What are Your Google Chrome Web Browser Tips and Tricks?
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Now that you can download Google Chrome, are you going to switch? Granted, this is an early version of the browser, based on very solid pieces of technology. Is it enough, in your limited time playing with it? I’ve been trying to dive deeper and discover features that may not seem to be available on the surface for other power users like myself. I think Google has found a perfect balance between “power” users, and “casual” users. There are certain things about Chrome that are intuitive, but there’s also some things that aren’t as smooth as they could be… yet.
I’ve been running Chrome on both Windows XP and Windows Vista for a few hours now. I’m sincerely impressed under both circumstances. The feedback I’m seeing all over the place is very positive. It is fast. The features are excellent. It just works… and works well. So if you’re a power user like me, you’ll like the following tips I’ve come up with for you.
- If you go to the Omni bar (the address bar) and type in about:memory, you’ll get a browser tab that shows a summary of all the processes running in the browser… along with running a comparison with any other browsers you may be running at the same time. This will tell you how well it’s working on your system. There are several different shortcut easter eggs hidden in Chrome.
- about:version
- about:plugins
- about:cache
- about:memory
- about:stats
- about:histograms
- about:dns
- about:network
- about:crash
- about:hang
- about:internets
- about:whenwillthisbeavailableformacosx?!
- If you want to get to the task manager, right click somewhere in the title bar of the window, and go to task manager. (or click Shift+ESC while the browser is open) You’ll see the open tabs you have at the time, as well as if you have any plugins that are running (such as Flash app or ShockWave app). If you have a runaway app, you can select it and end its process. They’ve separated that, to keep you from having to shut down your entire browser.
- You know I like to click on just about everything I see inside a Web browser. Let’s say I’m on FriendFeed, and see that someone has made a FF Room. Maybe I want to surf that room, but I don’t want anything I see or do to be tracked. I can open an “Incognito” window. Then, everything I do in that browser instance is going to be private.
- If you do a search for something (like Chris), you can see recent pages in “History”, containing your word(s). It not only saves text of your history, it also saves thumbnails of each page you’ve visited.
- There are many awesome keyboard shortcuts for Chrome. This includes shortcuts for everything from opening a new tab, to opening a file on your computer from within Chrome.
Needless to say, Chrome is certainly worth downloading. I think that it will be most difficult to convince FireFox users to switch, because they are used to the Plugins and Extensions. Just download Chrome and try it. Go to websites you normally do, and see how much faster they load for you. That will make the decision for you.
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23 Comments
iForian: iBlog, uComment
September 6th, 2008
at 4:47am
Chris Pirillo Which Limerick Will Win the HP TouchSmart PC? Where Do You Meet Geeks?What are Your Google Chrome Web Browser Tips and Tricks?Do You Think Google Chrome is Just Another Web Browser? Will Google Chrome Change the Web World?
Eureka Tips
September 10th, 2008
at 9:54am
to deliver offline functionality for web pages and more. But don’t expect Chrome to work much better, or even work at all, in all of Google services – take a look at the following screenshot from Google Groups, visited with Chrome:4. What are the Chrome tips and tricksIf you go to the Omni bar (the address bar) and type in about:memory, you’ll get a browser tab that shows a summary of all the processes running in the browser… along with running a comparison with any other browsers you may be running at the same
Max Kantola
September 4th, 2008
at 12:10am
I’m liking it so far, just a bit of Flash lag issues.
Andrei
September 4th, 2008
at 2:25am
Now you can get Chrome PE
http://www.chromepe.tk
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
September 4th, 2008
at 2:57am
I really like Google Chrome because its very fast… but i keep my Firefox !
Sam
September 4th, 2008
at 7:41am
Couple of other things I noticed:
1) New Incognito window that allows you to surf websites and as they mention “Pages you view in this window won’t appear in your browser history or search history, and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window”
A good idea especially for web developers who need to sometimes test scripts and pages that have cookies.
2) Also another interesting feature was being able to search through your history and shows you a image of the webpage in the search results.
- Sam
Michael
September 4th, 2008
at 7:46am
It is very fast and clean, but needs more tweakability.
It needs a Master Password, like Firefox, or it cannot be considered secure in a laptop.
It needs to be able to use Firefox add-ons (ie: AdBlock, NoScript), or equivalent.
It needs a bookmark manager.
I am using it as my primary browser, but switch to FF for anything that needs a login.
MadHatt3r
September 4th, 2008
at 8:24am
Typing :% in the OmniBar makes the browser crash.
