Tabbed web browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Internet Explorer have specific orders in which tabs are opened and closed. Developers have to configure orders for opening blank pages and links as well as activation rules when users close tabs. The default behavior of most browsers opens blank tabs on the rightmost side of the tabbar, links to the right of the active tab and activate the last used tab after closing a tab.

Some users may prefer a different order of things. Someone with one hundred or more open tabs would not necessarily want a blank tab opened at the rightmost location of the tabbar as it is easy to lose the orientation this way.

The Google Chrome extension Tab Position Customizer empowers the user to select the tab order. In particular it is possible to select the tab opening position, the new tab behavior and the behavior after closing a tab in the Google browser.

Here are the available options:

• Tab Opening Position: Always first, Always last, Right of the current tab, Left of the current tab, Chrome default
• Activate Tab After Tab Closing: First tab, Last tab, Right tab, Left tab, In activated order, Chrome default
• New Tab: Activated (foreground), Not activated (background), Chrome default

As you can see, there are lots of options to configure the tab opening and closing behavior in Google Chrome.

Chrome users need to open the extension’s options via the Wrench > Tools > Extensions > Options menu first to make the changes to the tab behavior in Chrome. The changes made on the configuration screen are active immediately which is handy for testing purposes.

The Tab Position Customizer extension empowers Chrome users to pick the tab opening and closing behavior that they want. You may have noticed that the extension has another option under Miscellaneous which configures Chrome to open pop-up windows always as new tabs in the same browser window.

Chrome users can download the extension from the official Google Chrome Web Store.

Question on how to clear individual cookies in the Google Chrome web browser just came up and I thought I write a small guide here on Ghacks about it. Google Chrome, just like any other modern web browser, accepts all cookies by default. Cookies are small data packages that are saved by domains on your computer. They can be used for positive things like saving preferences or session data, and negatively perceived things like tracking the user on the Internet.

Google Chrome users can clear all browsing data, which includes cookies but also other data like the browsing and download history, by clicking on the wrench icon in the toolbar and selecting Tools > Clear Browsing Data from the menu that pops up.

It is alternatively possible to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Del for the same effect. A window is displayed where the data can be cleared.

Please note that there is a link to the Adobe Flash Player storage settings. If you click on that link you will be taken to Adobe’s Website Storage Settings panel where you can delete all or select Flash cookies.

If you go back to the Chrome browser you may have noticed that the clear browsing data window does not offer to clear individual files. Sometimes you may want to delete a specific cookie or a set of cookies only. This can be handy for web developers testing a new site feature, users who accidentally visited a site and want to delete its traces or users who want to clear personalized data.

The easiest way to clear individual cookies in Google Chrome is to enter chrome://settings/cookies into the address bar. This opens the cookies and other data listing in the browser. All stored cookies are displayed here. It is possible to remove all cookies or search for individual cookies.

A click on a site displays all cookies stored by that site on the computer. It takes another click to display detailed information about the cookie and the Remove button. If you click on Remove the selected cookie will be deleted from the system.

And that’s how you delete standard and Flash cookies in the Chrome web browser individually.

Ghacks readers know that the chrome://flags page leads to a list of experimental features in the Chrome browser. These features are not yet ready for prime time. Adventurous Chrome users can enable select features to change the behavior of the web browser in core areas. A big warning paragraph warns users that these “experimental features may change, break, or disappear at any time”.

Depending on your personal preferences, you may want to enable none or some of the experiments in Google Chrome. The list of available settings is large, which is why I will look at only a handful of experiments that have been added to the flags listing in recent time.

• Smooth Scrolling – Chrome users up until now had to install extensions like Smooth Scroller if they experienced scrolling issues in the Chrome web browser. With the Smooth Scrolling flag, they now can enable the feature natively.
• Lazy Background Pages – All extension background pages are loaded when the browser starts. This setting changes the default behavior so that they are loaded when needed.
• New Apps Install Bubble – When you install a new application in Chrome a new tab page is opened automatically. This can be irritating if you install many apps in the browser. This new flag changes the behavior by showing a bubble pointing at the new tab page instead.

