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I'm loving Google's newest browser! It loads really fast, and has a very simple and straightforward interface. Or maybe I just like the blue?

Here's some simple tips to make the most of it :

- Ctrl - B will toggle the bookmarks bar. This is great because if you toggle it off, it shows on the "home" page, but disappears when you navigate to a URL, leaving more screen space for the page itself.

- CTRL Shift T - Re-opens the TABS that you have recently closed.

- CTRL J - Shows the download page.

- Shift Middle-Mouse-Button click - Open link in a new tab and switch to it immediately (instead of in the background). I wish this was the default option!


Open Search with RevTK's Study page

Right click the URL bar (inside) and choose the last option "Modify search engines" (a guess from the French version). You want to manually add a new entry, or choose "modify" if it's already in there. Now enter:

Name: Reviewing the Kanji
Keyword: revtk (or whichever you like, you type that in the URL bar)
URL: http://kanji.koohii.com/study/index.php?search=%s

Now you can search RevTK's Study page straight from the URL bar, by typing "revtk (TAB) keyword". Now of course there is already a search box on the page itself but if you're like me you will like that you can search always from one place, it seems faster.

According to Google, a website using OpenSearch should be detected and it works automatically. For example I didn"t have to setup amazon.com, but somehow it doesn't work for me with Wikipedia so I had to setup Wikipedia manually as well (use the URL: http://en.wikipdedia.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s ).

Application shortcut

This is great! Google took the Prism (Firefox plugin) idea and actually finished it. Navigate to RevTK's Review page, or Google Mail, and then from the first menu (the page icon) choose "Create shortcut to application" (or similar text).

If you look at the icon properties you can change the URL. Somehow I couldn't create a shortcut to RevTK's homepage. So I created one from the Review page and then edited the URL in the Icon Properties.

You can independently customize the size and position of the window for each one of your "web app" shortcuts!

Personally I'm sticking with Firefox unless they somehow make Firefox addons work with Chrome. Rikaichan and Ubiquity are just way too awesome to switch browser for.

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Who said you have to switch browser? It's not a religion

I have Opera, Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome installed. I use Opera for downloading torrents. I know people at work who use Opera for email too. I use Firefox for the plugins obviously.

Google Chrome however due to its blazing speed and the desktop shortcut option seems to be the best choice for web apps, especially Google's Apps : Google Maps, Google Mail, Calendar, Docs, ... All of these run faster on Chrome since the "V8" Javascript engine is completely rewritten from scratch, and web apps use tons of Javascript.

I used chrome for a while after it was released but ended up switching back to firefox. I never knew about this shortcut feature though, that's really awesome.

Hmm, maybe Google will offer a hover translate function later for its browser. If that happens, I probably will give it a shot too.

Nukemarine Wrote:Hmm, maybe Google will offer a hover translate function later for its browser. If that happens, I probably will give it a shot too.

Eventually Chrome is supposed to have an API for extensions, and I'm sure some enterprising soul will create a Rikaichan-like interface for Chrome.

I definitely tend to play favorites on the browsers, though. I don't mind switching, as long as I can do everything on the new on that I could on the old... Including have the same bookmarks, etc. Things like Foxmarks make Firefox really, really hard to beat.

Yeah, I've also switched browsers a lot in the past, I've tried Safari, Opera, IE (various versions), Firefox, Seamonkey, Linx, you name it. I've always used them for different reasons though, and I've only kept using one browser at any one time simply because I want my browsers and my functionality in one place, thus I use Firefox since it's simply the best at most things. (I would recommend ファブリス to use uTorrent instead of Opera for torrents since it's been the superior torrent program for years now, but that's a different story.)

I am downloading Chrome now though, seems fair enough to try it out at least since I've given all other browsers a chance . There are some very heavy sites where a faster browser would definitely make a difference.

I'm on the same boat as tobberoth. The insane amount of great plugins for firefox makes it my choice. If not, I would've been using opera.

The other thing is that a lot of the shortcuts and features of Chrome actually come from other browsers. I think Opera invented tabs, and Ctrl-B, Ctrl-Shift T and Shift Middle-Mouse-Button click all come from Firefox.

I haven't tried Chrome yet because it has a keylogger so we're not allowed to use it at work and I haven't bothered at home (does it work on Linux?). It seems that the design has been reworked from scratch to make it faster and cleaner, it incorporates the best from other browsers, and it adds Google's own innovations. Pretty much like Firefox was when it first came out. I suppose in ten years time someone will come out with something better still.

Raichu Wrote:The other thing is that a lot of the shortcuts and features of Chrome actually come from other browsers.

That can be said of any decent browser. Pretty much any decent product borrows heavily from it's predecessors and competition.

Raichu Wrote:(does it work on Linux?)

Sadly, no. There are compile instructions, but even if you get it to compile, it still doesn't actually work. Eventually, I'm sure it will.

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There is a nice Google Chrome Comic illustrated by Scott McCloud that explains the underlying changes of Google's new browser. It's a bit long, but interesting.

As for incorporating the best from other browsers, on a conceptual level that's true. But to be precise, from a web developer's point of view, this is awesome because there is an open source project behind Chrome called "Chromium". There is for example, already a non-official port to Mac OS. That means the new multi-threaded engine and the new Javascript engine can be used by other browsers. So they didn't just take good ideas, they have also raised the bar for web application support, and given something back.

I mean, Chrome is really about the underlying architecture changes. So it's true that on the surface level there is not much incentives to "switch" right now. Chrome is not "just another browser". If they did that, just revamp the user interface, that would have been pointless.

