Today, Google has pushed three new features to the latest stable version of its Chrome browser. Instant Pages pre-renders certain pages in the background, like top search results or the 'next page' link in an article, when the software can reasonably predict that the user will go there next. A pre-rendered page will appear to load instantly.

Instant Pages builds on Google's instant search results and previews to further reduce the time users spend finding what they're looking for.

The update also launches print preview mode for Windows and Linux users, using Chrome's built-in PDF viewer to load printable documents as naturally as Web pages. Finally, the new version of the omnibar - Chrome's combined search and address bar - has navigation, suggestion and history enhancements.

Ever wanted to create a simple theme for the web browser of your choice? Then BT Engage, an interactive skin creator by Brand Thunder is a tool you’ve been waiting for.

The process is pretty straight forward. Upon starting, user is presented with a web browser screen that can be customized according to your individual needs, from backgrounds and logos to widgets.

However, if you are not keen on trying such activity, feel free to check ThunderThemes, which includes over 40,000 already created skins.

Chrome: Eventnote is a Chrome extension that allows you to automatically send any events you enter to Google Calendar to your Evernote account as well. More »

It has only been several weeks since Google+ opened its door to limited users and it has already created plenty of buzz. While many people still have not gotten their invites, there are already 10 million users on the platform and a billion items shared per day. If you find yourself terribly addicted to Google+, Here are 15 Google Chrome extensions that make using Google+ a better experience.

1. Google+ Ultimate

Is the Google+ design too bland for your taste? You can now customize the color and style of Google+ with Googlt+ Ultimate. Things that you can customize include the background, scrollbars, left and top panel, navigation bar, image size in stream, side-by-side view (for large monitor).

2. GTools+

GTools+ is developed by the same developer as Google+ Ultimate. It acts as a complement to Google+ Ultimate and allows you to customize the Google bar as well as integrating the chat feature to the Google bar.

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.

For awhile, Google's been using their own goo.gl shortener to compress long links, but as of today they'll be using a different shortener, g.co. However, the goal behind g.co is not to provide another URL shortener for you to create short links. Instead, it's a service that only Google can use to shorten links to their own pages—that way, when you see a g.co link, you know that it's coming from a trusted source and you can click on it. For your own links, you can still use Goo.gl, but just know that when you see a g.co link around the internet, it's coming straight from Google and is safe to click on. [Official Google Blog] More »

Chrome: The "Open ZIP and RAR With GDocs" Chrome extension lets you view the contents of a compressed archive directly in your browser using Google Docs' convenient support for ZIP and RAR archives. More »

While Microsoft and Apple are working to bring aspects of tablet computing to the next versions of their computer operating systems, one big computer maker, Toshiba, is going the other way: It is introducing a tablet that emulates a laptop in some key respects.

Unlike other well-known tablets on the market, the new Toshiba Thrive, a 10-inch Android model available this month, sports a full-sized USB port that works with a wide variety of devices and files; a removable battery; and a file manager application like those on PCs. It also includes a full-sized SD slot for flash memory cards and a full-sized connector, called an HDMI port, that can use a standard cable for linking to a high-definition TV.

Google recently released their own line of Chrome OS-clad netbooks, but with only a few choices and a somewhat high price tag, you might be more comfortable running Chrome OS on your own machine. Here's how to install it on your current laptop or netbook. More »

Chrome/Firefox/Internet Explorer: If you're loving Google+ but finding it to be virtual ghost town while your friends slowly trickle in, the Google+Facebook browser extension incorporates your Facebook feed to your Google+ stream. You can also post status updates and replies directly within Google+.More »

Chrome: Google+ notifications appear on all Google sites, but if you find them distracting or wish you could turn them off, the BlockPlus add-on for Chrome will remove them from all sites except for Google+. More »

Firefox/Chrome/Opera: Right before Google announced Google+ the company changed the bar across the top of all Google pages black. That bar now has links to your often-used Google services, and the Google+ Enhancer userscript makes it more useful by adding unread item counts to the ones you use. More »

Q:

I am going back to school in the fall and I contacted the school to see which laptop or tablet I should be using. They replied I would need the Adobe Flash Player to run the lectures. While I love Apple, I understand the newest Apple laptops and the iPad do not support Flash. Is this correct? If so, what should I buy?

