There is a way currently to do that on the stable channel. Users on the Dev channel, which is Chrome 17 right now, cannot use that method anymore which indicates that it is only a temporary solution for the time being.

What you need to do is to add the startup parameter --new-tab-page to the web browser start. Close all instances of the Chrome browser on your system. Windows users can right-click the Chrome executable and select Properties from the context menu. The Chrome executable is located in the user directory. Windows 7 users find it under C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\

The Google Chrome Properties menu pops up once you have selected properties from the context menu. Append --new-tab-page at the end of the Target path (leaving a blank inbetween) and save the changes with a click on OK.

When you start Chrome again you should be able to work with the old new tab page again.

But what if the flag is no longer working? Your only option then is to install a third party extension to change the new tab page of the browser. You could install extensions like Define your own new tab to create your own tab page, New Tab Redirect to select a specific web address that is loaded when the new tab button is activated, Empty New Tab page for a blank page or Awesome New tab Page for a customizable tab page.

What’s your take on the new tab page in Chrome?

The Google Chrome web browser, and Chromium as well, use prerendering in a limited way. It may be used when you enter a phrase into the Chrome address bar. But which page or pages do get prerendered when this is happening?

That’s easy to find out (thanks to François Beaufort who posted a short demonstration video on YouTube). All you need to do is to open the Google Chrome or Chromium Task Manager to see which pages get prerendered by the web browser.

You can open the Chrome Task Manager with a click on the Wrench icon, the selection of Tools and Task Manager. You can alternatively use the keyboard shortcut Shift-Esc to bring up the Task Manager directly.

Look for Prerender: entries in the Task Manager. The indicator is followed either by the site url that got prerendered or the page title. It may still take time to identify the prerendered link on the page as Google is not displaying the information in the web browser.

Prerendering in the web browser is automatically enabled. Users who do not want to use the feature can disable it the following way. Enter chrome://flags in the address bar and locate the “Prerender from omnibox” option.

Enables prerendering of suggestions from the Omnibox and predicts appropriate network actions (prerendering, Instant, DNS preconnect) by calculating a confidence value for each Omnibox result.

Switch to disabled in the pulldown menu to turn the feature off.

Google Chrome users can open pdf documents directly in the browser. While the viewer is not comparable in functionality to desktop pdf readers, it is certainly enough to read a document online.

And native support for Adobe’s Flash technology ensures that Chrome users are automatically updated to the newest version whenever it is released, which improves overall security significantly.

Some Chrome users on the other hand may not want to use the native plugins of the Chrome browser. This can be the case if they have noticed that the Flash plugin is acting up or if they have installed a feature rich pdf reader on their system that they prefer to use.

Chrome, even with another Flash or PDF reader plugin installed, continues to use its native plugins for Flash and PDF contents (see Why are Two Flash Player Plugins Running In Google Chrome? for instance for an explanation).

Users of the Chrome web browser need to disable the native plugins before they can use third party plugins or software instead. This is done by entering chrome://plugins/ in the Chrome address bar and hitting enter.

The page that opens displays a list of all plug-ins currently installed in the Chrome browser. Relevant for this guide are the Flash and Chrome PDF Viewer plugins. A click on Disable below the Chrome PDF Viewer disables those capabilities in the browser.

In regard to Flash, it is a bit more complicated. It is necessary to click on Details first to display all installed Flash plugins in Chrome. Locate the Flash plugin that has its location in the Chrome application folder and click the disable link to disable it. Make sure another Flash plugin is still active if you want to use the technology on the Internet.

That’s how you disable both the native Flash plugin and the native pdf viewer in Google Chrome.

Are you using Google Chrome’s native plugins? Or did you notice issues using those plugins?

Google Chrome users can clear all browsing data, which includes cookies but also other data like the browsing and download history, by clicking on the wrench icon in the toolbar and selecting Tools > Clear Browsing Data from the menu that pops up.

It is alternatively possible to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Del for the same effect. A window is displayed where the data can be cleared.

Please note that there is a link to the Adobe Flash Player storage settings. If you click on that link you will be taken to Adobe’s Website Storage Settings panel where you can delete all or select Flash cookies.

If you go back to the Chrome browser you may have noticed that the clear browsing data window does not offer to clear individual files. Sometimes you may want to delete a specific cookie or a set of cookies only. This can be handy for web developers testing a new site feature, users who accidentally visited a site and want to delete its traces or users who want to clear personalized data.

