Download & Installation

Because the simplicity of Chrome permeates every aspect of the browser, downloading and installing Chrome is a cakewalk. (Chrome supports Windows XP and Windows Vista.) Start by directing your current browser to www.google.com/chrome. Click the Download Google Chrome button. To continue your download, you must affirm the Google Chrome Terms Of Service by clicking Accept And Install. The Google Chrome Installer swiftly sets up Chrome for you—in less than two minutes, in fact.

You won’t have to import your bookmarks, passwords, and browser settings from Internet Explorer or Firefox because Chrome does this for you by default, unless you choose to customize these settings to your liking. If you want to get hands-on with your default options, click Customize These Settings and select the boxes for the items that you would like to personalize for your browser. This involves creating shortcuts and determining your default browser. When you’re finished, click Start Google Chrome. At this point, Chrome should be up and running, ready for surfing the Web.

Browse With Tabs

A large part of Chrome’s browsing experience is the ability to switch effortlessly among tabs (think manila folder tabs) or move them around as you perform new searches. Tabs let you browse multiple Web sites within one browsing window, with one URL for each tab. To open a New Tab page, click the plus sign (+) to the right of the last tab in Chrome—this is the page that features your most visited sites (organized in thumbnail or list format), in addition to recently closed windows and tabs. Here, you can enter a new URL or select a recently closed window or tab to direct the browser to the appropriate page.

As you open multiple tabs in Chrome, you can also reorder them by clicking a tab and dragging it anywhere along the top of the browser window. To create a new browser window from a tab, click the tab and drag it below the Address Bar until the thumbnail comes into view.

Search

Chrome provides a lot of assistance when it comes to using the Address Bar (which Google calls the Omnibox). You don’t have to blindly guess the URL of the Web site you want to visit, because Chrome offers suggested searches as well as suggested sites based on your search history and bookmarks. In order to use this feature, you must have suggestion services enabled. To make sure suggestion services are turned on, go to the Wrench menu, select Options, and then click the Under The Hood tab. Here, you will find the option to enable/ disable the suggestion services.

To perform a quick search every time you open Google Chrome, start by typing a search query in the Address Bar and pressing ENTER. You’ll then see results below the Address Bar from your default search engine. If you see a match in the suggested sites, simply click that entry to continue the search. You might be accustomed to using a specific search engine aside from Google, such as Yahoo!, Bing, or AOL. To specify a default search engine, click the Wrench menu, select Options, choose the Basics tab, and locate the Default Search section. Next, use the drop-down menu to select your preferred search engine. Click Close when you are finished.

Chrome offers another search-friendly feature that helps you search within a particular Web site even before you visit it. Type the URL of the site you would like to search, such as www.smartcomputing.com. Chrome will let you search by using the Address Bar if it’s a site you’ve visited and searched before. When the correct address appears, press TAB on your keyboard, type your search query (for example, Netbook), and press ENTER. Chrome will take you directly to the Web site and open your search results.

Additionally, Find In Page is a helpful tool to search for words or terms on a Web page. Start by clicking the Page menu (a symbol that looks like a miniature piece of paper) and then select Find In Page. Enter the words you would like to locate. Chrome highlights the results on the page as you continue to type. To skip to a match, click the arrows in the Find In Page bar.

Bookmark It

If you’re used to the dense menus in Firefox or IE, Chrome will look unfamiliar to you at first, due to its minimalist design. Instead of the Address Bar, Menu Bar, and Bookmark Bar being separate bars, Chrome has merged them together to create one, multifunctional bar. To save a bookmark, Chrome only requires that you click the star symbol, and then your Bookmark is added below the Address field. When you click the star, a small Bookmark window opens to reveal the site you would like Chrome to remember. From here, you can edit the name of the Web site so it appears as a short nickname. Or, click the drop-down menu next to Folder and select where you would like to place your new bookmark: the Bookmarks Bar, Other Bookmarks, or a different folder in Chrome.

The Other Bookmarks menu stores all of the Web sites you’ve bookmarked that don’t need to remain on the main Bookmarks Bar. Keeping track of where all of your bookmarks are stored is possible through the Bookmark Manager (found in the Wrench menu). Click Bookmark Manager to open the management window. Folders are dedicated to the Bookmarks Bar and Other Bookmarks, so you can easily access and organize each individual Web site. Under Organize, you can edit, delete, reorder by title, add a new page, and add a new folder. In addition, the Tools menu lets you import and export your bookmarks.

Download Files

There’s nothing too complicated about downloading a file while using Chrome. When you click a Web site’s Download link, the Downloads Bar appears at the bottom of the window. Chrome shows the progression of the download, with a document icon and name of the file visible at the bottom. As soon as the file finishes downloading, you can click the name of the EXE file to open it with the appropriate program. Other recent document downloads will be listed next to the latest downloads in the bar.

If you need to locate another file you’ve downloaded or want to browse your download history, click Show All Downloads in the right corner of the Downloads Bar. Chrome will open a new tab where you will be able to view downloads organized chronologically by date. You can regularly check your downloads by clicking the Wrench menu and selecting Downloads. Close out of the tab in order to exit the download history.

If your download history is getting too cluttered or you simply would like to clean it out, click the Wrench menu and select Clear Browsing Data. Inside this dialog box, make sure the Clear Download History checkbox is selected so that Chrome automatically clears the data for you. In the Clear Data From This Period drop-down menu, you can choose a period of time in which you would like Chrome to clear out your browsing data (example options include Last Day, Last Week, or Everything). Performing this task does not delete files from your PC’s hard drive, however.

Go Incognito

Deemed “private browsing” by Google, Chrome’s Incognito mode lets you surf the Web without recording the history of your browsing and downloads. To open a new browser in Incognito mode, click the Wrench menu and select New Incognito Window.

In addition, Incognito mode doesn’t store any Web cookies (a string of computing text stored on your PC that’s used for remembering frequently used data) after you close out of an Incognito browser. Essentially, Web sites are not indexed, so you can feel free to browse without leaving a trace behind you. However, Incognito mode doesn’t hide your online activity from Web sites on the ’Net. This mode is ideal for shopping for gifts online using your shared home computer, especially if you do not want your wife or children to know what you’re purchasing each of them for Christmas.

Basic Can Be Better

The theme throughout Google Chrome is efficient simplicity, which makes the transition from your former browser to Chrome close to effortless. Be sure to take advantage of all of the browsing, searching, and downloading features in Chrome to harness the power of this fast and easy-to-use browser.

by Joanna Safford