I have been using Google Chrome since many years and I have not found a single reason to choose any other browser over it!

Currently, I am working on not Google Chrome but Chromium, open source web browser project from which the Google Chrome draws its source code.

Not a fuss about it, that’s what you get when you search the Ubuntu Software Center. And I discovered what I was using quite later.

My Account, My Space

Chrome logs me in with my personal account, and it maintains a sync across all the devices I use. I love the way it gives the window my name, providing a sense that I own this browser, and its my personal space.

It syncs between all the devices I use, so I do not need to worry whether I am using Google Chrome on Ubuntu or Windows or Android. It even maintains the history sites visited on all devices.

Any other person who wants to use my browser gets the Guest account, or I have Mozilla Firefox! :D

The Little Bookmark Icons

The best hack I use is the way to get my favourite sites all at once, by keeping all my bookmarks in front of my eyes, on the Bookmarks Bar.

When adding bookmarks in the usual way it is done, my chrome can accommodate only 5/6 bookmarks that are visible. However, my bookmarks bar looks like this:

Load the page completely that you want to bookmark, and star it. Choose the folder as ‘Bookmarks Bar’. But before pressing ‘Done’ , remove the name, like this:

You will see the logo added on your bookmark bar. Most of the sites are popular, and you can recognize them by their logo. Even if you don’t, hovering over the logo displays the name of the site.

This is quite a popular trick, but trust me! I discovered this on my own!

Bookmarks Manager

The poor Bookmarks Manager has loads of work to do.

I know googling is easy, but it saves a lot of time if we categorize our frequently visited sites under a single folder.

Open the most forgettable task on Startup

We open our browser many times a day, and your browser can remind of you a task you ususally forget.

I use Toshl Finance Manager for managing my finance (try it! Its good), and it does its task pretty well.

But it can’t help if I forget to make entries of daily transactions! set which pages we want to open automatically on start-up.

Google News once used to be a part of startup pages as well, it is my home page now.

Password Manager

I would not suggest using your browser to save your passwords. For me, my brain is smart enough to remember my passwords. But yes, there are several sites that make us register with them with their complicated password policy. And if you think you can escape with having a single password for all accounts, that is dangerous, Read Here. So, in this case, Chrome’s Password Manager comes handy.

Google Chrome also has its own password generator, though I haven’t used it.

Chrome’s Task Manager

Now that you have opened 20 tabs on chrome and your chrome can’t survive it any more. Comes to the rescue, chrome’s very own task manager.

It displays all the processes that are running on chrome. We can choose which one to keep and which ones to kill.

Save as pdf

Chrome offers a wonderful feature that lets me save some pages offline as pdf. Just press ctrl+p and choose ‘save as pdf’. This feature is really handy when I want to keep some pages for offline viewing later.

Extensions

Google Chrome offers a handful of extensions and here are a few I use:

RescueTime

This one is my favourite. It gives me a record of how much ‘productive’ I have been, by recording my activities on my computer and categorizing them.

Google Dictionary

A very handy extension, it provides me the meaning of a word by simply double clicking on the word.

Pocket

For me, it is the tool of procrastination, a read it later.

BuiltWith Technology Profiler

It tells me in brief, the technologies any site is built with.

AdBlocker

A controversial extension, it frees me from those adds and render a neat page. Especially, it removes the adds from Youtube, giving me a much better watching experience.

I use tons of other extensions, and many more features of Google Chrome. I can’t say that these may not exist in any other browser, but the seamless experience that chrome has provided me, I must say I am one of its loyal fans!!

Update: Try Firefox :P