Using the Next Five Seconds to Make Your Internet World a Bit More Beautiful

I spend a lot of time on the InterWebs. A frightening amount of time, really. And the vast majority of that time — almost 100% — is spent in Chrome. With somewhere between 100 and 1,000,000 tabs open at once. (I’m exaggerating. But only slightly.)

Yes, it can be a bit mind-numbing. (Or in my case, “mind”-numbing.) So this is just about the best thing that has happened to my Internet-absorbing, photography-loving self in the last month or ever. From the folks at Flickr:

Many of us also open up dozens of new browser tabs each day. We were inspired to answer the question “what would happen if new tabs weren’t boring, but instead offered a window into a passionate photography community?”

Today, we are releasing a browser extension to answer this question. Flickr Tab uses our unique algorithm to deliver the most interesting Flickr photos to your tabs in Chrome. You can find out more about it here.

It took seconds to install, and I was off! …by which I mean “Now, rather than having 100 and 1,000,000 work-related tabs open at once, I find that I’m hitting Ctrl-T somewhere between 200 and 2,000,000 times a minute just to see the gorgeous images it brings up.”

I suppose that might be a bit of a drawback if you’re self-employed. Or my employer. Another drawback? My “new tab” feature usually opens straight to Google Search, which is where I start the majority of my browsing. But lately, I’ve realized that I’ve been using the address bar directly for that purpose. And while YMMV (especially if you’ve got apps or Frequent Pages or Bookmarks on that tab), I find that it’s worth an extra moment or two to have a gorgeous photo pop up every time I get there.

Usually, I’m moving at Breakneck eSpeed when a new tab is in order, but this Flickr extension is slowing me down just a bit. And reminding me that there are real-life, non-InterWeb realms out there.

Benefits of beauty, both.

Attribution(s): “Spires via photopin (license); “The Black and White Treatment” via photopin (license); “Field of Tulips” via photopin (license).