8 Guides and Tools for Supercharging Google Chrome
by Sam Dean - May. 22, 2009Comments (7)- Related Blog Posts
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As we noted yesterday, Google has introduced a new version of its open source Chrome browser that is much faster than previous versions, and also faster than Firefox 3.5, Beta 4. It's worth downloading if you haven't been using Chrome, and you'll get it automatically if you have been using it. Since Chrome was introduced, many useful collections of resources, tips, scripts and plugins have appeared online. Here is an updated roundup of our favorite guides and tools for getting more out of Chrome--all of them free. Â With its newfound performance and these customization resources, you can get a lot out of Chrome.
 Plugin Power. There are many excellent plugins, themes, and customization tips on Chrome at Chrome Plugins. You'll find tips on customizing tabs, running useful scripts created by the Chrome community, and much more.
Create and Save Profiles. Google Chrome Backup is a freely downloadable tool that lets you backup and restore profiles you've created in Chrome. It's wizard-driven, to keep the process easy, and is especially useful if you use Chrome on multiple computers and devices.
Tips for Power Users. Lifehacker's tips for power users of Chrome are excellent. Learn about diagnostics, themes, shortcuts, working with tabs, and more here.
Run Chrome on Mac OS X and Linux. There are imperfect but usable versions of Chrome for the Mac and Linux at the Chromium site. CrossOver Chromium from CodeWeavers can also be used to run Chrome on Mac OS X and Linux. You'll find downloads specific to most popular Linux distros. Even CodeWeavers describes this as early "proof-of-concept" more than anything else, but you may want to give it a try.
Surf Anonymously in Chrome. The Chromium open source core of the Chrome browser has been tweaked to produce a version of Chrome that can allow for anonymous browsing. People in parts of the world where Internet use can lead quickly to jail time may be interested in this, or hotspot users who want an added layer of anonymity may be interested. Iron is based on Chromium, looks and works exactly like Chrome, but introduces several levels of privacy, as we wrote about here. Chrome Privacy Guard is a mini application that removes all client ID information when you use Chrome.
Use the About: Pages. Like Firefox, Google Chrome can pull up a ton of useful diagnostic and other types of information if you type about: commands in Chrome's address bar. For example, type about:plugins to get the list of plugins available for Chrome. The Google operating system blog has a good list of these.
Get a Portable Version of Chrome for Your USB Drive. You can get a lightweight tweak of Chrome based on the Chromium code here. Hat tip to Lifehacker for this.
Here's a Video Featuring 10 Chrome Basics. In case you missed any.
