Google may soon let third parties add options to Chrome's tab context menu

Google has been tinkering around with Chrome quite a lot recently. For the most part this has meant adding new features and options, but there have also been removals.

One element of the browser that has fallen victim to some slashings is the context menu that appears when right-clicking a tab. Several options have disappeared from this menu -- much to the chagrin of some users -- but Google now appears to be considering opening it up to entries from third parties, potentially making it more useful than ever.

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Recent updates to Chrome have seen Google killing off options such as reopening closed tabs and bookmarking all open tabs. While these and other removed options can still be accessed via keyboard shortcuts or app menus, there have still been grumbles of discontent from people used to accessing options in a certain way.

So the news that third party developers could soon be able to add their own entries to the tab context menu could mean that the missing options are brought back, and also that new options are added.

A commit on the Chromium Gerrit explains the proposal:

Add the ability for extensions to add items to the tab context menu

Following the removal of "Close other tabs" from the tab context menu, this is a way to allow extensions to add item to that menu using the chrome.contextMenus API.

This is potentially exciting news. It means that all manner of features and options could be made accessible via the tab context menu. It is already possible for extensions to add entries to Chrome's main context menu -- the one that appears when you right click on the content of a website -- but the ability to add to the tab context menu opens up more possibilities.

There's no word about quite when this option might be made available, but hopefully it won't be too long.

Image credit: Ilya Sergeevych / Shutterstock