The easiest way to clear individual cookies in Google Chrome is to enter chrome://settings/cookies into the address bar. This opens the cookies and other data listing in the browser. All stored cookies are displayed here. It is possible to remove all cookies or search for individual cookies.

A click on a site displays all cookies stored by that site on the computer. It takes another click to display detailed information about the cookie and the Remove button. If you click on Remove the selected cookie will be deleted from the system.

And that’s how you delete standard and Flash cookies in the Chrome web browser individually.

If you look at the plugin listing in the Chrome web browser you may notice that the Flash listing says something like Flash (3 files) or Flash (2 files). You need to click on Details on the page to see what’s going on there.

You may notice that multiple Flash plugins are loaded in the Chrome web browser instead of just the native plugin. You can click on the Disable or Enable links to disable or enable specific Flash versions in the browser. This can be handy for Flash developers who need to test their applications in a different version of Flash, and for end users who do not want multiple running plugins in the owser.

Multiple enabled Flash plugin versions in the browser are not a problem according to Google.

It’s normal to see two Flash files in about:plugins. When both are listed as enabled, Google Chrome uses the built-in version by default, so you shouldn’t have to specify which one to use unless you specifically want Chrome to use the system version instead (has ‘NPSWF32.dll’ in the location field). Keep in mind that if you use the system version, you’re responsible for keeping Flash updated while the built-in version will update automatically via Chrome’s auto-update mechanism.

If multiple Flash plugins are enabled and the native plugin is one of them, then that plugin is used to display Flash contents in the Google Chrome web browser. This does not explain why a second Flash plugin is enabled in the browser, as it does not make sense if the native Flash plugin is always used if active.

My suggestion would be to disable the non-native Flash plugin in Chrome to be on the safe side.

Google recently released a first party extension for the Chrome browser with the purpose of providing Chrome users with tips to use the web browser more efficiently.

The extension will display tips when it recognizes ineffective behavior, for instance if a user uses only windows and no tabs to browser multiple websites.

The core question here is obviously if those users would be able to find and install the Chrome Tips extension, and the answer is probably no.

Regardless of that oversight in design, it can be handy if you do not mind running the extension in the background while working in the browser.

The extension will display tips in a small toolbar on top. The core issue that I have with the extension is that the tips are time and action based, which means that you may never see a tip coming up if you are an advanced user.

I tested the extension for a long time and did not see a single tip come up, hence the lack of a screenshot.

If you open the constants.js file of the extension you will see all tips listed in the interface. Here are a few examples of the tips listed:

• Key for tip when user needs to be educated about switching between tabs.
• Key for tip when the user needs to be educated about pinned tab feature.
• Key for tip when user needs to be educated about browsing in private.
• Key for tip when the user needs to be educated about search from omnibox.

The extension in its current state offers 13 different tips. That’s not a lot and explains why some users may never see tips displayed in the browser. I personally would have preferred a link somewhere in the browser user interface to a static page that lists all the tips.

The idea is interesting especially since the extension can display tips whenever it recognizes ineffective user behavior. Still, a lot more tips and the option to display them directly would be handy.

Chrome users can install Chrome Tips from the official Chrome Web Store.

I also noticed a new design of the extensions listing in Chrome Dev. Not sure for how long it has been there but it looks clean and really nice.

Not everything may appear to be useful on the other hand, as it depends largely how you use the Google browser. Lets start with the tips collection.

1. Drag and Drop downloaded files

You probably know that it is possible to execute downloaded files right away by double-clicking them in the browser. You can also click on the down arrow next to a downloaded file to open the folder the file has been saved to. What you may not know is that you can drag and drop the file as well.

If you drag and drop downloaded files they are copied to the new location, for instance the desktop or another folder. You can even drag and drop downloads to programs like the email client Thunderbird.

2. Add, Edit Search Engines

Chrome uses Google Search as the default search engine. You can add and edit search engines with a right-click on the Chrome address bar and the selection of Edit Search Engines, or by going directly to Wrench > Options > Manage Search Engines.

You can add new search engines in the following way. Visit the search engine in Chrome and do a search for a term that you can easily located in the urlbar, for instance TEST. Copy the url and open the search engine options in Chrome as outlined above.

Paste the url into the URL field of a new search engine, and replace TEST with %s. Add a name for the search engine and a keyword. Whenever you want to search on that search engine, you simply enter the keyword first and then the search phrase.

