It has been  twenty days since Google launched the public beta of its open source web browser, Google Chrome. The search giant’s foray into the Web browser rumble among IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari, everyone is talking about how Web heavyweight Google will do.While the browser certainly ain’t perfect by a long shot, it does render pages quickly and has a few innovative features like an unconventional placement for tabs and a unified search box/location bar. So here’s a roundup of the most interesting news, tips and tricks about Chrome across the Web. Not from Google developers, but by third party developers who have done their best to make Google at least as useful as Firefox or Safari. A few folks have taken a different approach and tried to make Firefox look and feel a bit more like Chrome.

 1.) Google Chrome Backup.

We now have a free utility to create backup and manage user profiles on Google Chrome browser. The Google Chrome Backup application was designed to be a small tool to backup and restore Google Chrome profile. The profile holds personal data like history, bookmarks, etc. Everything is done with one click. It is actually no problem to backup Google Chrome profiles manually by copying all files stored in the Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Chromium\User Data folders to another location. Google Chrome Backup on the other hand provides an easier method of backing up the files with the click of a button in the program interface.

Google Chrome Backup utility is simple and easy to use and no installation is necessary. Assuming you already have Google Chrome installed, simply download and unzip EXE file and is ready to use. You can select and backup profiles or create new ones or even import an already backup up profile. To download Google Chrome Backup, click here

2.) Automatic Theme Switcher Skins Google Chrome 

Google Chrome is awesome and much liked by users because of its fast and minimalist browsing experience. On the other hand its default blue color theme has disappointed some of users, but, there is no more disappointment as there is a new app Google Chrome Automatic Theme Switcher. This little application changes the skin of your Google Chrome browser. The application bundles up three ready to use skins — skins, that the author of this application found on the net, so you can make yours.

The Automatic Theme Switcher is is a free download for Windows only. Install the beta theme switcher on your PC running Chrome to choose one of three skins for Chrome—black, blue (the default), or green—and activate it immediately, without having to manually muck around in Chrome’s installation folders. Alternately, you can manually download Google Chrome themes here (the orange one isn’t available in the Theme Switcher utility just yet)

3.) Install flash player in Google Chrome 

Since the first beta release of the hot Google Chrome, some users have doubted the compatibility of Adobe Flash Player in Chrome, as some YouTube video clips cannot be properly played in Chrome. The issue is so strange, as the same Webkit engine browser Apple Safari has no such problem.However, Flash needs to be upgraded, and I get a nasty little message telling me I need the latest player.

Here’s how you get round that. Cue evil laugh.
1. Download this xpi file.
2. Then rename it to .zip. It’s a special archive file of only the plug-in bit of the flash player app from adobe that interacts with your browser.
3. Extract it with Winzip to a place you’ll remember. (I did it to My docs but it can go anywhere.)
4. Grab the flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll files. Copy them (Right click, copy)
5. Head to C/Documents and settings/”YOUR USER NAME”/Local Settings/Application Data/Google/Chrome/Application/Plugins/ and copy your files in there.
6. Close and restart Chrome
7. Go to Youtube and try it out.
8. I also put the files in this location to cover my bases but I think its unnecessary:

C/Documents and settings/”YOUR USER NAME”/Local Settings/Application Data/Google/Chrome/Application/”File with a load of numbers instead of a title”/Resources/
You’re welcome Internet. After all you’ve done for me

4.) How to use separate profiles in Chrome

If you have started to love Google Chrome and have made it the default browser on your computer, here’s a useful tip regarding your privacy. The tip is more relevant for people who have computers in the living room and that same machine is shared among all other family members. If more than one person on your system is switching to Chrome, and you don’t feel like staying in Incognito Mode all the time, creating a new profile in Chrome requires manually creating a folder in Chrome’s application data folder, but that’s all there is to it.

Here you have a tutorial on how to create separate profiles for Google Chrome.

• Open Chrome installation folder at:
  C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome (for Windows Vista)
  C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome (for Windows XP)
• Go to User Data folder available inside Chrome installation folder.
• Create a copy of the “default” folder in the “User Data” folder itself. Give that copy a name.
• To run Google Chrome using this profile instead of the default profile, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking on desktop, choose New -> Shortcut and enter location:
  C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –user-data-dir=”..\User Data\Your_Name” (for Windows Vista)
  C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –user-data-dir=”..\User Data\Your_Name” (for Windows XP)

To prevent yourself from getting into this ‘not so comfortable’ situation, what you can do is create a separate user profile in Google Chrome. Thus all your browser history, bookmarks, cookies, search terms, etc. are not shared with anyone else in the family.

5.) Firefox Extension: Open In Google Chrome Version 1.0

If you are using Firefox as a default browser and you still want to open some web site in Google Chrome, this Firefox extension might be useful. Open in Google Chrome Firefox extension will open any websites in Google Chrome from Firefox in one click. Once you install this extension into Firefox, you can easily open up your current page in Chrome. As an extra bonus feature, you can configure it so that certain pages like Gmail always open in Chrome. It can also be configured to always open certain web pages in Chrome – e.g. *google*, gmail, etc.

