The Intrusive Pop-up
Google Chrome features a UI element known as “Tab Hover Cards.” When you place your mouse cursor over a background tab without clicking it, a small card pops up displaying the page title, URL, and a thumbnail image of the site. By default, there is a slight delay built into this feature; you must hover over the tab for a fraction of a second before the card appears. However, power users who rapidly move their mouse across the top of the browser window often find these pop-ups flashing aggressively, causing visual distraction and sometimes obscuring the address bar.
Eliminating the Hover Delay
If you find the flashing hover cards annoying, you can use Chrome’s hidden configuration flags to completely disable the hover card system. Note that this removes both the thumbnail image and the text tooltip, returning Chrome to the classic, clean tab interface.
Open Google Chrome, click into the address bar, type chrome://flags, and press Enter to access the experimental features page. In the search box at the top, type Hover Cards. You will likely see two flags: “Tab Hover Cards” and “Tab Hover Card Images.” Click the dropdown menu next to both of these flags and change their status from “Default” to Disabled. A blue button labelled “Relaunch” will appear at the bottom right corner of your screen. Click it to restart the browser. When Chrome reopens, hovering your mouse over background tabs will no longer trigger any intrusive pop-up cards or tooltips.