Example:

Name: Bing
Keyword: b
Url: http://www.bing.com/search?q=%s&go=&form=QBLH

3. Unit Conversions

Chrome can convert units for you right in the address bar. Just enter a term like 10 meters in inch, 1000km in miles or 4+10 and you get the result shown in the suggestion window that opens up.

4. Keyboard Shortcuts

Chrome offers hotkeys for many operations, which are usually faster than using the mouse. Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts for Chrome that I use all the time.

• Ctrl-F, Opens the Find form
• Ctrl-T, Opens a new tab
• Ctrl-Shift-Del, Opens Clear browsing data window
• Shift-Esc, Opens Chrome’s task manager
• Alt-Home, Opens homepage in active tab
• Ctrl-Enter, Adds www and .com to the address in the urlbar automatically
• Ctrl-Shift-V, Copy Clipboard contents without formatting

5. Change the Zoom level

Did you know that it is possible to change the global zoom level and a page-only zoom level in the Chrome browser?

To change the zoom level of a specific page, you can use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+ and Ctrl-. These new zoom levels are set for the domain, and will stick even after you close the browser window.

Global zoom levels on the other hand are handled in the Chrome preferences. Click the Wrench icon and select Options to open the preferences of the browser. Click Under the Hood and locate the Web Content section there.

You can change the zoom level and default font size for all web pages here.

Closing

Have a Google Chrome tip of your own that you’d like to add to this collection? Let us know in the comments.

The Incognito mode

The incognito mode can be used as a stealth mode in effect. It turns off the browser tracking and does not allow the tracking of the web pages being browsed or the files that were downloaded to the user memory during a particular browsing session. The feature also automatically deletes the cookies and all the other temporary files which are related to the browsing session on Google Chrome. This provides an increased and improved level of privacy for highly sensitive and secured browsing such as processing online banking services, payment procedures and using various access credentials for starting up various web based applications.

Various methods to start Incognito:

Method 1: For using Incognito temporarily for a particular browsing session on a particular tab window.

Ctrl+Shift+N is a keyboard shortcut to initiate a new Chrome Window in Incognito mode. A Google Chrome web browser can be launched in Incognito mode directly from the taskbar in Windows by simply right clicking and selecting the option of “Open link in Incognito Window”. This will initiate the Incognito mode temporarily for a particular browsing session in a particular window tab where it is necessary for the information to be kept private and clear of tracking.

Method 2: For using Incognito continuously for different sessions at regular intervals.

In this method the browser is set in Incognito mode by default, and every time the browser is launched from a desktop shortcut it opens in Incognito mode. First right click the Google Chrome shortcut icon on the desktop and select properties. In the target field type “–incognito” (space dash incognito without quotes) at the end of the line and then click on the OK button. Once this procedure is complete, Google Chrome will be launched in Incognito mode every time the Chrome browser is opened through the shortcut.

Google Chrome Instant

The Google Chrome Instant feature is an instant search tool feature which allows the browser to show dynamically updated webpages and search results instantly while the information is typed in the address bar of the browser, even before hitting the enter button. It is a smart search which gets dynamically updated as more information is typed in the address bar, until the desired results are found.

Enabling Instant:

Click on the wrench icon and select Options for Windows, preferences for Mac and Linux and Settings on Chrome OS. Now click the basics tab, and check the box next to “Enable Instant for faster searching and browsing”.
Chrome Instant may not work due to inadequate connection speed of the internet services or during certain inappropriate searches, when the instant feature is not triggered to show the search results instantly. Instant does not work in Incognito mode.

Do you think that these tips will help you? And are you likely to use them?

Some Chrome users may want to switch Chrome builds. Maybe you have started with Chrome Canary only to find out that the browser is not as stable as you want it to be. Or you have installed the stable version but need a feature that was just recently introduced in Google Chrome Dev.

It is usually not possible to install two versions of the browser next to each other, with the exception of the Canary builds which appear to be stored separately on the operating system.

Backup

Users who want to upgrade or downgrade Google Chrome should backup their Chrome profile and installation directory before they do so. This ensures that they can go back to the previous release channel.

The data folders of Google Chrome depend on the operating system used. The Google Chrome paths are as following:

• Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
• Windows Vista or 7: \Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
• Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default
• Linux: ~/.config/google-chrome/Default

You can use a backup software to create a backup, or copy the data in the folder manually. Make sure you close the browser before you copy the files.

