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Inside tips on exposing Google Chrome!

I read your earlier article about how to download Google Chrome so I did so and installed it on my Vista box. Nice! Now, any fun things you can do with it?


Dave's Answer:

Google's new Chrome web browser is still quite new. A week or so, I think? Not too many hacks have come to light as of yet, but here are some fun ones to try for yourself.

Just for clarification, too, when I talk about hacks, I don't mean things that you do to break into systems, cause trouble, steal information, etc. I'm talking about hacking in the old sense, of fiddling around, of experimenting, of seeing what works and what's broken, what windows might have been accidentally left open, and so on.

So as you start experimenting with Google Chrome, ask yourself "is this useful?" as you go along. If you're figuring out how to install spyware, write a nefarious downloadable toolbar or exploit the JavaScript engine to gain control, well, skip it. :-)

Now, back to the nitty gritty of interesting things you can do and find in Chrome!

The main info I have at this point is to offer up things you can type into the address bar rather than the usual URL or search pattern:

about:cachefiles currently in the Chrome cache
about:crashthe page Chrome displays when a tab is not happy
about:dnsinfo about dns prefetching performance
about:histogramsI have no idea what this page is telling me…
about:internetsnice little easter egg!
about:objectsI couldn't get this page to work…
about:memoryalso accessible from the task manager "stats for nerds" link
about:networkuseful network traffic info and some profiling tools
about:pluginsinfo about installed plugins
about:shorthanghangs the current tab… the only way I've seen Chrome crash
about:stats some browser performance metrics
about:versionjust what it says

Caveat: those comments are from a developer friend who anonymously sent me the above.

Now, let's have a look at the stats page, just to see what kind of information you can expect to see:

google chrome about stats

Interesting!

Do you know how to launch the Google Chrome task manager and see how much memory each of the Web sites you have open take up? Here's how:

google chrome launch task manager

Choose "Task Manager" and you're ready to watch how Google Chrome manages memory and resources. Here's an example where I've opened a new tab but haven't yet gone anywhere:

google chrome task manager before

Then once I load in another site, Real Life Debt.com:

google chrome task manager after

Now, community members, as you find or stumble into new tricks and hacks, post 'em here so we can all experiment and learn more about this browser!


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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics   (Article 8489, Written by )
Tagged: google chrome, microsoft internet explorer, microsoft windows xp, windows vista, winxp
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Reader Comments To Date: 3

Eric Savage said, on September 5, 2008 5:36 PM:

Cool, Dave. Nice work tracking these down.

The main difference I've seen is that Google apps, such as Gmail and Calendar, seem to perform better. It is also an interesting difference to have the tabs at the very top of the screen, rather than in the top third of the browser. It kind of makes the browser into more of a desktop. Hmm. An indication of future plans on Google's part?

akshay said, on October 7, 2008 6:09 AM:

Some of the flash sites related to online chess programs, cricket sites, or some of the flash sites are experiencing problem while opening in google, chrome. Though it is very fast, but don't know what happen to it.

Onur Güzel said, on March 11, 2010 8:09 AM:

Hi Dave,
I have noticed Chrome uses plugins as same as Firefox. And if you have paid attention, the prefix of plugin names are "npxxxx" which belongs to Netscape-based plugin which is natural for Firefox.

I'd like to know why Chrome uses Netscape (Firefox) plugins which is explicty shown when you type about:plugins.

Thanks,

Onur

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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