The Penultimate Google Chrome Post

Ruud Hein

16 years ago

With Google Chrome nary a week old and its release analyzed from every. single. angle. I think you don't need analysis or opinion; you need some good old Friday "hey-its-they-day-before-the-weekend!" browser fun.

10 Google Chrome Tips & Tweaks
10 About Screens
5 Privacy & Security issues
5 Google Chrome Comic Parodies

10 Google Chrome Tips & Tweaks

1) Enable the Home button

Its been one of people's first misses: where is the home button on Google Chrome?

Not to worry, its there, only hidden.

Go to the Options

and enable the Home button:

2) Drag & Drop URL to create new tab

Drag the current URL from the address bar to the new tab indicator to open the URL in a new tab.

You can also drag any URL on the page to a new tab. Try it.

Textual "links" can be highlighted and drag-and-dropped as well: https://www.searchenginepeople.com Try it!

3) Increase Number of Omnibox Suggestions

Right-click on the shortcut to Google Chrome and choose Properties. In the Shortcut tab add after the target the text -omnibox-popup-count=10 -- or use any other number you'd like.

4) Disable Google Chrome Omnibox

Of course some people don't want to increase or decrease the Omnibox suggestions: they want to get some privacy and get completely rid of the darn thing.

You can.

Right-click in the ~~address bar~~ Omnibox and choose Edit search engines

Then simply uncheck the option to use a suggestion service:

Although it sounds tin-foil hat weird to try to stay private while using a Google browser (helloooo!), Omnibox goes much further than any previous Google user data collection tool:

Provided that users leave Chrome's auto-suggest feature on and have Google as their default search provider, Google will have access to any keystrokes that are typed into the browser's Omnibox, even before a user hits enter.

What's more, Google has every intention of retaining some of that data even after it provides the promised suggestions. A Google representative told CNET News that the company plans to store about 2 percent of that data--and plans to store it along with the Internet Protocol address of the computer that typed it.

In theory, that means that if one were to type the address of a site--even if they decide not to hit enter--they could leave incriminating evidence on Google's servers.

5) Create Multiple User Profiles

In a browser where the very first keystroke you make triggers the display of sites you visited and searches you performed, having multiple user profiles may be a plus.

There's no automated profile manager type of way to create one in Google Chrome but you can use a simple, 4 step process to manually create user profiles in Google Chrome.

6) Portable Google Chrome on a USB Thumbdrive

Carsten Knobloch from Germany has his 5 minutes of fame, as he writes himself, after making a portable version of Google Chrome available (also available via Softpedia).

Download, unzip to your thumbdrive and start with ChromeLoader.exe

7) Crash Google Chrome Instantly

Type into the Omnibox:

8 ) Back Button & Forward Button with History

Click on the back or forward button and hold for a few seconds.

9) Change Google Chrome Theme

Want to skin Google Chrome? Not a problem!

There's a long, tedious manual way or you can use the Google Chrome Theme Editor (see also this one).

Don't want to do the creative yourself? Grab a Google Chrome theme

Themes only work on XP: on Vista Google Chrome goes with the Vista theme.

10) 50+ Keyboard Shortcuts

have fun

10 About Google Chrome Screens

Type the following about: pages into the ~~address bar~~ Omnibox. Some of these will only work when performed in the first and/or only open tab.

1) about:crash

2) about:internets

And thanks to US President George W. Bush for the term Internets.

This easter egg doesn't work on Windows Vista.

3) about:histograms

4) about:network

5) about:plugins

6) about:memory

7) about:cache

8) about:dns

9) about:version

10) about:stats

Tip: use the filter search box

5 Security & Privacy Issues

1) Google Chrome carpet-bombing flaw

Despite the whole "look how brilliantly careful we are" attitude behind the release, Google Chrome used an outdated, unpatched version of WebKit which makes it vulnerable to so-called carpet-bombing where a user gets to download a JAR file which then gets immediately executed. (read more)

2) Omnibox Indexes Your Bank Account

Google Chrome's Omnibox indexes a little bit too eagerly, it appears, as it gobbles up data on HTTPS connections. Yes, that includes your online bank account, information of which can be found back through the Ombinbox by typing words like "account", "balance", "Visa" etc. (read more)

For now the only way to prevent Omnibox from indexing all content on a HTTPS page is to use Incognito Mode.

3) Omnibox = Pandora's Box

The way Omnibox works, sending information back before anything has been submitted, had some worried. cNet's Ina Fried calls it Pandora's box.

It has the EFF concerned.

"We are genuinely really worried about the Omnibox thing [] It's just one more piece of the complete puzzle of Google seeing everything that everyone is doing.

I'm astonished that these terms are sent to Google even without the return being hit. That is beyond anything that Google has ever contemplated before.

This is why Google is running into trouble with regulators in Europe. They will trip themselves up at some point very badly. The patience of regulators is growing thin."

4) Content Posted With Google Chrome belongs to Google?

There was indeed that concern, yes, as the End User License Agreement reads:

""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."

However, Matt Cutts says this was just a small ooops!-y where the standard EULA was used for this software product (you did know this was in the standard EULA, right?).

Google has updated the EULA and explains the ooops!-y.

5) Google Chrome Phones Home Everything You Do All The Time

Not true, says Matt Cutts. He outlines 6 ways in which the browser communicates in one way or another with Google, all but two which can't be switched off by the user.