• Enable NTP bookmark features – The new tab page in Chrome currently only lists the most visited sites and apps in its interface. This setting enables a Bookmark page on the new tab page.

• Enable syncing open tabs, syncing search engines – The two options can be used to sync both all open tabs and all custom search engines with all connected Chrome browsers.
• Enable shortcuts in the omnibox – Remembers autocomplete results and offers those the next time the same search term is typed in the Chrome address box

Chrome users find several useful experiments on the flags page that can change the behavior of the Chrome browser noticeable. Are you a Chrome user? If so, are you making use of experimental features in the web browser? (thanks Vineeth)

Most users of the Google Chrome web browser know that Google has integrated Adobe’s Flash Player in cooperation with Adobe into the web browser. The core advantage here is that Google can update the Flash plugin in the browser for its users. That’s a stark contrast to other web browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera, where the user has to make sure that Flash updates are installed in a timely manner to protect the computer system from possible exploits and attacks.

If you look at the plugin listing in the Chrome web browser you may notice that the Flash listing says something like Flash (3 files) or Flash (2 files). You need to click on Details on the page to see what’s going on there.

You may notice that multiple Flash plugins are loaded in the Chrome web browser instead of just the native plugin. You can click on the Disable or Enable links to disable or enable specific Flash versions in the browser. This can be handy for Flash developers who need to test their applications in a different version of Flash, and for end users who do not want multiple running plugins in the owser.

Multiple enabled Flash plugin versions in the browser are not a problem according to Google.

It’s normal to see two Flash files in about:plugins. When both are listed as enabled, Google Chrome uses the built-in version by default, so you shouldn’t have to specify which one to use unless you specifically want Chrome to use the system version instead (has ‘NPSWF32.dll’ in the location field). Keep in mind that if you use the system version, you’re responsible for keeping Flash updated while the built-in version will update automatically via Chrome’s auto-update mechanism.

If multiple Flash plugins are enabled and the native plugin is one of them, then that plugin is used to display Flash contents in the Google Chrome web browser. This does not explain why a second Flash plugin is enabled in the browser, as it does not make sense if the native Flash plugin is always used if active.

My suggestion would be to disable the non-native Flash plugin in Chrome to be on the safe side.

Google Chrome has just fronted a new extension called Chrome Speak; a text reader for web content on the Google Chrome search engine. This will read highlighted text out loud. Whether from sheer laziness, bad eyesight, or just a desire to have a text reader on your browser, it is an interestingly accurate feature. You could easily listen to a Wikipedia entry while getting ready for work or entertain a room of friends with the feature so that you don’t have to read interesting tidbits aloud or have everyone crowd around the screen. These are hypothetical scenarios, of course. The ultimate point is that Chrome Speak works and it works fairly well.

What is meant by “fairly” well? It is the typical text reader voice; monotone and perpetual. As a result, certain segue in the text sound like a run-on sentence or a period that would normally bring appropriate pause is missed. Ultimately, the reading is understandable and you can work with it. For hearing information, it does serve a purpose.

Sometimes spending long hours in front of a computer screen can strain the eyes and you might want to take a break and still get the information from lengthy text. This Google Chrome extension will do the trick. Listen to long articles read aloud while resting your weary eyes. This is also useful for taking notes from lengthy text. While it is read to you, you can take information and jot it down without having to pause. Simply select any text on any webpage and Chrome Speak will read it out. You are able to customize the rate, pitch and volume of the reading voice. There are multiple languages supported and this feature can also be used offline if needed.

To download the extension, use the following link. It takes seconds and the installation is completed. To use Chrome Speak, click on the earphone icon in the upper right portion of the toolbar.

This will open a menu for the extension. This menu is what you will use to set speed, volume and pitch.

There is a field in which you can copy-paste or write text to hear. Click the speak button to hear the entered text. Select the “More options” option to set the voice options.

The Windows 7 default is a single digital voice called Microsoft Anna, a female voice with an American accent (generalized). You can add voices and select any of them from the drop-down menu in speech properties. The text will be read in any language selected, as long as it is supported by the extension.

