# Overgrown browser extension

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Overgrown browser extension and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Playful visual reminder of how long tabs sit unused. Critics note only about 20 tabs load, so it helps less with many tabs.

## Why people recommend it

- Fun, convincing visual of neglected tabs (2 comments): "this extension seems to do surprisingly convincing job of it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50237276)) "This is so useless yet so cool!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50236427))
- Shows how old each tab is (1 comments): "It is a visual representation of how old the tab is." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50236483))
- Clever idea people want to extend (1 comments): "I love this idea, but would like the vines to grow over the tab items instead of the window itself." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50241069))

## What people warn about

- Only about 20 tabs load (1 comments): "this tool is useless for me because at any time only ~20 of them are loaded" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50241030))
- Can discourage and frustrate users (1 comments): "It discourages and frustrates." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50237447))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Unhook](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unhook.md): 48 recommend
- [SingleFile](https://hackerapproved.com/p/singlefile.md): 34 recommend
- [Vimium](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vimium.md): 29 recommend
- [Sidebery](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sidebery.md): 27 recommend
- [Redirector Firefox extension](https://hackerapproved.com/p/redirector-browser-extension.md): 24 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Overgrown browser extension", https://hackerapproved.com/p/overgrown/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).