Install “Open in Google Chrome” for Firefox 3
Download open-in-google-chrome.xpi on to your desktop and then drag it inside Firefox 3 much like what you did for Send to Google Docs..

• Restart Firefox. Then go to Tools -> Add-ons -> Options and browse for the chrome.exe file on your Vista / XP / Windows 2000 machine.

• In Windows XP, Google Chrome installs under \Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\ while in Windows Vista, Google Chrome installs in \Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\
• The Google Chrome Firefox extension can also be configured to open a group of website(s) directly in Chrome even if you try accessing them from Firefox. For instance, you may add “yahoo” to the list and any site that has yahoo in the URL would open in Chrome automatically. That includes “maps.yahoo.com”, “news.yahoo.com”, “yahoo.com” and even “bbc.com/news/yahoo-shares.html” so be careful while picking these wildcards.

6.) First Google Chrome Extension GreaseMetal

Since, Google Chrome does not provide any method to develop or support browser addons, Greasemetal has found the way around by using an inter-process communication channel called AutomationProxy, which is used for automatic testing of web browser functions.

GreaseMetal the free extension offers functionality similar to highly popular GreaseMonkey extension for Firefox and GreaseKit for Safari, the free extension lets you use existing GreaseMonkey scripts to modify webpages being displayed, this also means Google Chrome will now be able to block advertisements using ad-blocking scripts.

To install Greasemonkey script on Google Chrome, go to user script and search for the Greasemonkey script you want. Visit the installation script page which says “install the script” and click on the Monkey bookmarklet, this will change the script into Chrome compatible bookmarklet. Now drag “Install the script” onto the bookmark bar of chrome.

7.) Get More Omnibox Suggestions in Google Chrome 

As almost everybody knows by now, Google has released their Chrome web browser, a stripped down browser built for speed and an inline search bar known as the Omnibox. The only problem is that by default there are only 5 suggestions, but with a simple command line switch we can increase that number.

Google Chrome can be adjusted here.

1. Locate the Google Chrome Shortcut from your Start Menu.
2. Right-click and select Properties.
3. Now append the command line parameter -omnibox-popup-count=12 at the end of the Target Path field.
4. OK out of the popup and now the next time Chrome is launched from the shortcut your Omnibox will return a larger results set.

In Ubuntu, on the desktop, right click on the Application menu and select Edit Menus. Navigate to wine->Programs->Google Chrome on the left pane. Double click on Google Chrome on the right pane and edit the Command.

8.) How To Block Ads in Google Chrome (or any browser) 

Have you tested Google Chrome? Are you missing all your nice add-ons from Firefox, mainly the adblock add-on! In short, you use the free Privoxy web proxy software which blocks web sites serving ads, and configure Google Chrome to use the proxy.

Here’s how to do it. 
Download and install Privoxy.
Click on the Wrench icon in Chrome in the upper right corner.
Choose options>Under The Hood>Change proxy settings.
In the Internet Properties dialog’s Connections tab, click on the LAN settings button.
Check off “Proxy settings” and in the address setting add 127.0.0.1 and in the port 8118.
If you have the option, you can also check off “Bypass proxy for local settings”.
Click “Ok”, close Chrome and restart it.

Privoxy’s default installation blocks ads from coming through it, so from there you’ll notice ad-free web pages. After I installed Privoxy I got an error going to Gmail, but a refresh fixed the problem. However, I’m still seeing Google text ads in Gmail at least

9.)Portable Chrome Puts Chrome on Your Thumb Drive

None of the portable releases are authorized by Google, till now. And not all of them are indeed purely portable to the full extent with no records introduced to the files and registry structure. But, definitely, all these efforts will assist in the browser evaluation.

German blogger Caschy has put together a portable version of Google Chrome you can run off your thumb drive. Just unzip the download to your thumb drive and run ChromeLoader.exe. All your Chrome settings and profile information now save to your thumb drive. This is a very early solution, and we’ll be keeping our eyes out for a more streamlined version from the folks at PortableApps, but if you’re dying to take Chrome with you, this Portable Chrome should do the trick.

10.) WINE Updates with Better Chrome Support

The WINE community has announced the release of WINE 1.1.4, which is their latest development build made up of open-source work over the past two weeks. New in this release is a better implementation of WinHTTP, additional JavaScript support, the start of the shell AppBar implementation, fixes for Google Chrome support, Chinese translations, and various bug-fixes.

Google Chrome working as a stand-alone app in Ubuntu, using the latest version of the Windows translator WINE and a stand-alone copy of Chrome’s installer. You’ll definitely need your terminal open for this one, and the result isn’t exactly flawless—no https support, problems with pop-ups, and a bit slower than you’d get in Windows—but it is a neat way for dedicated Linux users to check out what all the fuss is about. If you’re not about to mess with WINE, try putting an emulated Chrome in its own window with our guide to running Windows apps seamlessly in Linux, or wait until the open-source browser eventually makes its way onto the open-source OS.

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Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pm | by Kur-nia-one |