The basic use involves a simple highlighting of text on a given page. Highlight the text that you want to have read and then right-click the highlighted field and choose “Read the selection text” to initiate the reading. You will start listening immediately at this point. Use the context menu, accessible from another right-click on the highlighted field or from the earphone icon, to select Stop to cease the reading.

The extension will stop on its own once it has reached the end of the highlighted text. Chrome Speak offers support on Windows, Mac OS X, and Chrome OS and uses native test-to-speech capabilities provided by these operating systems.

If you are a new Chrome user, or an old one who is now used to working with the browser in a certain way, you may be interested in tips to get the most out of the web browser. Maybe it is basic tips that can really help you improve your workflow, for instance by searching websites directly from Chrome’s address bar instead of loading a search engine’s website first to do that, or more advanced tips that involve keyboard shortcuts.

Google recently released a first party extension for the Chrome browser with the purpose of providing Chrome users with tips to use the web browser more efficiently.

The extension will display tips when it recognizes ineffective behavior, for instance if a user uses only windows and no tabs to browser multiple websites.

The core question here is obviously if those users would be able to find and install the Chrome Tips extension, and the answer is probably no.

Regardless of that oversight in design, it can be handy if you do not mind running the extension in the background while working in the browser.

The extension will display tips in a small toolbar on top. The core issue that I have with the extension is that the tips are time and action based, which means that you may never see a tip coming up if you are an advanced user.

I tested the extension for a long time and did not see a single tip come up, hence the lack of a screenshot.

If you open the constants.js file of the extension you will see all tips listed in the interface. Here are a few examples of the tips listed:

• Key for tip when user needs to be educated about switching between tabs.
• Key for tip when the user needs to be educated about pinned tab feature.
• Key for tip when user needs to be educated about browsing in private.
• Key for tip when the user needs to be educated about search from omnibox.

The extension in its current state offers 13 different tips. That’s not a lot and explains why some users may never see tips displayed in the browser. I personally would have preferred a link somewhere in the browser user interface to a static page that lists all the tips.

The idea is interesting especially since the extension can display tips whenever it recognizes ineffective user behavior. Still, a lot more tips and the option to display them directly would be handy.

Chrome users can install Chrome Tips from the official Chrome Web Store.

I also noticed a new design of the extensions listing in Chrome Dev. Not sure for how long it has been there but it looks clean and really nice.

I personally do not have the need for a web based screenshot solution like Webpage Screenshot for the Google Chrome browser. The core reason for this is that I use a desktop application – Snagit – for the task which allows me to take screenshots in any application and not only in Chrome.

Sometimes however you may not be able to install desktop apps on your system, which is for instance the case in most corporate computing environments or if you happen to own a Chromebook. In those cases you may have to settle for the next best solution, which may be Webpage Screenshot.

When you click on the extension icon in the Chrome address bar after installation, you see the three options Visible Screenshot, All Page Screenshot and Beta: Edit Content in the context menu.

The first two options should be self-explanatory. You can use the first to take a screenshot of the currently visible area on the screen, the second to take a screenshot of the whole page which means that scrolling pages are supported by the extension.

The third edit option finally allows you to edit the page before taking a screenshot. You can for instance remove elements from the page or add text annotations to it.

The extension loads the created screenshot in an editor-like mode afterwards regardless of choice. Here it is possible to use some basic editing tools to make modifications to the page.

The edit toolbar contains options to add text, arrows, lines or shapes on the screen to highlight, remove or add information.

You can save the screenshot in the end to the local computer system, use the share button to upload it to the Webpage Screenshot image hosting service or print the screenshot on a connected printer.

The options, which can be accessed via a right-click on the icon or a click on Options in edit mode, can be used to switch from saving screenshots in the png format to jpg and to edit the image header and footer information.

Webpage Screenshot is a handy extension for Chrome users who take screenshots of web pages open in the Chrome browser regularly. The functionality is solid, and the ability to edit the page before taking the screenshot is nice to have. A blur option is missing from the edit tools option, the only workaround is to either edit the element before taking the screenshot or to paint over it afterwards.

Chrome users can download Webpage Screenshot from the official Chrome Web Store.

