Sniglet needed – what are these tabs called?

So, there’s this thing I do, where I get interested in a topic and I search out information on the web. And I open a ton of seemingly good-start pages in different tabs. And I make my way through them, reading, closing some as I finish them or find them less useful, leaving others open to come back to later, occasionally spawning new tabs as one or another provides more useful or interesting links. I read the web like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, but one where I keep fingers in every fork in the road, and choose every adventure.

Inevitably, I get distracted, or have an appointment, or nature calls. And some of those tabs remain open. For WEEKS. I don’t close them, because I’m sure I’m going to come back to them. I’m imperfect until I’ve read, understood, and acted appropriately on the information they hold.

And this isn’t possible to do, because in the meantime, I’ve gone on three more info-fishing expeditions: shortwave radio; 1940s cultural critics; artificial intelligence theories; geothermal heating installations; Canadian Intelligence agencies; changes in league batting average over time; Cow Clicker; learning object-oriented programming; dystopic novels involving robots; realistic plans for colonizing space; whatever it is. The tabs remain because of some combination of striving, self-delusion, laziness, curiosity, and distraction.

And I end up, in the best case scenario, with a situation like this (in addition to these, I usually have 5 or 6 of the standard tabs open: Gmail, FB, Twitter, an active project of some sort, fantasy baseball if it’s in season, the New York Times…)

 

What are these tabs called? And why can’t I just learn to use bookmarks or a remembering app like everybody else?