Google ChromeBy Vonnie Hudson Jr.

The intelligent guide to using

My Story

The dawn of a

Geek

My affinity for computers started in the mid-90s when my dad purchased a $2,000 Hewlett-Packard that weighed more than me.

I remember being bedazzled at this technological marvel of steel and plastic. I used something similar in school but now I had my own PC.

It was great.

My modem made funny burping sounds and connected me to the “information superhighway” through an ISP called Prodigy.

Life was full of curiosity and the nascent internet

afforded an outlet for exploring the world.

Say hi to

Chrome Over the next decade web browsers underwent a metamorphosis. Netscape Navigator blossomed into Firefox and Google jumped into the fray with its very own browser called Chrome.

Chrome had an edge because it was both simpler and snappier than Firefox and Internet Explorer... well anything is better than Internet Explorer but you get my point lol.

Chrome was a joy to use but I eventually started getting frustrated with it.

One day it lacked the spunk that first captivated me. It was beset with problems and had me cursing at my computer and threating to ditch the browser.

I also wanted to be more productive. Since almost all my resources were located on the web, I spent most of my time in the browser. Thus, wouldn’t it make sense to maximize productivity by learning a smarter way to use Chrome?

I thought so.

And that’s why I wrote this guide. My goal is to save you hours of frustration as you learn how to make Chrome work for you.

It’s time for an intelligent guide to using Chrome! Let’s go!

Contents

Privacy

Speed

Shortcuts

Secrets

Mobile

Privacy

Privacy

There’s no doubt about it.

Google Chrome is a great

browser but it’s also a little

nosy.

Let me show you a quick tip to

get Chrome out of your

business.

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/ Ctrl + Shift + nGo Incognito

By default, Chrome

remembers all your

history, cookies and

downloads.

Some people

won’t mind all the

intrusion but others

are more leery -

especially when

browsing from a

public space.

Going incognito

won’t make you

invisible, you need

a web proxy to do

that and I’ll show

you two later, but

incognito makes it

harder for the next

guy to snoop on you

One more thing:

Incognito mode

doesn’t clear your

bookmarks, basic

settings or stored

web content.

Only your local

Chrome related

data gets zapped

when you close the

window so keep that

in mind!

On your iPhone, iPad or Android device, just tap the hamburger icon in the upper right corner of the screen and press choose New Incognito Tab

Privacy

Speed

I’m pretty sure like 90% of

the slow computer problems

out there are browser related

So check it out: I’ve got

4 power tips that are

guaranteed to speed up

Chrome; are you ready?

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Get the SRTScare the Malware

The Google Software

Removal Tool (SRT)

is the official way to

zap the crap that’s

bogging down your

browser.

If you notice that

your homepage

randomly changed

or you’re suddenly

seeing enigmatic

toolbars, you need to

run the SRT.

This powerful little

tool automagically

scans your browser

for the bad guys

and lets you reset

the settings to the

factory defaults.

1Pro Tip: Ctrl + Shift + Del instantly let’s you clear your cache

chrome://flagsMaximize your tiles

This has nothing to

do with bathroom

renovations lol.

I know it sounds

wierd but just trust

me on this one.

There’s a secret flag

in Chrome that you

can enable to boost

performance.

It works by

increasing the

Chrome memory

pool and virtually

eliminates dropped

frames while

scrolling.

Paste chrome://flags

in the location bar

(technically called

the Omnibox)

Search for “interest

area” and change

#max-tiles-for-

interest-area to 256

or 512

Pro Tip: Your happiness is directly proportional to the responsiveness of your browser

2

The Trusty Task Manager

Did you know that

Chrome has its very

own Task Manager?

It’s completely

distinct from the

OS’s built in task

manager.

Pressing the Shift

and Esc keys

simultanously

lets you see CPU

usage and memory

consumption broken

down by tab.

When Chrome gets

slow simply find

your most voracious

tabs and boldly click

End Process

On a random sidenote, my wife and I spent our honeymoon in French Polynesia. I took this shot with my crappy Blackberry Bold so you really can’t appreciate the grandeur of this place. It was so beautiful; I really wish I could afford to go back.