I’m not a fan of blue on black text, or link colors that are barely distinguishable from a website’s background. While it is still possible to use a site that uses hard to read color sets, it is usually a lot easier to turn that color set into one that is more pleasing to the eye.

PlainClothes is a Google Chrome extension that will automatically override page styles on all pages that you visit in the browser. It uses a default color scheme that can be customized in the options.

By default, all pages will be displayed with a black text font on white background. The extension furthermore ensures that links will always be underlined, and that link colors use the standard blue and violet colors for unvisited and visited links.

You basically turn a page like this

into this

That’s the Yale Art page by the way.

You do not need to configure anything if you like the color schemes used by the extension. The extension displays its icon in the address bar. You can click on the icon to disable it for that page. The default website design will be displayed if the extension is deactivated.

A right-click on the icon and the selection of Options opens the preferences. Here you can make changes to the default design used when the extension is active.

It is possible to change the text, background, unvisited links and visited links colors separately, or make the following changes to the preferences.

You can allow websites to set text colors or use your system’s default colors instead of custom text and background colors.

It is furthermore possible to allow websites to set link colors instead of defining values for visited and unvisited links.

The extension displays examples right in the options which is handy to test if the selected color schemes are readable.

Two additional options are available in the PlainClothes preferences. You can disable the forced underlining of links and the use of default system fonts.

PlainClothes has been specifically designed for Internet users with impairments.

Chrome users can download PlainClothes from the official Google Chrome Web Store.

The default, or shall I say more prominent, installer for the Google Chrome web browser offers only single user account installations only. More precisely, it can only be installed for the user account that is currently logged into the operating system. That’s not a problem for single user systems, but if you maintain computers with multiple accounts, you might want to use an installer that will install the web browser for all user accounts at once.

What many users do not know is that Google is offering an alternative installer for Windows administrators who want to install the Chrome web browser for multiple user accounts.

The alternate Google Chrome installer for Windows is available here on this help page at the Google Chrome support website. A click on Alternate installer for all user accounts leads to the multi-user installer for Windows.

The installer is an offline installer, it comes with all program modules and does not need to download additional contents from the Internet during installation.

Google notes:

These alternate installers don’t require network connection to install Chrome, so you can install Chrome while being offline. Once installed, Chrome will attempt to automatically update whenever it detects that a newer version of the browser is available. However, your network configuration may prevent the browser from updating properly. It’s recommended that you bookmark this page and come back periodically to manually download newer versions of Chrome.

It should be obvious that administrator rights are required to run the Google Chrome multi-user installer under Windows. It also needs to be noted that running the installer will replace all other versions of Chrome that may be already installed on the computer.

Users of the system will be notified automatically that the browser has updated to a system-wide version during the next browser start. They may need to recreate profile information, especially so if they have used a more recent build of the browser before.

Administrators need to uninstall a version of Chrome that is already installed in the administrator account before they run the alternate Chrome installer.

Do you have to write the same text multiple times per day? For instance when replying to business emails, writing blog posts or commenting on them on the Internet. If that is the case you might have considered using tools that let you create text shortcuts that you can simply paste into your texts to speed up the writing?

The Google Chrome extension Popchrome adds this functionality to the popular Internet browser. Popchrome uses shortcuts for text that can be used in most web forms. The extension ships with two of them pre-installed. The abbreviation today can be changed into the current date, while sy into Sincerly yours.

The conversion itself is pretty straightforward. You write your message or post normally using the shortcut code. Once done you use the shortcut Ctrl-Space to turn all shortcuts on that particular page into the text that has been associated with them.

This works very well on most sites and forms on the Internet. The extension seems to be incompatible with some secure sites. It did not work at the Google Web Store nor Google Plus. It worked fine on the other hand on the Gmail web site when composing email.

The extension would not be of real use without the ability to add and configure new shortcuts and text snippets. This is done in the extension options.

You can create as many new text snippets and abbreviations here as you want. These become active after you click on the Save button in the options.

A click on the Help tab lists variables that you can add to your text snippets. Support right now are only date related parameters (day, month, years or a combination thereof).

The text substitution shortcut can be changed under the Settings tab. Here it is furthermore possible to disable sounds and animations that are not really needed for the extension’s functionality.

