8 Cool Tips & Tricks to Make Most Of Google Chrome

The popularity of any software can be guessed from the number of hacks that trail it after a release. Or the number of add-ons. Google Chrome seems to be not only holding its own but also trotting along. As of April 2009, it is the world’s fourth most popular browser. Not bad for a browser which is few months away from its first birthday.

As user opinions sally back and forth about browser preferences, one thing is not open to question. Firefox is definitely more expandable and customizable than all others out there (Don’t they call it the Swiss Army knife for the web).

But if you like the Chrome’s agility then there are ways to make it more versatile. We at MakeUseOf.com have gone over quite a lot of ground with the Chrome. You can read about some tips and tricks here and here.

Here are some more ways to reach under the hood and exploit some handy Chrome features.

1. Make Chrome’s consume less memory

By default, Chrome is a multi-process browser. Yawn! What’s that? Simply, it means that each tab runs as a separate process asking for separate resources from the computer. The current working tab gets the most priority over the others. This was intentionally designed to make web apps run faster in Chrome. This feature makes the browser zippier and more stable even with multiple open tabs.
But if you aren’t a heavy user and use the browser to surf only a single site at a time then disabling multiple processes can free up some CPU resources. To handle each web process Chrome has three settings –
–process-per-tab The default mode; each tab gets an independent process of its own. This increases the rendering of webpages and makes the browser stable as each tab is a separate process from the rest. But it also consumes memory.
–process-per-site One process for each unique website; for instance a user with two tabs open for Gmail and another for MakeUseOf will have the two Google tabs running under the same process.
–single-process The simplest mode; all tabs run in a single process, much like the other browsers we have now. This setting frees up memory for other applications. This is what we are looking for.
Create a shortcut for Chrome. Open the Properties tab. Edit the Target field as shown in the picture by appending –single-process to the path.

Similarly you can create two more shortcuts for the other two processes to handle your web sessions in three ways.

2. Manage tabs with the Task Manager

This is an offshoot of Google Chrome’s multi-process nature which allows each tab to run separate from the other. This allows us to manage, reload or shut down each tab without affecting the rest of our browsing. All this can be done through the Task Manager. Press Shiftand Escape to start the task manager or right click on the blue top bar. An unresponsive tab can be shut down without bringing down the browser by a simple press of the End processbutton.


3. Some stats for nerds

There is a simple way to tell which browser is using the most resources on your computer. Chrome’s task manager lets you examine the memory use of the opened browsers on your computer irrespective of make. Open task manager and click on the ‘Stats for nerds’ link at the bottom. A new tab opens with detailed memory info for all running browsers. The second part of the page also describes Chrome’s process usage stats.


4. Some more stats on the Resources page

More for site administrators than for you and me but the resources page has a ton of info to offer. To track the resources used by a web page – right click inside the page. Select Inspect element – go to the Resources tab and reload the web page. You can view a list of images, scripts and objects from the web page and you can sort them by size or by loading time.


5. Drag to resize any text box

Do you feel that the size of a text box on any website is not worthy of your thoughts…then just place your mouse on the bottom right edge and drag to increase the size. Give MakeUseOf.com’s comment box the first drag.


6. Split Chrome into double-pane view

This bookmarklet from Chromeplugins.org is incredibly useful. The dual view feature is useful when you want to compare two websites or search results side by side. Drag the Chrome Split Browser bookmarklet into your bookmarks toolbar. When you click the bookmarklet, it asks you to choose the two websites you want and displays them in a double pane.


7. Startup with multiple pages

On launch, Chrome opens up with the ‘Most visited’ area. But it also lets us set options for starting the day by opening our most favored sites in several tabs at once. Click on the wrench icon (Customize and control Chrome) on the top right corner. Under Options – Basic tab we can add the pages we want to open on startup.


8. Drag and drop downloads from Chrome

After finishing a download, you can copy it to the desktop or to any other folder by a simple drag and drop directly from Google Chrome.

Did I miss any of your favorite tips or tricks? Let us know in the comments and lets help each other create a more sleek Chrome experience.

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Top 10 Google Settings You Should Know About

As the outcry over Google Buzz's privacy has shown us, it's smart to explore settings in Gmail, along with other places you're sharing data with the search giant. Let's take a look at 10 privacy, convenience, and annoyance fixers you should know.