A:

There’s a lot of confusion about this, so here’s the story. Apple’s Mac laptops and desktops do indeed run the Adobe Flash Player, and thus Flash videos and websites, just like Windows PCs. While they no longer ship with the Flash software pre-installed, you can quickly and easily download and install it free of charge. Once you do, Flash videos and websites will work on your Mac.

By contrast, the iPad won’t accept the Flash Player in its built-in browser and thus cannot run Flash videos or websites. There are some third-party browsers for Apple’s tablet, such as Skyfire and Puffin, that do run Flash on Web pages, albeit clumsily at times. The latter are available in the iPad app store. If you want a tablet that runs Flash natively, you could buy one of the newer Android models, or the HP TouchPad, but be aware that some Flash videos and websites don’t run properly on the current generation of Flash-enabled tablets.

As Internet Explorer is heading towards the 49% market share mark and Firefox continues its downtrend, we see interesting times are approaching indeed, but as for now, let’s focus on what had happened over the course of June.

No surprises here, Internet Explorer has lost some of its market share again, down from 54.27% to 53.68% (0.59 point decrease).

After slightly increasing its share in the month of May, Firefox resumes its downtrend as it goes down again, down from 21.71% to 21.67% (0.04 point decrease).

In the expense of other web browsers, Google Chrome share continues to climb higher, up from 12.52% to 13.11% (0.59 point increase).

It looks like WebKit web browsers are on the roll, as Safari managed to increase its market share by another 0.2 point, up from 7.28% to 7.48%.

Opera took another big hit (-15% this time), losing 0.3 point of its market share, as it went down from 2.03% to 1.73%.

With the release of the Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 2, Microsoft has decided to post results of the JavaScript Standards Test, which scores are available below.

The following web browsers were tested:

Internet Explorer 10 (Platform Preview 2)
Internet Explorer 9
Firefox 5
Google Chrome 13 (13.0.782.41)
Google Chrome 12 (12.0.742.112)
Safari 5.0.5 (7533.21.1)
Opera 11.50

As you can see from the results, IE10 has scored 99%, followed by Firefox 5.0, IE9 and Google Chrome 13 Beta. Surprisingly or not, Opera 11.50 has scored only 65%, lowest of all the web browsers.

What is test262?

test262 is a test suite intended to check agreement between JavaScript implementations and the ECMA-262 Specification (currently 5th Edition). The test suite contains thousands of individual tests, each of which tests some specific requirements of the ECMAScript specification.

Surprised, excited or both?

Chrome: The Extended Share for Google Plus extension for Chrome adds a "Send to" link to each post or update at Google+ that you can click to republish the post at Twitter or Facebook. If you have an invite to Google+ but miss the ability to share updates with friends elsewhere, this extension makes it easier. More »

Chrome Sync is already pretty full-featured, but one of the few things that's been missing is its ability to sync URLs that users manually type into the Omnibar. Chrome Canary users can now activate that feature, by heading to their about:flags page and enabling it, then checking the box for "Typed URLs" in the Preference page's Sync settings. More »

Would you buy a laptop that comes with only one major program—a Web browser—and doesn’t allow you to install widely used software such as Microsoft Office, Apple’s iTunes, Adobe Reader, or, in fact, any other locally installed program?

Are you ready for a laptop that has almost no storage space to hold your personal files, photos and videos, and is designed around the idea that you’ll keep all that precious personal stuff on remote servers?

If you're stuck on an office computer and forced to use Internet Explorer because your system is locked down, Google has your back. The new version of Chrome Frame brings the features of Google Chrome to IE and doesn't need administrative rights to your PC to install. More »