Upgrading, Downgrading Chrome

Now that the backup has been created, it is time to run the installer of the version that you want to use. You can download the desired Chrome installation file from the following locations:

Windows

• Google Chrome Stable [link]
• Google Chrome Beta [link]
• Google Chrome Dev [link]
• Google Chrome Canary [link]

Mac

• Google Chrome Stable [link]
• Google Chrome Beta [link]
• Google Chrome Dev [link]

Linux

• Google Chrome Stable [link]
• Google Chrome Beta (Debian / Ubuntu, 32-bit) [link]
• Google Chrome Beta (Debian / Ubuntu, 64-bit) [link]
• Google Chrome Beta (Fedora / OpenSUSE 32-bit) [link]
• Google Chrome Beta (Fedora / OpenSUSE 64-bit) [link]
• Google Chrome Dev (Debian / Ubuntu, 32-bit) [link]
• Google Chrome Dev (Debian / Ubuntu, 64-bit) [link]
• Google Chrome Dev (Fedora / OpenSUSE 32-bit) [link]
• Google Chrome Dev (Fedora / OpenSUSE 64-bit) [link]

Just run the installer and restart the web browser once the browser installation has completed to upgrade your version of Chrome to another channel. Upgrades are only available from left to right:

Stable -> Beta -> Dev -> Canary

It is therefor not possible to upgrade from Dev to Stable. The installer will exit with an error message if the user tries to upgrade from a build on the right to a build that’s on its left side.

Users who want to downgrade need to uninstall Chrome first before they install another edition of the web browser. Backup is obviously recommended before Chrome is uninstalled on the system. Uninstallation may also resolve issues when an upgrade fails.

Have you switched Google Chrome channels in the past? How was your experience?

It got a bit crowded in there, especially with the introduction of the Apps section. Users who do not use the web store or apps may prefer to remove that element from the new tab page of the browser. Other users may prefer to hide the most visited or recently closed site listing instead, or the ad for the Chrome notebook.

Chrome users who want to get rid of one feature or the other need to pay close attention to the page. There are two – light – elements on the new tab page, one next to the module heading which is always visible, and one at the rightmost location on mouse hover.

The left arrow / down arrow at the left of the module name can be used to expand or compress that listing on the new tab page. It reduces the space needed for the module but will not remove it from the new tab page.

The tiny x on the right while hovering on an entry on the other hand allows just that. Just move the mouse over the module that you do not want to see anymore on the new tab page and click it to remove it. But be careful with that, as there does not seem to be an option to restore the new tab page.

While I could not confirm it I read in user comments that even Linux users get the message.

Is there a way to get rid of the message? Yes and no. There is no switch to disable the confirmation prompt completely and retain the auto downloading functionality. There is no Chrome option or startup parameter that can be used to disable the This Type Of File Can Harm Your Computer message.

The only option that users have is to enable the option to ask where to save each file before downloading. It is not an ideal solution because it will spawn the download window on every download.

The window offers an advantage to the user. Instead of having to move the mouse to the Save or Discard prompt it is possible to complete the download by pressing enter on the keyboard, providing the right directory is displayed on screen.

There you have it. You either have the option to live with the “harm your computer” message or switch to the ask before download option to replace it with a download window.

I have not tested a third alternative: Download Managers. These programs should theoretically be able to intercept the downloads so that the files are downloaded automatic and without spawning the safety popup.

The developers of the browser have added a startup switch to enable side tabs. Users who are running a dev version of Chromium or Chrome can add the startup parameter –enable-vertical-tabs to enable the side tabs functionality.

Here is how it is done in detail (Windows):

Locate the Google Chrome icon, right-click it and select Properties. This opens the Google Chrome Properties window. Locate the Target field and add ––enable–vertical–tabs at the end of it. Make sure there is a space between chrome.exe and the parameter.

A click on OK saves the new parameter. Start or restart Google Chrome. There is no visual indication of side tabs yet. They are activated by right-clicking a tab and selecting Use side tabs from the context menu.

chrome side tabs

The current version seems to have problems drawing the side tabs right away. It is necessary to resize the screen, or minimize / restore it before the tabs are displayed in the sidebar.

chrome sidebar tabs

Each website is represented by its favicon, page title and a close button. It does not seem possible to change the width of the sidebar tabs yet. The title bar looks awfully empty as well with side tabs enabled.

