There are various number of titles are placed instead of the Jobs tab in the top bar.

  • Browse Jobs
  • Find a Job
  • Job Board
  • Developer Jobs
  • Explore Jobs
  • Search Jobs

These are dynamically changing when we are open the Stack Overflow in new browsers.

These dynamic title change is for the A/B_testing or something else?

Screenshot for reference:


  • 16
    I see "Search Jobs" when I open a private browser window. For what it's worth, I don't like any of these as well as "Jobs". All the other tabs have a one-word description. – Cody Gray Jun 13 '17 at 12:28
  • 4
    Aren't you also "Browsing Questions" or "Searching Documentation"? Why does "Jobs" need an explanation word before it, while the other tabs seem self explanatory? Also, the current tabs design just separates the different tabs by some space, so I agree with @CodyGray that a one-word description is much clearer. – Tot Zam Jun 13 '17 at 13:49
  • 2
    I don't like "Jobs" without an explanatory word. It makes me think they are jobs at StackExchange, not jobs in any company. – Ville-Valtteri Jun 14 '17 at 7:42

Yes, we are currently running a multivariate test on Jobs link text. This is why you see the differences per browser.

  • 4
    Isn't this actually an A/B/C/D/E (or more) test? In addition to the 4 above I'm seeing "Explore Jobs". – Dan Neely Jun 13 '17 at 13:32
  • 16
    I think I need an "A/B block" plugin. – Yakk - Adam Nevraumont Jun 13 '17 at 13:48
  • 49
    It's good practice to chose the variation deterministically based on user data (eg using a pseudo random number with the userid as the seed), so that every user sees a consistent treatment, avoiding inconsistent content that leads to confusion and questions like this. You can bet that if this user took the time to ask this question, there are 1000's of users feeling exactly the same that didn't bother. – Bohemian Jun 13 '17 at 14:36
  • 1
    @DanNeely yes, it's a multivariate test. – Haney Jun 13 '17 at 16:12
  • 6
    @Bohemian you're right, but a large portion of our user base is anonymous, so we may only fingerprint them by browser and IP address basically. Otherwise we'd have to wait a lot longer for our tests to reach statistical significance. – Haney Jun 13 '17 at 16:13
  • 3
    @Haney Just throwing this out there; I was trying to go to the Jobs tab and having the text change actually made it harder to get there (since I was scanning for "Jobs" and the tab started with "Browse") – BradleyDotNET Jun 13 '17 at 21:09
  • 2
    @Yakk, just add try{document.getElementById('nav-jobs').textContent = 'Jobs';} catch(e){} to whatever user script you use on SO pages. Alternately: var jobs = document.getElementById('nav-jobs');if(jobs){jobs.textContent = 'Jobs';} – Makyen Jun 14 '17 at 3:07
  • 4
    Note that on my Linux/Firefox system I just see "developer": i.stack.imgur.com/F5pQH.png – Martin Tournoij Jun 14 '17 at 3:19
  • 1
    @maky I am not just saying UI flux is annoying, but rather all A/B testing would be nice to opt out of... – Yakk - Adam Nevraumont Jun 14 '17 at 9:46
  • @Carpetsmoker - should be sorted now. Can you confirm? – Oded Jun 14 '17 at 14:18
  • Yup @oded, looks fine now – Martin Tournoij Jun 14 '17 at 14:24
  • @Yakk I'm pretty sure optional self-selection out of A/B testing would be correlated with variables of interest and hence void the whole purpose of the testing. The only likely case in which it won't be correlated is when either a large chunk of user base decides to opt out (removing any significance), or a really small chunk opts out (and then, why bother) – FooBar Jun 15 '17 at 8:27
  • 3
    @foobar yes, which is why I'd need A/B Block. Much like adblock gets rid of annoying ads, A/B block stops annoyiny A/B testing. It would be hard to write. But experiencing constant psycological experiments for commercial purposes without consent gets old. – Yakk - Adam Nevraumont Jun 15 '17 at 9:41
  • @Yakk Oh right, I forgot that StackExchange just like any other company trashes user experience for no other reason than its own profits - clearly visible from the abundance of advertisement around here. At its extreme, your argument is the same of those who illegaly share movies: "Much like adblock gets rid of annoying ads, uTorrent stops annoying paying for movies. It's difficult to maintain. But having to permanently pay producers for their products for commercial purposes gets old. – FooBar Jun 15 '17 at 10:56
  • And as usual, if features of a product are public knowledge, consent stems from consumption. But perhaps it'd be good to put it into TOS, just for the very special kind of users. – FooBar Jun 15 '17 at 10:57

With Stylish (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, IE?; quickstart, detailed explanations), you can make that field narrower.

@-moz-document domain("stackoverflow.com") {
    /* Shorten e.g. "Developer Jobs" to "Jobs" */
    a#nav-jobs {
        width: 3em !important;
        direction: rtl !important;
        overflow: hidden !important;

(A multi-word title is a really bad idea here: it looks like “Developer” and “Jobs” are separate menus. Yes, I did wonder for a moment what the “Developer” menu was for. Yes, I know your A/B testing told you that you get more clicks on the wider text, so “Developer Jobs” is scientifically superior and I should be glad that it isn't blinking and dancing the rumba.)

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