Popchrom could be an interesting extension for Chrome users who regularly have to write the same text snippets in the web browser.

Chrome users can install Popchrom directly from the Google Chrome web store.

Unlike Opera, Google Chrome does not support mouse gestures by default. This input method is probably not at the top of Google’s priority. Chrome users who would like to add mouse gestures to their browser can do so by installing an extension like Smooth Gestures.

The extension adds default gestures to the browser that work right after installation. It also offers controls to create custom gestures.

A help page is displayed to the user after installation. This page display the available mouse gestures that ship with the extension.

All mouse gestures work by holding down the right mouse button and moving the mouse to draw on the screen. Basic examples are drawing to the left or right to go back and forth in the tab’s history, up for open a new tab or down and right to close the current tab.

Other available actions that are not linked to a gesture are also displayed on the same page. A click on the plus icon next to them opens an overlay where a gesture can be drawn and set.

How do you search when you use the Google Chrome browser? Do you enter the search term directly in the address bar, open the Google search homepage and search there or do something else? Highlight to Search is a very popular Google Chrome extension that adds a feature to search by simply highlighting text in the browser. And with popular I mean mighty. More than 71,000 users have installed the extension at this point in time. 2800 users install the extension every week indicating that usage is rising.

But wait a minute. Highlight text and then search for that text on Google? Does not that sound all to familiar? Right. When you highlight text in Chrome and right-click that text afterwards, you get an option to search for the highlighted text on Google.

To be fair, the extension is not entirely redundant. When you highlight text after installing the extension, you will see a magnifying glass icon appear next to it. It is now possible to click on that icon, or the keyword itself, to open a search box with auto complete to search for that term.

So, the only benefit of this is that you can alter the search term if you like. But you can do that on the search results page as well. The negatives? Well, you are running an extension when you may not really need it. And, it does not work on https websites while the context menu entry does.

I cannot really say when Google started to implement the context menu search option. It can be that the company created the extension first, and added the search option at a later time. This would explain why I have reviewed the Highlight To Search extension before on Ghacks.

Why am I writing about a more or less obsolete extension for the Chrome browser? First, it is an official extension by Google. It has not been updated since February but still, it is official and advertised prominently in the Chrome Web Store.

Second, to demonstrate that it is not always necessary to install extensions. That it actually may pay off to look at the browser’s functionality first before you go hunting for extensions for a specific purpose.

Have you ever installed extensions that you did not really need for a specific task? Let me know in the comments.

The Google Chrome web browser, after a recent update, is now showing a cupcake in the upper left corner of the screen. To be precise, that cupcake is shown on the tab bar, and there on the left side of it. The tabs are then listed to the right of it.

This cupcake links to the new multi-profile feature of the Chrome web browser. When you left-click on the icon you get the profile selection menu with options to create a new profile, change the default profile’s icon or to delete a profile.

So what’s the problem with the cupcake icon in the browser? Easy, it cannot be removed. That’s right. Even if you only use one profile you see the profile selector in the upper left corner of the screen.

Google in the past minimized the browser interface up to a point where there is little left to be optimized in this regard. There is no status bar, no title bar. All the UI elements have been basically moved into the tab bar and address bar.

The cupcake icon breaks that pattern big time. So why is it displayed on single profile systems? Why not hidden in the Tools section somewhere for those users.

I looked into the Tools > Options to see if there is a way to disable the cupcake in the tabbar, but there is none. There is one setting under Personal Stuff > Profile that allows you to create a new profile, but that one is blanked out (nice).

I remembered a multi-profile option under about:flags, but that is gone now as well.

As of now, it is not possible to remove the cupcake icon from Google Chrome. Lets hope that Google sees this as a work of progress and that the company will add options to remove the cupcake icon from the browser.

Let me know please if you know of a way to get rid of the cupcake icon in the browser.

Update: Do not try to delete the default profile. If you do you will delete all of your bookmarks and other user related settings. Even worse, a new default profile is generated right afterwards.

