Sidekick Browser

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Member since: Nov 2020Deals bought: 42
5 stars
5 stars
Posted: Apr 19, 2024

I hope for some improvements - but already very usable as it is

My feedback after several weeks of using Sidekick: my résumé is very positive - I really enjoyed using it, and it proved to be very useful from the the very first days. I mainly use it to group apps and websites that I frequently use together into sessions and then quickly switch between these sessions. I have also used other tools that make a similar scenario possible. What I really like about Sidekick is the user experience, which takes place completely in the browser, and especially that the switching to apps and pages that I need right now works as quite smoothly. On the whole, the solution with Sidekick is more intuitive and smoother for me, than with previous solutions.

However, I also have some change requests that would make my work easier. Here is just an excerpt from my list of top wishes. I will send a longer list directly to support.

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Because quick switching between the pages or sessions that I need is my main scenario, I would like that to be possible through the global search. So if search could also find "tabs from inactive sessions" and even "tabs from inactive sessions in other workspaces" and also, hits that refer to the "session names" themselves - that would be great. This way, I could really use the search to switch quickly and targetedly.

It would be extremely helpful if the list of search results then also gets a well-thought-out sorting. My idea on this is to first display tabs from the active sessions, then possibly active applications, then hits that refer to session names, then tabs from inactive sessions, and finally also the inactive applications, and so on. After that you could list the hits from the other non-active workspaces to complete the list. If this would be possible, one could really use the search to switch quickly to where one wants to go.

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My second major wish is that it would be easier to orient oneself in the interface - so to know in which workspace, in which session I am right now, and which tab or which application is active.

To see quickly in which workspace one is, my suggestion would be, on the one hand, to be able to specify a different theme color for each workspace and to show the workspace name as part of the window title.

For the active session I would like the session name also to get included in the window title.

Thirdly, I find the distinction of which application is currently active not so well recognizable. With tabs, it is the case that the active tabs get the respective theme background color. I would like the same for active applications. And I also find the distinguishability between open and closed Apps not so well recognizable visually. Maybe accordingly use the inactive theme background color like with the tabs.

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Regarding the handling of the sessions, I would like two more improvements.

One would be that we could lock the URLs that are stored in the sessions. Where would this be useful? In my business context, I have several pages that have a sort of start page where the Single-Sign-On happens and then they redirect to other subpages. The problem is that then in the session these subpages URLs are stored and the Single Sign-On no longer works because it, as I said, only takes place on the original start page. So here the idea is to be able to set certain URLs of the session in a locked mode. Opening this sessions should than use the "locked URLS" and not the ones that I was redirected the last time.

And the second concerns the quick switch between sessions. Often during a working day I also change the context over and over again and switch back and forth between sessions is slow. It seems that the tabs are completely closed each time, which is why a quick switch is not really possible. Maybe this behavior can be optimized a bit.

There are other functions that sound promising but are not yet optimally implemented. Tasks, for example, still seem rather buggy implemented to me. As this is not my main scenario, I can overlook this for the time being.

Nevertheless, I am very satisfied with Sidekick and will continue to use it. Thank you for creating the tool and please keep the browser engine up-to-date as noted in other comments to not open the door to security vulnerabilities.

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