There's no point for them in being the only browser, they thrive on web apps like Gmail and Google Maps and many others. Better browsers = a better web experience = more clients and more money to them. It profits them and it profits everybody else. Just right now, Chrome lets them experiment with more advanced web apps and services, without having to wait for all browsers to have minimum speed requirements.

The multi threaded engine is really important. If you think about it nowadays a browser is like a "operating system wannabe": you have multiple windows or tabs, each one trying to run a "application wannabe" : mail, calendar, maps, spreadsheet. But still today it's so easy to get a browser crash. As flawless as the browser may be, a plugin could be buggy or even insecure. If the plugin crashes, all your "wannabe apps" crash with it. Not any more with Chrome's approach. Each tab and window is a separate process. This may seem trivial today, but if we want web apps to become more interactive, faster, more responsive, and just overall ass-kicking, this stability is going to be really important.

Me trying Google Chrome was a good idea indeed. I miss rikaichan a lot and Ubiquity some too, but it's so fast and good looking... I really hope they add extension capability soon.

Also, I found a Greasemonkey for Google Chrome called Greasemetal.
http://greasemetal.31tools.com/
It has some Greasemonkey compability but because of it being an "ugly hack" and not a real extension, they have some security issues, so it doesn't support 3 important functions. Any Greasemonkey script which uses those functions will not work in Chrome (Subsitute keywords is one of those).

Thanks for the suggestion - I've started using Chrome - it's blazingly fast... ...hope some standard plugins are being developed for it so I can switch away from IE permanently.

kfmfe04 Wrote:Thanks for the suggestion - I've started using Chrome - it's blazingly fast... ...hope some standard plugins are being developed for it so I can switch away from IE permanently.

How can there possibly be anything you need from IE? Have you seen IEs score on Acid3? That browser is pathetic.

In his defense, some countries like Korea and China still overwhelmingly use IE. As a result, many pages from those countries won't work properly unless you use IE since they are so poorly written.

Jarvik7 Wrote:In his defense, some countries like Korea and China still overwhelmingly use IE. As a result, many pages from those countries won't work properly unless you use IE since they are so poorly written.

Ah yes, that is indeed correct, I know several korean websites which require IE for no reason >_<

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One very cool thing in Google Chrome is you don't loose the text you have typed into various forms (eg. posting on forum) if you happened to click in the wrong place and load another page. When you press the back button your text is restored, even if you didn't submit the form yet.

ファブリス Wrote:One very cool thing in Google Chrome is you don't loose the text you have typed into various forms (eg. posting on forum) if you happened to click in the wrong place and load another page. When you press the back button your text is restored, even if you didn't submit the form yet.

I believe this has been true for me with firefox on every site I have visited except this one.

Are there any plugins you could recommend? Does it has plugin capability I should also ask? I know tis. If it manages to be faster than firefox with plugins I like, i'll take it for a spin.

Tobberoth Wrote:I know several korean websites which require IE for no reason >_<

Korea's primordial use of IE over any other browser is enforced by law. Read on "the cost of monoculture (Korea's SEED National Encryption Standard)".

Fix that and then you can come and tell developers and users of other options.

ファブリス Wrote:One very cool thing in Google Chrome is you don't loose the text you have typed into various forms (eg. posting on forum) if you happened to click in the wrong place and load another page. When you press the back button your text is restored, even if you didn't submit the form yet.

I hadn't noticed that yet... that was one reason I had bought a new laptop-- if my wrists leaned too hard on the old one something would happen-- browse back, click to another page, refresh, delete text, etc. If had the ability to just flip back to my original page, that would have saved me so many headaches.

kazelee Wrote:

ファブリス Wrote:One very cool thing in Google Chrome is you don't loose the text you have typed into various forms (eg. posting on forum) if you happened to click in the wrong place and load another page. When you press the back button your text is restored, even if you didn't submit the form yet.

I believe this has been true for me with firefox on every site I have visited except this one.

Are there any plugins you could recommend? Does it has plugin capability I should also ask? I know tis. If it manages to be faster than firefox with plugins I like, i'll take it for a spin.

Chrome has no plugin capacity as of yet.

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Google Chrome is available on Mac, hooray!

For more screen estate on a Macbook: hide the bookmarks bar with Shift Cmd B (Ctrl B on Window). Either toggle when you need it, or open an empty tab to see it.

To delete the obsolete/invalid urls from the auto complete in the url bar, this works on Chrome and Firefox : just press Shift Del when highlighting the url.

Tobberoth Wrote:Chrome has no plugin capacity as of yet.

Counting myself to let everyone know this has changed, extensions functionality has now been introduced.

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self Wrote:To delete the obsolete/invalid urls from the auto complete in the url bar, this works on Chrome and Firefox : just press Shift Del when highlighting the url.

Damn, this has bugged me for a long time, but that tip I found out today still behaves strangely. It appears to reorder the list of suggestions, but the mistyped urls just won't leave altogether. It helps, but doesn't truly remove the unwanted items.

Extensions are now available in the Chrome beta version. I've got Rikaikun working, and I've got my KanjiStokeOrders on hover working. I've got GreaseMetal, but the GreaseMonkey scripts are not working right. I just wanted CopyStory and SubstituteKeywords. Like Tobberoth said, it's an ugly hack. Until they get an *extention* version of GreaseMonkey, though, I don't expect GM scripts to work right. We'll just have to keep an eye on that.