on these ideas.