10. Turn off auto-displayed pictures from Gmail contacts

By default, Gmail hides images embedded into emails from chain letters and unknown sources—and that's a smart move, given spammers' tracking tactics and malware tendencies. But it still shows images from contacts you've previously sent mail to, which can be a pain if you've got relatives who just love hi-larious forwards. Head to your Settings page, and look for the 'external content' setting, which you can switch off to always ask you to confirm showing images in any email. If you've got just a handful of offenders, open up one of the egregious emails, hit the 'Show details' link near the bottom of the to/from/subject details, and click the 'don't display from now on' link. (Original post)

9. Fine-tune Google Apps for your domain

Google Apps, formerly know as Apps for Your Domain, has a lot of goodies tucked inside it for anyone who owns their own site, runs a family name domain, or operates a small business. Unlike Gmail, however, the new features and disabled offerings aren't as apparent (or blogged about). Gina gave us a great tour of Google Apps, showing how you can control privacy and access, choose which Labs features make it into your domain's email, and otherwise set up your site to your liking.

8. Prevent Android from automatically signing into Gchat

Simple and easy, but also easy to miss: If you've got an Android phone and have launched Google Talk from it just once, you might notice that you seem to catch any and all chats throughout the day. That's because Talk can sit in the background upon launching, ready to pick up messages. That's fine if that's what you want, but if you want a choice in the matter, head to the Google Talk app, hit your Menu key, and choose Settings. Un-check the 'Automatically sign in' option, hit your back button, and then hit Menu and sign out of Google Talk. You'll need to sign back in if you're downloading apps from the Market (odd pairing, indeed), but you're otherwise free to chat when you want to. (Original post)

7. Turn off Buzz, Chat, and Labs in Gmail

Not big on Buzz? Chat more distracting than useful? Gmail Labs making your inbox feel lag-ish? You can kill all of them, if you'd like, and get back just a plain vanilla inbox. Scroll all the way to the bottom of any page inside Gmail, and at the bottom, you'll see two links to turn Gmail's chat sidebar and Buzz inbox on or off. Actually, you don't really 'turn off Buzz' so much as remove it from your inbox, so be sure and check your Buzz settings at your Google Profile, if you have a Google Profile. If Labs features seem to be slowing down, or even breaking, your Gmail experience, you can turn them off entirely by loading Gmail from this URL: https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0#. Bookmark it as your main Gmail link, or title it 'Gmail (Safe Mode)' if you'd like to still venture into all the goodies on occasion.

6. Disable SafeSearch (or lock it in semi-permanently)

Google's SafeSearch isn't an entirely comprehensive solution to preventing impressionable eyes from the worst realms of the internet. It is, however, a good stopgap until they learn to grow up and install other browsers, wipe out cookies, and customize user scripts. Whether you don't have any young ones in the house and want to turn SafeSearch off altogether or you want a complete SafeSearch lockdown on your computer, head to your search preferences, scroll down to the SafeSearch section, and find the setting that fits you. (In Google Image Search, they've helpfully placed the control right under the search box on your first result.) If you want to permanently enable SafeSearch, click the "Lock SafeSearch" link—and repeat for any browsers the little ones use. Now when they're performing a Google search, you should see some giant Google-colored balls in the upper-right corner—or else they've gotten too smart.

5. Set your default SMS location

For those without web-connected smartphones, or at least a decent data connection, Google's SMS service is seriously helpful—it's how I (used to) get by with just an iPod touch and a standard phone. To make it even more helful, text set location, followed by the city and state or ZIP code where you spend the most time. Now you can just text 'weather' or 'pet store' to get the skinny on what's happening. (Original post)

4. Link and integrate your apps

Taking off the privacy and preference hat for a moment, Google's apps have a lot of neat settings just beneath their surface that make using them all together a tight experience. You can turn emails into tasks, and then map those tasks on your calendar. You can send voice messages and SMS from Google Voice to Gmail, and mark them as read when you open them there. Gina previously ran down seven easy ways to integrate your Google apps, and even more seem to come along every week.

3. Turn off Search History, logged in or not

If you're logged into Google for Gmail or any other service, there's a good chance Google's keeping tabs on all your searches, months after you made them. If you aren't logged in, Google's probably still tracking and personalizing your searches based on what you previously typed in. This one-stop solution that should work for most users, but if it doesn't, log into Google and head to google.com/history. A notice at the top will tell you if you've 'paused' or otherwise stopped your search history, or else you'll see your recent searches listed with dates and times. You can clear out this history by hitting the 'Remove items' link on the left. If you aren't logged in, look for the 'Web History' link in the upper-right corner. From there, you can choose whether Google tracks your searches via cookie and IP address and customizes your results.