Shift + Esc3

One-Tab.comBe glad with OneTab

If you’re anything

like me you have

over a dozen tabs

open at any given

time (drives my wife

nuts haha)

Besides having fun

annoying her, too

many tabs can drag

your browser into

a torpor that can

can make it feel

worse than your

stomach after a large

Medieval feast

Tha’ts why I

use OneTab. It

consolidates all

my tabs into one

memory saving tab

and instantly speeds

up Chrome.

Fact: Your happiness is directly proportional to the responsiveness of your browser

4

Privacy

Shortcuts

Who said there are no short-

cuts in life? Ha! I defy you

unbelievers.

Chrome is replete with dozens

but it can feel overwhelming

so I’m going to share my top 8;

here’s the best of the best.

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Jump in the Omnibox

So check it out...

Google calls the box

where you type in

web addresses the

Omnibox because it

does more than just

open websites (as

you’re about to see)

Instead of clicking

the Omnibox to visit

a site just press this

neat little shortcut to

leap right into

the box.

It’ll save you a click and instantly

increase your Chrome

intelligence quotient.

By the way, the shortcut uses

a lowercase “L”

1 / Ctrl + l

Autofinish the URL

Let’s say you want to

get to Facebook.

Most people do

something like this:

dub dub dub dot

facebook dot com

and they press Enter.

But you’re not most

people.

Next time, type

“facebook” without

the quotes and

use this autofinish

shortcut to

automatically add

the www and .com

parts to the URL.

Fact: Your happiness is directly proportional to the responsiveness of your browser

2 / Ctrl + Enter

Ditch the Enter keyPaste and Go3

Search your Gmail inbox from Omnibox

Fact: Your happiness is directly proportional to the responsiveness of your browser

4chrome://settings/searchEngines

Now type “gm” into

the Omnibox and

Press Tab to search

your inbox!

Add a new search

engine called Gmail

with the setup

below

Paste the above

string into the

Omnibox

chrome://settings/searchEngines

Random thought: I took this wallpaper photo from my Blackberry Bold during my honeymoon in Moorea.

I can’t tell you

how many times I

accidentally closed a

tab and wasted time

trying to unearth it

from my history.

This shortcut is

the smarter way to

ressurect your tabs

from the grave

5 You can conjure up a

maximum of the last

10 closed tabs.

Yippie!

Exhume your dead tabs/ Ctrl + Shift + t

Find your downloads

I really value my

time because it’s the

only thing I don’t

have to do anything

to lose and I’ll never

get it back.

That’s why I want

to save you as much

time as possible.

This shortcut zips

you directly to your

downloads.

Clicking Show in

folder whisks you

away to the file

location

Fact: Your happiness is directly proportional to the responsiveness of your browser

6 / Ctrl + j

Super Refresh

When you refresh

a web page, some

of the saved web

elements actually

aren’t refreshed.

This “content cache”

can eventually slow

down your browser

or make some pages

look wierd.

The Shift + F5 trick

forces Chrome to

do a hard refresh so

that everything gets

pulled down again.

Shift + F57Random thought: I took this bokehlicious photo with my Nikon D7000 in Bryant Park

/ Ctrl + 9Hit up the last tab

Is scrolling to the

end the fastest way

to view the last tab?

...No!

Instead, skip to the

end of the line with

Cmd/Ctrl 9.

8Pop quiz: You’ve got

a million tabs open;

how do you get to

the last one?

Privacy

Secrets

Shh... Did you know that

Chrome is replete with

secrets?

Here are my top 5 Chrome

secrets that will overawe your

boss and bless your spouse

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Clicking the “x” is

the boring way to

close tabs

1Mousewheel click to close tab

Instead of doing that,

hover your cursor

anywhere over a tab and press the

mousewheel to close it

I love this one.

It’s actually been

around for ages but

almost no one uses

it.

Choose Pin Tab and

they’ll stick around

until you Unpin ‘em.2Right click your

most valuable tabs

such as Gmail,

Dropbox and

Twitter.

Give Pin Tab a stab

Save pages to PDF/ Ctrl + p3 Did you know

Chrome has native

support for PDF

printing?