Prerendering is a technology that can speed up web browsing by loading web pages in advance. The advantage of prerendering is an almost instant page loading time for prerendered pages. There are disadvantages though. The average web page has anywhere from a few dozen to more than one hundred links. Prerendering all link targets would send bandwidth usage to the roof. It would also take a long time to prerender them all. That’s why developers use algorithms to prerender links with the highest click probability.

Google for instance knows that the majority of search engine users will click on the three first links in the search results, making those results optimal prerendering targets. But this is guesswork, which means that it happens that the wrong pages are prerendered. It should also be clear that usually more pages are prerendered than visited by the user.

Why the introduction? Because Google has added an experimental feature to Chrome Dev that introduces prerendering in the browser. The feature is enabled by default in Chrome Dev.

Chrome Dev users who do not want to use the feature can disable it in the Chrome Options. The easiest way to get there is to load chrome://settings/advanced in the browser.

Locate Predict network actions to improve page load performance and uncheck the preference to disable prerendering in Chrome.

Having an extension like Mega Button for Chrome to access often used features faster is nice and all, but it is not the fastest way to work with the browser. Shortcuts are faster, and they additionally do not add buttons or other clutter to the browser or menus.

Google Chrome comes with a set of shortcuts for many features. These shortcuts are hard coded in the browser and cannot be changed in the preferences or options. Users who want to change existing shortcuts, or add new shortcuts to the browser need to look at third party extensions to do so.

One of the best Chrome shortcut extensions is Shortcut Manager, which has been in development for quite some time.

Shortcut Manager is probably the most versatile shortcut extension for the Google browser currently. It adds an icon to the Chrome address bar, which can be hidden once the initial configuration has been completed.

A right-click on the icon and the selection of Options opens the shortcut configuration screen. Here it is possible to create new shortcuts in the browser. Shortcuts can also be exported and imported which is handy if Chrome is used on multiple systems, or if different editions of the browser are installed on the same system.

You create new shortcuts by clicking in the Shortcut key form and then a shortcut key that you want to use. The extension will display a notification if the shortcut is currently already mapped in the browser. You can still go ahead and override the original mapping or select a different shortcut if you want to keep the original shortcut.

It is possible to set each shortcut to work with specific web addresses only, or globally. Nothing needs to be changed if it should work globally, if not you need to enter an url so that the shortcut is only working on websites that match the pattern. You could for instance create shortcuts that only work on secure sites that begin with https://*, or shortcuts that work on Google, Bing or Ghacks.

The action defines what is done when the keyboard shortcut is activated. Two options are available. It is possible to select one of the predefined browser actions or load a JavaScript file and execute it afterwards.

Most users will likely pick the predefined actions. Here is a short selection of what can be selected out of the box.

• Tab actions – Open tabs, close tabs, select tabs
• Page actions – Go back and forward, reload, view source
• Inner page actions – Focus elements, scroll or print
• Cursor actions – Insert free text, go to the front or back of a text form.
• Window actions – Open or close windows
• Screen capture – Capture the current tab
• Chrome pages – Open Extensions, Downloads, History

One of the things you could do is to use the “open my favorite page in a new tab” action to load websites or Chrome internal pages with shortcuts.

The second option can be used to execute JavaScript code. This opens an interesting option for users who work with bookmarklets as it is possible to add their code directly as shortcuts in the shortcut editor which means that it is no longer necessary to click on the bookmarklets button to execute the code, as it is now possible to use the shortcut instead.

You may need to restart the browser before the shortcuts become available. A left-click on the extensions icon displays the currently configured shortcuts with options to open them in the shortcut editor.

Chrome users who like to work with shortcuts should definitely take a look at the Shortcut Manager extension.

Google has updated the stable channel of the Google Chrome web browser. The Chrome browser is now at version 12.0.742.91 on the stable channel. The new release combines security fixes, other updates and even a few new features that have been added to that version that have previously only been available on the other channels.

Lets take a look at the feature updates and additions first. Chrome Stable now supports 3D CS and launching apps from the Chrome address bar by simply typing in their name. Apps are web apps that are installed at the Chrome web store.

Probably more interesting than those two features is the ability to delete Flash cookies directly from within the browser, by clearing the browsing history. This was previously not possible and improves the privacy of the user significantly.