2. Back up Google apps' data

For all you've heard about Buzz, privacy, and Google this week, you still can't fault them too much for their efforts to let you take your data with you if you decide to leave their app ecosystem. The Data Liberation Front site, a pet project from Google's engineers, explains how you can pull your information, documents, and other data out of nearly any Google product. Gina's also covered some of Google's apps in a cloud backup feature, and Adam tackled the best-at-that-time tools for Google backups in 2007. (Original Data Liberation Front post)

1. Control what Buzz says about you on the web

Google's new social service Buzz showed up suddenly in everyone's Gmail accounts this week, and right away it wanted to get you connected with the people you contact over email and chat the most. Before you let it turn you loose, though, consider whether you want the world to see exactly who you 'follow.' Google has since improved the on/off visibility, but if you want to make sure you're not broadcasting your inbox to the web at large, we suggest visiting your profile and checking your follower counts. If you don't see a profile at all, or don't see the followed/following numbers, you're likely in the clear, but as with many aspects of Buzz in this early stage, you can't be too careful. And when you actually start using the thing, be careful not to broadcast private email addresses yourself. (Original posts: Buzz update, private emails).

Bonus item: Open search results in new tabs

Lifehacker copy consigliere Dustin Luck mentions yet another reason to hit up your search preferences from time to time. With a single click, you can choose to open the results you click on in new windows. If you've set up your browser the right way, those new windows become new tabs, and little research projects on Google just became far more convenient.

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What settings do you always make sure are set in your own personal Google universe? What settings do you wish existed for better control and privacy? Tell us about them both in the comments.

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Buying a Nexus One in the UK: The Guide

So, you’ve seen our guide to Google’s Nexus One and its spec and you want a piece of the action. If you’re in the UK and fancy getting your hands on a Nexus One, you’re in luck.

The UK is one of only three places outside the USA that Google will ship a handset to (the others being Singapore and Hong Kong).

Ready to take the plunge at importing a phone from the US? Here’s our guide to what to expect…

SIM-free only… for now

At present you can only buy the Nexus One SIM-free in the UK. A subsidised version with a Vodafone contract will be available “soon”. Precisely how soon we don’t know but Vodafone is saying early Spring. So, for know you’re going to have to get your head around the idea of paying 529 USD for the phone. It’s actually a bit more than that all-in, but we’ll get to that shortly.

Is it worth the hassle and up-front expense?

Whether you think a smartphone is worth a total cost of £450 (see below) is up to you. Buying a phone up front and then using a SIM-only deal can actually work out cheaper than buying a subsidised handset and signing up for an 18-month or two year contract.

T-Mobile, for example, offers a ‘Solo 20‘ plan with 600 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data for £20 per month. There’s only a 30 day commitment too; you’re not signed up to a length contract so you can change at any time if you wish. If you’re out of contract with your current network you’ll be able to port you number over to one of these plans by asking them for your PAC code.

Even when you compare the Nexus One to other unlocked phones, it’s no more expensive. It’s £50 cheaper than the highly regarded Nokia N900, while a pay-as-you-go iPhone costs nearly £100 more.

So, if you want to take the plunge here’s how it works…

The order process

Ordering your Nexus One is simple. You simply head along to google.com/phone, click ‘Get Your Phone’ and you’re away. After selecting the ‘Nexus One Phone’ option you get the option to engrave your phone with a message if you choose.. Then you’re on to the (potentially) troublesome bit: paying for it.

Paying for the phone

The upfront cost is 529 USD plus $29.64 for international shipping and an optional $20 for a mains adapter. If you’re planning to charge your Nexus One only by connecting it up to a computer via USB you won’t need this, but it’s worth getting as you never know when or where you might need to charge your phone.

You’ll be billed in dollars and your bank/credit card provider will convert the payment into Pounds Sterling at the exchange rate they’re using (which may be a little less favourable than the rate quoted by sites like xe.com). I got charged £361 by my bank in total (including the optional mains adapter).

Delays possible

When I ordered my Nexus One there was a two day delay between submitting my order and getting shipping confirmation. However, once it’s ordered you’ll be able to track its journey from a depot somewhere in the USA to your door using DHL’s excellent tracking service.

Additional costs on delivery

Bear in mind that when you receive your phone you will be expected to pay 17.5% VAT and 6.5% import duty. This applies to any goods purchased from abroad. If you’re lucky your phone will slip past HM Revenue & Customs without charge but don’t count on it. The courier (DHL) will require you to pay this sum (which amounts to just under £100 in this case). This takes the overall cost to roughly £450 at current rates. From reports we’re getting, buyers are not being asked to pay these additional costs on delivery. Instead you are likely to receive an invoice through the post at a later date, so keep an eye out in the mail.

Potential pitfalls

Google Checkout appears to be a bit temperamental when it comes to payment. It wouldn’t accept my credit card at all and I kept receiving an ‘Order Failed’ message. Upon switching to my debit card I had more luck. However, I don’t make a habit of spending that much money in one go so my bank suspected fraud and blocked the payment.