Don’t bother

Googling around for

stupid extensions or

PDF printers.

Just change your

destination printer

to Save as PDF

Right click each Bookmark in the bar

Choose Edit

Delete the name and you’ll only see

4/ Ctrl + Shift + b

displays the

bookmark bar

but if you

have a

bunch

of

bookmarks

it can look atrocious.

Put the bookmark bar on a diet

the site icon (favicon)

How do you get your

Chrome bookmarks

into your home

computer, work

computer, tablet and

smartphone?

Importing

bookmarks is old

school; the smarter

way is to Sign in to

Chrome using your

Google account.

Click the hamburger

icon in the upper

right corner of the

browser and login.

That’s it!

Fact: Your happiness is directly proportional to the responsiveness of your browser

5Sync bookmarks across all devices

Pro tip: You can control exactly what stuff to sync by dropping this in the Omnibox:

chrome://settings/syncSetup#sync

Pro tip: You also sign into Chrome with this address:

chrome://chrome-signin

Mobile

Using Chrome on the go has

never been so enjoyable.

I’ve got 6 tips that will have

you using your iOS 8 and

Android devices like a pro

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iOS

Flick between tabs1 Drag right or left to

flip through your

tabs

Place your finger at

the left edge of the

screen

Everyone knows

you can pinch to

zoom

Double-tab does the

same thing in a snap2Double tap to zoom

3Get the Desktop site

Many sites are mobile friendly

but some don’t look so great on

your smartphone

Also, sometimes you want the

Desktop Version because the

mobile site is unfamiliar or

limited

Touching the burger icon and

tapping Request Desktop

Site from the menu

should do the trick

Got in a bar fight and

sprained all your

fingers? Oh no, how

are you going to surf

the web?

With shout search. Touch the

Owmnibox and

you’ll see a little

microphone icon on

the keyboard

Tap and talk.

Or heck, shout,

there’s no reason not

to get excited

Shout search4Yell your URLs into

your phone and

you’ll not only get

there fast but you’ll

also look silly too.

It’s a double bonus.

droid

You can quickly

speed up Chrome

for Droid by

tapping Settings,

hitting Bandwidth

Management

1 This requires

sending data to

Google servers so

it can compress the

HTTP responses

before shooting

them back to you

phone

Reducing Data Usage

and enabling Reduce

Data Usage.

There’s one caveat

though...

Okay, okay, I

confess that’s a

bold statement but

it’s feasible with a

pressurized suit!

You can enjoy

your favorite sites

without an internet

connection by

pasting in

chrome://flags

Just search for and

tap Enable offline

cache mode

Astronauts rejoice!

2Surf the web on the moon

Let’s chat

I’d love to hear from you!

Hit me up on Twitter and

Facebook or visit

fixedbyvonnie.com and leave

a comment.

Credits

Image credits

Pg 1, Vonnie Hudson

Pg 3, techtimes.com

Pgs 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10; Vonnie Hudson

Pg 11, Flickr;Chris Kempson

Pgs 12, 13, 14, 15, 16;Vonnie Hudson

Pg 17; Flickr;Tom Woodward

Pg 19; Microsoft

Pg 20; FlickrThellr

Pgs 21, 22;Vonnie Hudson

Pg 23; FlickrKarlis Dambrans

Pg 25; FlickrOmar Jordan Fawahl

Pgs 26, 27, 28, 29; Vonnie Hudson

Pg 30; FlickrMartin Voltri

Pg 31; FlickrLars P.

Pg 32; FlickrDave J Doe

Extras

Privacy

Google Chrome Privacy Notice (Google)

Learn about privacy settings (Google)

How to optimize Chrome for maximum privacy (HowToGeek)

Speed

Speed up Chrome (fixedByVonnie)

Anonymity

Learn about Tor (tor)

Anonymouse (anonymouse)

Jump back to Contents

Extra Extras

Secrets

10 Chrome Secrets (BT)

Mobile

Chrome for Android factsheet (chromestory)

Shortcuts

Every Freggin’ Chrome Shortcut (Google)

3 Page Chrome Cheatsheet (Scribd)

Jump back to Contents

Thanks

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