Hover and Switch
From Intelligent Designs
A user interface pattern where an active area of the client window (e.g. a tab bar) controls the primary content of the client window (e.g. a browser window). Instead of having to click on an item in the active area, hovering over it for a certain duration of time (e.g. 100 ms) causes the client area to change. Now that the switch has been triggered, simply moving your mouse in the client area causes further switches without any delay. (A similar mechanism is used for showing info bubbles or “speed tips” in many applications.)
This UI pattern is used, for example, by the Firefox Tabbrowser Preferences extension to ease browser tab navigation by eliminating the need to click tabs.