Google alerted me to the problem with an email. A quick call to the bank later (explaining that it was a legitimate purchase) and I was back on track. If this happens to you, make sure you follow the instructions in the email Google sends you – don’t just start a new order.

How long will the Nexus One take to arrive?

As yet, we don’t know. Google doesn’t quote international delivery times but you’ll be able to track the progress of your order through the website. We’ll update this post with more information when we get it. UPDATE: Ours took one week to arrive. It sat in the DHL depot for a whole weekend and only started moving after we sent an email to DHL asking what was happening. Hopefully you won’t need to do this!

by Martin Bryant
January 6, 2010
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Google Maps Get Labs With Nine Cool New Features

Here’s a nice surprise from Google’s Maps team: just like Gmail, Google Maps now also have the Labs feature (it’s the little green vial in the top right menu), which brings experimental new features for you to try out.

Right now, you can try out nine new features (all disabled by default):

Drag ‘n’ Zoom – lets you zoom in on a specific part of the map by drawing a box.

Aerial Imagery – gives you rotatable, high-resolution overhead imagery, but it’s only available in certain areas. Google plans to add more over time, though.

Back to Beta – OK, this one is a little weird. It lets you have a beta tag on Maps (just like Gmail). Only for hardcore Google users.

Where in the World Game – test your geography knowledge by guessing the names of countries from satellite imagery. I lost days playing a similar game on Facebook, and I forgot everything I’ve learned. Sigh.

Rotatable Maps – North facing up is just one way to look at a map. Now you can rotate it any way you like.

What’s Around Here? – Adds a second search button that searches for “*”, returning the top results in the current view. I’ve actually been waiting for this for a long time; it makes searching for certain POIs within some area a lot easier.

LatLng Tooltip – See the exact latitude and longitude next to your cursor.

LatLng Marker – Drop a marker anywhere on the map, showing the latitude and longitude of that location.

Smart Zoom – stops you from zooming into an area if imagery is not available.

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Angry Norwegians in scuba gear chase after Google Street View car Boing Boing

Angry Norwegians in scuba gear chase after Google Street View car

Click here to see the image above in the wild. News story, auto-translated to English in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. More on Google Maps. (thanks, BB reader Kjetil Rydland in Norway!)

By Xeni Jardin

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The Awesomeness of the Best Google Custom Logos

It's always a good surprise when you go at google.com search for something and you get to see another great Google custom logo. This past year was a true treasure chest, full of great designs, and I bet this year will also be a great year for these custom logos. The guys behind these are making their best to keep thinking outside the box...

... Very different from the first 5 or 6 years of Google. Back them, it was mostly some little changes and additions. But now we get to see full customized logos for holidays all over the globe, what is fantastic. Anyways, this is my selection... I think these are the best Google custom logos to this date. You may go to their Logo gallery and check them out, all of them. You might find some others you like. Anyways, I hope you enjoy these! Cheers. ;)

Jan 14, 2010 - Festival of Kites - (India)

Dec 17, 2009 - Discovery of the Aztec Sun Stone - (Mexico)

Dec 08, 2009 - E.C. Segar's Birthday - Popeye - (Global)

Nov 13, 2009 - NASA finds water on the moon - (Global)

Nov 04, 2009 - 20th Anniversary of the Wallace and Gromit Characters - (Selected Global)

Nov 02, 2009 - Loy Krathong - (Thailand)

Sep 21, 2009 - H.G. Wells' Birthday - (Selected Countries)

Aug 29, 2009 - Michael Jackson's Birthday - (Selected Countries)

Jul 23, 2009 - Comic-Con 2009 - Design and pencil Jim Lee, ink by Scott Williams, and color by Alex Sinclair

Jul 20, 2009 - 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing - (Selected Countries)

Jul 07, 2009 - Anniversary of the publication of Pinocchio - (Italy)

Jun 06, 2009 - 25th Anniversary of Tetris - (Selected Countries)

Apr 27, 2009 - Samuel Morse's Birthday - (Global)

Apr 22, 2009 - Earth Day - (Global)

Mar 02, 2009 - Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Jan 16, 2009 - Doodle 4 Google China: Doodle by ?? - (China)

Oct 31, 2008 - Happy Halloween! Doodle designed by Wes Craven - (US)

Sep 14, 2008 - Mid-Autumn Festival - (Vietnam)

Apr 22, 2008 - Earth Day - (Global)

Jan 28, 2008 - 50th Anniversary of the LEGO Brick - (Global)

Apr 22, 2007 - Earth Day - (Global)

Dec 12, 2006 - Edvard Munch's Birthday - (Global)

Apr 15, 2005 - Leonardo Da Vinci's Birthday - (Global)

Mar 30, 2005 - Vincent Van Gogh's Birthday - (Global)

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