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Chrome tips and tricks

Posted on 14 Nov 2008 at 12:16

We reveal the secrets lurking beneath Chrome's spotless user interface.

Chrome may look relatively insubstantial at first glance, but beneath that clean exterior lies a number of powerful and innovative features. Here's how to find and exploit several of Chrome's hidden secrets.

Grab a tab

Power surfers will be well-accustomed to running a browser with several tabs open simultaneously. But what if there's one tab that you want to keep separate? In IE or Firefox this would involve manually opening another window, but in Chrome you can click on the tab's title and drag it out into a separate window. When you're finished, drag it back to where it came from.

Go incognito

Playfully dubbed Porn Mode, Google's Incognito mode allows you to surf the web without any incriminating data being stored locally - no cache, cookies or history. Beware, however, that it doesn't prevent third parties (including Google) from continuing to collect data about your user session, so don't be lulled into a false sense of anonymity. To dive undercover, hit and check for the little private eye character in the top-left of the browser window.

Search and search again

Chrome's "Omnibar" not only accepts and autofills URLs, it also acts as a Google search bar. Search terms can be entered directly, with suggested searches also appearing in the dropdown menu as you type. Start typing "Bradford and", for example, and Chrome suggests "Bradford and Bingley" as a potential, clickable search term.

The Omnibar can also be used to perform searches on specific sites. Type Amazon and then hit the Tab button on your keyboard, and the Omnibar turns into an Amazon search box, from where you can search for books or CDs without visiting the site beforehand. Wikipedia works in a similar fashion, and other sites are supposedly on the way.

Create web app shortcuts

One of the browser's unique features is to give web apps the appearance of fully-blown desktop apps. This is achieved by creating shortcuts straight to sites such as Photoshop.com, Gmail or any other online application. Shortcuts can be created on the desktop, Start menu or quick start menu, just like any

Windows app

To create a web app shortcut, visit the site, click on the turned page icon next to the spanner in Chrome, and select Create Application Shortcut. When you come to use the shortcut, you'll notice that the Omnibar and browser icons have disappeared, with the entire window dedicated to the application alone. The only time many people will notice they're working with a web, rather than a Windows, app is when their internet connection dies. But with Google Gears now integrated to Chrome, it's possible to carry on working with Google Docs or other Gear-enabled apps without a live connection.

Where's the RSS?

A surprising omission from the first beta of Chrome is support for RSS/Atom feeds. Google does compensates for this with Reader, its excellent online RSS feed reader. Possibly the best feature about Reader is that it can be used offline, although you do have to remember to put it into offline mode before you leave the office or home to access feeds offline, which does hamper its effectiveness.

Getting about

In the same way that typing about:config into Firefox's address bar opens a Pandora's Box of settings, Chrome also has a series of "about" commands. About:memory reveals not only how much memory the various tabs in Chrome are consuming, but (in what no doubt amounts to a little Google propaganda) how much memory other open browsers are chomping through.