Another new security related feature is the new safe browsing protection that protects the user better from downloading malicious files.

The data synchronization service Google Sync is now integrated into the Chrome settings page, which users can access by clicking on the wrench icon and selecting options from the context menu.

• [73962] [79746] High CVE-2011-1808: Use-after-free due to integer issues in float handling.
• [75496] Medium CVE-2011-1809: Use-after-free in accessibility support.
• [75643] Low CVE-2011-1810: Visit history information leak in CSS.
• [76034] Low CVE-2011-1811: Browser crash with lots of form submissions.
• [77026] Medium CVE-2011-1812: Extensions permission bypass.
• [78516] High CVE-2011-1813: Stale pointer in extension framework.
• [79362] Medium CVE-2011-1814: Read from uninitialized pointer.
• [79862] Low CVE-2011-1815: Extension script injection into new tab page.
• [80358] Medium CVE-2011-1816: Use-after-free in developer tools.
• [81916] Medium CVE-2011-1817: Browser memory corruption in history deletion.
• [81949] High CVE-2011-1818: Use-after-free in image loader.
• [83010] Medium CVE-2011-1819: Extension injection into chrome:// pages.
• [83275] High CVE-2011-2332: Same origin bypass in v8.
• [83743] High CVE-2011-2342: Same origin bypass in DOM.

All information about the stable channel update is available over at the Chrome blog. Chrome should already pick up the new release. New users can download Chrome 12 from the official Chrome project website.

In the comments to Tips to Master Google Chrome you told us to post more Chrome tips. This article offers five Chrome tips that you may not have heard about before. These little tips help you in your daily Chrome routine, they may speed up things further or highlight a feature that may help you in another way.

Not everything may appear to be useful on the other hand, as it depends largely how you use the Google browser. Lets start with the tips collection.

1. Drag and Drop downloaded files

You probably know that it is possible to execute downloaded files right away by double-clicking them in the browser. You can also click on the down arrow next to a downloaded file to open the folder the file has been saved to. What you may not know is that you can drag and drop the file as well.

If you drag and drop downloaded files they are copied to the new location, for instance the desktop or another folder. You can even drag and drop downloads to programs like the email client Thunderbird.

2. Add, Edit Search Engines

Chrome uses Google Search as the default search engine. You can add and edit search engines with a right-click on the Chrome address bar and the selection of Edit Search Engines, or by going directly to Wrench > Options > Manage Search Engines.

You can add new search engines in the following way. Visit the search engine in Chrome and do a search for a term that you can easily located in the urlbar, for instance TEST. Copy the url and open the search engine options in Chrome as outlined above.

Paste the url into the URL field of a new search engine, and replace TEST with %s. Add a name for the search engine and a keyword. Whenever you want to search on that search engine, you simply enter the keyword first and then the search phrase.

Example:

Name: Bing
Keyword: b
Url: http://www.bing.com/search?q=%s&go=&form=QBLH

3. Unit Conversions

Chrome can convert units for you right in the address bar. Just enter a term like 10 meters in inch, 1000km in miles or 4+10 and you get the result shown in the suggestion window that opens up.

4. Keyboard Shortcuts

Chrome offers hotkeys for many operations, which are usually faster than using the mouse. Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts for Chrome that I use all the time.

• Ctrl-F, Opens the Find form
• Ctrl-T, Opens a new tab
• Ctrl-Shift-Del, Opens Clear browsing data window
• Shift-Esc, Opens Chrome’s task manager
• Alt-Home, Opens homepage in active tab
• Ctrl-Enter, Adds www and .com to the address in the urlbar automatically
• Ctrl-Shift-V, Copy Clipboard contents without formatting

5. Change the Zoom level

Did you know that it is possible to change the global zoom level and a page-only zoom level in the Chrome browser?

To change the zoom level of a specific page, you can use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+ and Ctrl-. These new zoom levels are set for the domain, and will stick even after you close the browser window.

Global zoom levels on the other hand are handled in the Chrome preferences. Click the Wrench icon and select Options to open the preferences of the browser. Click Under the Hood and locate the Web Content section there.

You can change the zoom level and default font size for all web pages here.

