5 Good Google Chrome Resources
by Sam Dean - Feb. 27, 2009Comments (1)- Related Blog Posts
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Although I use it as a secondary browser to Firefox, I've been steadily gaining respect for Google Chrome since its arrival a few months back. It's fast, works around many of the crashing problems I've experienced with other browsers, and I'm especially looking forward to upcoming extensions for it. If you're using it too, you may be interested in the following five Chrome resources, including a more secure fork of the Chromium core, and solid information on what to expect next for the browser.
A Nod to Firefox. Techradar has a good piece up called "10 ways to make Chrome as good as Firefox." I'd say the title is a bit of an overstatement, because extensions for Firefox make it the browser of choice as far as I'm concerned, but this roundup does include very good tips. I particularly like the tips on blocking ads in Chrome and enhancing RSS support.
Privacy Please. When Chrome came out, there were many observers who were concerned that since Google already collects so much private information about us all, Chrome would invade our privacy. The debate about whether it does continues, but one thing that is known is that every installation of Chrome includes a unique identifier. If this concerns you, get UnChrome, a free download that anonymizes your Chrome identifier. We've also written before about Iron, a German fork of the Chromium core that eliminates unique user IDs, eliminates any sending of user-specific information to Google, eliminates Google's updater, and won't send crash information to Google.
Extend it. There are many bookmarklets for Chrome that function a little like Firefox extensions and make tasks easier. One of my favorites is Google Chrome Dual View which splits your view of Chrome down the middle for a two-paned view. You'll find lots more ways to get useful bookmarklets here, and I recommend visiting Chrome Plugins.
Top Tips. There are several good collections of tips on how to get more out of Chrome. Try these from the Google Operating System blog, and Lifehacker's very good power user tips.
Going Forward. For a lengthy and interesting interview on where Chrome is going, check this post out. The interview is with Lars Bak, who heads the development of Chrome's JavaScript engine. He provides interesting insight into how JavaScript is important to current and future web applications, and I like his no-nonsense thoughts on the origin of Chrome, where he essentially says that Chrome was born because other browsers are too flawed. "I think one of the reasons we started from scratch in terms of browsers was that we didn't believe that the existing platforms were robust and scalable enough for building a high performance engine," he says.
