The Aggressive Organization
Google Chrome occasionally tests aggressive tab management features aimed at heavy users who frequently have dozens of tabs open simultaneously. One such experimental feature automatically analyzes your open tabs and forces them into colour-coded “Tab Groups” based on their domain name (e.g., all tabs from digitash.com are forcefully grouped together under a single coloured header). While intended to reduce clutter, this automated sorting destroys your manual tab placement and can make it significantly harder to find a specific webpage if you rely on spatial memory to organize your browser window.
Disabling the Automated Sorting
If you prefer to maintain absolute manual control over where your tabs are placed and hate when the browser reorganizes them without your permission, you must disable the auto-grouping algorithm via Chrome’s hidden experimental flags menu.
Open a new tab in Google Chrome, type chrome://flags into the address bar, and press Enter. This opens the advanced configuration panel. In the search box at the very top of the page, type Tab Groups Auto Create or simply Auto Group (the exact phrasing changes depending on the specific Chrome build). Look for the flag specifically related to automatically grouping tabs by domain or topic. Click the dropdown menu next to this flag and change its status from “Default” to Disabled. A blue “Relaunch” button will appear at the bottom right of the screen. Click it to restart the browser. Chrome will no longer attempt to intelligently group your tabs.