A right-click on a tab in the sidebar and the selection of Use side tabs will revert the changes and move the tabs to their original location in the browser. It is once again necessary to resize / minimize the window before the tabs are displayed.

Strange if the site was working fine some time ago. Users who check the website in another browser installed on the system would find out that the page loads and displays fine in that browser which leads to the only possible conclusion that it is a Google Chrome problem.

oops google chrome could not connect to

The majority of page loading problems are a result of the DNS Fetching in Google Chrome. DNS Pre-fetching stores information in the browser to speed up the loading of websites in Chrome. It can, under certain circumstances, result in connection problems. This can happen if a wrong or outdated DNS is stored in the browser for the website in question.

DNS Fetching speeds up page loading by about 250ms. Chrome users who experience connection difficulties regularly might want to try turning the feature off to see if it resolves the issues.

This is done in the Chrome options. A click on the Wrench icon in the upper right corner and the selection of Options opens the settings window of the web browser.

dns pre fetching

Load the Under the Bonnet tab and locate the entry Use DNS pre-feching to improve page load performance. Remove the checkmark from that setting to disable DNS fetching in the browser. The websites with connection issues should load fine immediately.

But geolocationdoes raise the alarm bells of some users who prefer not to be traceable at all. Geolocation is by default disabled in Firefox.

Google Chrome handles the matter slightly different. Geolocation is enabled but will only be accessible by a website or service is the user accepts it first.

A confirmation message like the one above will be displayed whenever the user opens a website that makes use of the location feature in Google Chrome.

Users who never make use of the geolocation feature can disable it easily in the browser’s options. Please note that geolocation is a feature of Google Chrome 5 and not available in previous versions of the web browser.

Click on the tools icon and then on Options in Google Chrome. Switch to the Under the Bonnet tab and click the Content settings button.

Switch to the Location tab in the new Content Settings window.

Three possible states for the geolocation feature are offed:

• Allow all sites to track my physical location
• Ask me when a site tries to track my physical location (recommended)
• Do not allow any site tot rack my physical location

The second option is the default option. Just switch to the do not allow any site to track my physical location option to block all geolocation requests automatically.

Firefox users can take a look at the guide to disable location aware browsing in Firefox to check and disable geolocation in their web browser if necessary.

You can test the browser’s geolocation feature on this website.

1. Resources Pane

Webmasters that use Firefox usually have the Firebug add-on installed which gives them access to information about a website’s source code but also about the elements on a page including their load time. Google Chrome provides these information out of the box. A simple right-click on a fully loaded website and the selection of Inspect Element will open the site inspector. The tab Resources displays the loading time and size of all elements on that specific webpage. Resources are further divided into categories like scripts, images or documents. The total loading time and transfer size is shown that is also divided by the categories. This gives an immediate overview over the elements that slow down the page loading time the most.

2. Resizing Text areas

Text areas on websites are usually placed to give visitors the means to interact with the website or its owner. Contact and comment forms make use of text areas which allow the user to enter text into them. Some websites implement rather small text boxes which makes it unnecessary difficulty to enter a comment or message. Google Chrome offers a feature to resize text areas on websites by simply clicking in the right lower corner and dragging the text are to a larger size.

3. The Task Manager

The task manager of the Google browser provides information about the memory, cpu and network usage of every open tab, the browser engine itself and plugins that have been loaded. The overview is interesting as it gives the user information about high resource sources directly in the web browser. Plugins with a high resource usage can be identified and uninstalled from the web browser or computer system. Even more interesting is the option to kill one of the web browser’s tabs from the task manager window. The tabs work independently from each other which makes it safe to delete tabs.

4. Using Incognito Mode to log into the same service twice with different accounts

Incognito Mode is already available in other web browsers. Those that do not have implemented it already have announced to (likely) add it into one of the future builds. While its primary focus is privacy it can be used to log into the same service with a different account at the same time. This is possible because the active cookies and information do not carry over when starting incognito mode. It is therefor possible to log into services like Gmail twice. First normally and then the second time by starting Incognito mode (Ctrl+Shift+N) and logging into the service again.

5. Browser History

The shortcut [Ctrl H] will open the browser history in Google Chrome. The history is sorted by date. Websites are listed with their favicon and title on the main page. The search form can be used to find terms in the history. These result terms look a bit different. Google Chrome displays dates, titles, descriptions and thumbnails while Chromium displays the same information but the thumbnails.