Introduction and Goals

Reading online is unlike reading anywhere else. With books, readers are forced from one page to the next, or from Chapter 1 to Chapter 3, by way of Chapter 2. With magazines and newspapers, readers are offered alternatives to what-they-are-reading-now, but the alternatives are finite. Readers can find their way back. Reading online is different. The Internet is a maze of what-not and who-thought, and years of Internet reading have taught me that if I leave one story, I'll get lost. I'll rarely return. Reading online can be a life of half-truths and quarter-stories. It can be frustrating.

A few months ago, I downloaded the new Firefox browser, and I drank the tabbed browsing Kool-Aid. I'm a devotee. It's changed the way I consume media. It's motivated me to start a blog.

I grew up reading the 1986 World Book Encyclopedia. Whenever I had difficulty finishing dinner, my mother would force me to eat until I was done. My family members would leave, and I'd sit alone -- except for the stack of encyclopedias in our dining room. Sometimes, I'd sit for hours, following a story in one encyclopedia volume to a story in second volume to a story in a third. It was interesting. I'd pick up tid-bits about all sorts of nonsense. But, because the books were physical, I could always return to my starting point.

Now, with tabbed browsing, I'm able to recreate that style of reading. I can begin with one story and -- without navigating away or losing my place -- can easily pursue tangents. I feel empowered. I feel emboldened. I feel like blogging.

Now, some of my favorite reading online is hardly reading at all. I love Howard Kurtz's blog items, and the Drudge Report, and other launching pads that send me spiraling into the Internet. Here, at Tab It Up, I'm going to chronicle some of my Internet voyages. If I read a great series of articles, and I've got a browser full of interesting tabs, I'll document that here. It is my goal to provide all the links that I followed. It'll be like peeking into my Internet library.