Hi, I noticed that the spinner option in UI Tabs 1.7.1 requires (looks for) a span element in the tab to show the 'loading' text. <li><a href="http://url">no good</a></li> <li><a href="http://url"><span>good</span></a></li> However, this isn't documented here: http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Tabs#option-spinner or here: http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Tabs#theming Also, I don't think it should actually require a span. It should just replace the content of the anchor tag with spinner. Otherwise someone (me) who tries to spruce up their tab will get screwed: <li><a href="http://url">messages <span class="count">( ## )</span></ a></li>