Closing

Have a Google Chrome tip of your own that you’d like to add to this collection? Let us know in the comments.

Google Chrome is one of the leading web browsers and it has become increasingly popular with tech savvy folks as well as those who aren’t quite as tech savvy. The simplicity, usability and technicality make it one of the best browsers. Google Chrome is compatible with almost all the Operating Systems such as Windows, Mac or Linux. Google Chrome, though very simple to use, has a lot of features which are unknown and untested by many users. These features can enhance the usability of the browser and provide you with greater efficiency when browsing the web. Following are a few tips which can be used to enhance the performance of the Chrome web browser.

The Incognito mode

The incognito mode can be used as a stealth mode in effect. It turns off the browser tracking and does not allow the tracking of the web pages being browsed or the files that were downloaded to the user memory during a particular browsing session. The feature also automatically deletes the cookies and all the other temporary files which are related to the browsing session on Google Chrome. This provides an increased and improved level of privacy for highly sensitive and secured browsing such as processing online banking services, payment procedures and using various access credentials for starting up various web based applications.

Various methods to start Incognito:

Method 1: For using Incognito temporarily for a particular browsing session on a particular tab window.

Ctrl+Shift+N is a keyboard shortcut to initiate a new Chrome Window in Incognito mode. A Google Chrome web browser can be launched in Incognito mode directly from the taskbar in Windows by simply right clicking and selecting the option of “Open link in Incognito Window”. This will initiate the Incognito mode temporarily for a particular browsing session in a particular window tab where it is necessary for the information to be kept private and clear of tracking.

Method 2: For using Incognito continuously for different sessions at regular intervals.

In this method the browser is set in Incognito mode by default, and every time the browser is launched from a desktop shortcut it opens in Incognito mode. First right click the Google Chrome shortcut icon on the desktop and select properties. In the target field type “–incognito” (space dash incognito without quotes) at the end of the line and then click on the OK button. Once this procedure is complete, Google Chrome will be launched in Incognito mode every time the Chrome browser is opened through the shortcut.

Google Chrome Instant

The Google Chrome Instant feature is an instant search tool feature which allows the browser to show dynamically updated webpages and search results instantly while the information is typed in the address bar of the browser, even before hitting the enter button. It is a smart search which gets dynamically updated as more information is typed in the address bar, until the desired results are found.

Enabling Instant:

Click on the wrench icon and select Options for Windows, preferences for Mac and Linux and Settings on Chrome OS. Now click the basics tab, and check the box next to “Enable Instant for faster searching and browsing”.
Chrome Instant may not work due to inadequate connection speed of the internet services or during certain inappropriate searches, when the instant feature is not triggered to show the search results instantly. Instant does not work in Incognito mode.

Do you think that these tips will help you? And are you likely to use them?

The new tab page of the Google Chrome browser offers little options to change layout or contents. The page displays the bookmarks bar, web apps, most visited websites and recently closed sites. Users who want to change the layout need to install extensions to do so. One of the extensions available is New Tab Redirect.

The extension basically allows the Chrome user to change the new tab page to a local or remote location. It is for instance possible to select the homepage of your favorite tech blog Ghacks, Facebook, Google Mail, a custom start page like iGoogle or Netvibes or a local page with custom links as the starting page.

You need to configure the extension after installation. This is done with a click on the Wrench icon in the Chrome interface, and the selection of Tools > Extensions from the context menu.

Locate New Tab Redirect under Extensions and click the Options link to open the extension’s options.

You can enter a location right away and click the Save button to set the new start page. The program suggests original Chrome pages and popular pages that you can add as the new tab page as well. Among them Downloads, memory, version or bookmarks.

Remote urls can be entered right away, local files need to start with the file:// protocol followed by the full file path and file name on the system, for example file://C:\example.html to load example.html whenever a new tab page opens.

Using a local page has the benefit that it is usually faster to load and without bandwidth requirements than a remote page.

Chrome users who want to change the new tab page in Chrome can install the Chrome extension New Tab Redirect directly from the Chrome web apps store.

It is a handy extension for Chrome users who want more customization when it comes to the new tab page of their browser.