Right clicking on the forward and backward keys shows a history list of sites you visited in that tab.
CTRL+F gives a nice “find” search field under the bookmark-bar.
MadHatt3r
September 4th, 2008
at 8:34am
There’s also “paste and go” when you paste a link in the bar.
UncleJohn
September 4th, 2008
at 3:25pm
I like to use it to make custom apps for sites I go to alot, in effect turning the sites into there own widgets. :)
Click on the page button to the right, in the drop down list click on Create Application ShortCut
Tecman281
September 4th, 2008
at 6:38pm
very good post chris
Tecman281
September 4th, 2008
at 6:40pm
good blog post man love your show
Jeff
September 4th, 2008
at 6:50pm
my tip is to defiantly transfer all your bookmarks from fire fox, and if your using IE7 … shame on you.
but it has a similar interface with the bookmarks linke
Jeff
September 4th, 2008
at 6:50pm
my tip is to defiantly transfer all your bookmarks from fire fox, and if your using IE7 … shame on you.
but it has a similar interface with the bookmarks line
Bigbobo33
September 4th, 2008
at 9:35pm
I found out that if you go to a crash site like the rick roll smouch.net/lol, when you close it, instead of being unable to close it, you can stop the messages coming and close that tab.
Amanda
September 5th, 2008
at 12:17pm
I downloaded Google Chrome today. I’ve been toggling between the Chrome and my usual IE7. I really like the sleekness of the Chrome, but I really miss the print capability through the toolbar that I enjoyed with IE7. Does anyone know if there’s a way to add a toolbar function to connect to my wireless printer?
Thanks!!
Amanda
Benny
September 5th, 2008
at 3:01pm
i just can say read the EULA before you install chrom!!
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”
if you think hey i dont´care about this go away GeeK!!,
it may be inertisting for you that chrom submits all your browser´s history straight to google network. Or in other words google knows every site you serf!
And before you say hey Geek you lie! read the EULA carfully and then come back here and kick me..
sry for my bad english…. best regards benny
Stargateanubis14
September 5th, 2008
at 8:18pm
This is not working at all for me with vista…i can go to google..and a few other sites i go to normally…i try to search google…and what do i get?
”
This webpage is not available.
The webpage at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=google&btnG=Google+Search might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
More information on this error
Below is the original error message
Error 2 (net::ERR_FAILED): Unknown error.
”
So far, not liking it
JMan3451
September 6th, 2008
at 9:12pm
I’ve gotta say that i’m used to using Firefox and the mouse gestures to get around (i.e. closing tabs, going forward, backward, and reloading pages) but after an hour of using chrome i really didn’t miss the add ons at all. Also chrome really seems to be a faster browser overall compared to even a tweaked version of Firefox.
nathan
September 6th, 2008
at 9:58pm
im having some trouble with google chrome
its not working with java
some help would be nice plz
Bodhi
September 9th, 2008
at 9:38am
I havent had a chance to try out Chrome extensively but i like it so far except for two things. First, it doesnt seem to have smooth scrolling as FF. Therefore sometimes i miss the content and i havent found a way to control the scrolling speed or lines.second, it doesnt seem to allow you to control the behavior of tabs the way FF does.
Dekenter
September 9th, 2008
at 10:36am
One thing the Omnibar can’t do (at least as far as I can find) is act as a Firefox-style search bar. I have 20ish search engines listed in my Firefox search bar, but I only have the option of using one search engine (Google) in Chrome. So if I want to search for something on IMDB, for example, I have to go to http://www.imdb.com and then search for it on the site itself. Not a time saver…and enough of a nuisance to keep me away from Chrome.
Alexis
September 17th, 2008
at 8:59am
I won’t be switching just yet (especially since I am running OS X), but I have to say Chrome shows great promise IMHO.
In fact, the only features that will keep me from switching are FF’s bookmark tags and bookmarks manager along with a few add-ons (e.g. Cooliris, Tagsifter, Foxmarks and Ad-block Plus).
But I have to say I love Chrome’s omnibar which IMHO improves on the already excellent FF “awsome bar” thanks to its automatic “smart keywords” for your searches and the fact that Chrome indexes the CONTENTS of web pages you visit as well as their URL and title, thus giving you relevant results even when you only remember what a page was about but not its url nor its title…
I also find Chrome’s homepage really excellent.
Danie
September 18th, 2008
at 12:13am
Hi
how do u transfer all your bookmarks from ff to chrome