Power Up Your Chrome: 31 Tips for a Better Browsing Experience

Google Chrome is a widely-used browser known for its speed and simple design. But beyond the basics, Chrome boasts a wealth of features and customization options designed to enhance your browsing experience. This article dives into 31 powerful tips and tricks to unlock Chrome's full potential.

1. Unleash Experimental Features with Chrome Flags

Chrome often tests new features before their official release. You can access these "flags" to try them out, but be aware they might be unstable.

• How to Access Chrome Flags:

  1. Type chrome://flags in the address bar and press Enter.
  2. Use the "Search flags" box to find a specific flag.
  3. Choose an option from the dropdown list (e.g., "Enabled") to activate it.
  4. Click "Relaunch Now" at the bottom to apply the changes.

  Tip: Some flags may require multiple restarts to take effect. If you encounter problems, disable the flag or use the "Reset all to default" button. Directly Accessing Flags: For specific flags, type chrome://flags/#FLAG-NAME (e.g., chrome://flags/#save-page-as-mhtml).

2. Stop Annoying Autoplay Videos

Tired of videos automatically playing when you open a webpage? Chrome has a feature to control this.

• Disable Autoplay via Flags:
  1. Go to chrome://flags.
  2. Search for "autoplay."
  3. Set "Autoplay policy" to "Document user activation is required."
  4. Relaunch Chrome.

Alternatively, use extensions like:

• AutoplayStopper
• Video Autoplay Blocker
• HTML5 Video Autoplay Blocker

3. Organize Your Browsing with Multiple Chrome Profiles

Chrome allows you to create separate profiles, each with its own apps, extensions, settings, history, and bookmarks. This is perfect for separating work, personal, and other browsing activities.

• Accessing the Profile Manager:
  1. Click the Profile button in the upper-right corner.
  2. Select "Manage people."
• Adding a New Profile:
  1. Click "Add Person."
  2. Enter a name and select an icon.
  3. (Windows) Check "Create a desktop shortcut" for easy access.
  4. Click "Add."

4. Search Websites Directly from the Address Bar

Did you know you can search specific websites directly from Chrome's address bar?

• Setting Up Site Search:

  1. Visit the website you want to search.
  2. Perform a search on the site using its search box.
  3. Right-click the address bar and select "Edit search engines."
  4. In the "Other search engines" section, find the site you just searched.
  5. Click the three vertical dots next to it and select "Edit."
  6. Assign a short keyword (e.g., "muo" for MakeUseOf).
  7. Click "Save."

• Using the Shortcut: Type your keyword in the address bar, press Tab, enter your search term, and press Enter.

5. Open Address Bar Searches in a New Tab

Instead of replacing the current page, force your address bar searches to open in a new tab by pressing Alt + Enter (or Option + Enter on a Mac) after typing your search term.

6. Drag and Drop Text for Instant Searches

Quickly search for selected text without typing. Select the text and:

• Drag it to the tab bar (next to the right-most tab) to open the search in a new tab.
• Drag it to the address bar to search in the current tab.

7. Find Bookmarks Fast with the Address Bar

If you have a huge collection of bookmarks, the Holmes extension can help:

1. Type an asterisk (*) in the address bar and hit Tab.
2. Enter your search term.
3. Select the desired bookmark.

8. Search Google Drive and Gmail from Chrome

Access your content on Google Drive and Gmail by creating custom search.

• Setup
  1. Right-click the address bar and select "Edit search engines."
  2. In the "Other search engines" section, click "Add".
• Google Drive Settings:
  • Search engine: Google Drive
  • Keyword: gd
  • URL : http://drive.google.com/?hl=en&tab=bo#search/%s
• Gmail Settings:
  • Search engine: Gmail
  • Keyword: gm
  • URL: https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#search/%s

9. Chrome as a Basic File Explorer

Type "C:" (or any other drive letter) in the address bar to view your local files and folders within Chrome. You can use this basic file explorer to navigate your computer's directories. Alternative to Windows file explorer apps can be useful to have.

10. Quick Calculations in the Address Bar

Perform simple math directly in the address bar. Just type an equation using +, -, *, /, % operators. Depending on your default search engine (Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, or Yahoo), you might see the result instantly or need to press Enter.

11. Open a Specific Set of Web Pages on Startup

Configure Chrome to open specific websites automatically every time you launch the browser.

• Steps
  1. Open all the desired pages in separate tabs.
  2. Type chrome://settings in the address bar and press Enter.
  3. Go to the "On startup" section.
  4. Select "Open a specific page or set of pages."
  5. Click "Use current pages."

12. Set a Custom New Tab Page

Use an extension such as New Tab Redirect to specify a custom URL to display every time you open a new tab.

13. Bookmark All Open Tabs in a Folder

Preserve an entire browsing session by bookmarking all open tabs into a single folder. Press Ctrl + Shift + D (or Cmd + Shift + D on Mac), name the folder, choose a location, and click "Save."

14. Pick Up Where You Left Off

Chrome can automatically restore your previous browsing session. Set up by typing chrome://settings and turn "Continue where you left off" option on.

15. Pin Tabs for Constant Access

Right-click on any tab and select "Pin tab". Pinned tabs are smaller and appear on the left side of the tab bar giving you constant access to webpages that are always needed.

16. Quickly Reopen Recently Closed Tabs

Did you closed tab by mistake? It’s very easy to reopen recently closed.