Can you create some variation in the tab icons so it's easier to find the one you were just looking at? I've never seen this done but I do often have the problem of having, say, 10 Google Docs open in a full tab bar and not knowing which is which.
I really like this idea. I already planned on enabling users to upload thumbnails images for the "book cover" of a table. I could make each tab's favicon based on that.