It’s not surprising that Google is attempting to enable tighter integration with Chrome and it’s massive array of services. One of the newly discovered settings within Chrome 15 Canary for Windows is the ability to automatically login to Google Sites through a setting configuration in Chrome’s menus. Here’s how to access it.

From the preferences menu item under the wrench icon, head over to the Personal Stuff tab on the left hand side. That’s where you’ll find your password settings.

From there, you see a setting that allows you to automatically login to Google sites just below the password configuration settings.

One thing to note: although this setting seems to enable some sort of pass-through for authentication, you’ll often find yourself still having to click “Sign-in” on many of Google’s services. So while you don’t have to constantly enter in your password credentials every time, it can be a bit misleading at first because it isn’t as “automatic” as one might think.

Often times, once you log in to one Google service there isn’t much of a problem accessing others, at least in my experience. Nevertheless, this may be a new method, or perhaps security precaution, that will base a user’s authentication via a browser instance which may not be a bad idea.

Do you think that enabling automatic Google services login in Chrome is going to be useful?

via Cougar Abogado

While Chrome has been rapidly gaining market share, there are still those who find certain features of the Firefox browser essential – some of which Chrome currently lacks. One of these features is a bookmarks sidebar. The most popular answer in the forum topic “Please add a Bookmarks Sidebar on Chrome’s left side. Thank You!” was the following comment: “I won’t switch until Chrome has a Bookmarks Side Bar. I have too many favorites to have them cluttered on the infinity bar.”

Google has implemented sidebar tabs in Chrome browser for Windows which is found in “about:flags”. This feature isn’t available for Mac and Linux versions of Chrome though. For more details, click here.

While currently there is no bookmarks sidebar feature for any version of Chrome, there is a workaround. You can use the “Recent History” extension that makes available your recent history by one click. Note, this is only a work around, what this extension will do is give you access to your recent history, not your bookmarks. Since your bookmarks are usually in your recent history you may find this extension a convenient way to access your most commonly visited web sites.

I have mixed feelings about sidebar features. They are best for larger screens because they take up more screen real-estate then tabs, which could be why it isn’t being offered in Chromebooks. While they take up more screen real-estate, but can be handy.

Do you find sidebar features essential for a browser?

The slogan for the Chromebook is “Ready When You Are.” The truth of the matter is that’s only partly true because services many find essential are not being offered yet. Ironically, one of these services is one of the biggest sources of web traffic in North America, accounting for 24.71 percent of aggregated traffic is not accessible via Chrome OS. The cloud app I speak of, of course, is Netflix. Netflix is one of those services that validates the cloud because it allows the user access to thousands of movies and television shows (about 12,000 to choose from) via the Internet and can make you wonder whether you need a dvd collection at all.

Yet, Chrome OS — the ultimate cloud operating system — is currently unable stream Netflix movies. It’s taking time for Netflix to migrate to the HTML5 technology. Not a small feat considering the amount of movies they are streaming. The Netflix plug-in is in the Development Channel for Chrome OS, so it is only a matter of time that it will be available. But the fact is that it isn’t working yet.

What is a Chromie supposed to do in the mean time? You may be a bit disillusioned by the change Netflix’s pricing plans as well. Such questions may lead one to ask: what are the alternatives?

Well, the ones that come to my mind are Hulu, Amazon Prime, and YouTube. All of these services can be used quite easily in Chrome OS and that shinny, new Chromebooks.

Hulu is mainly for television shows, though if you get Hulu Prime, you get access to the Criterion Library. Many excellent films are to be had here for the film connoisseur but more mainstream movies are not in Hulu’s offerings. So if you want the latest Adam Sandler film, you are out of luck.

There is also YouTube. YouTube has been working hard to extend its digital offerings and offer commercially produced movies as well as user content that has come synonymous with the brand. It offers 3,000 movies for rent, some of them at no cost. The issue I see in this service is that the movies you are most likely are going to want to watch are rentals. A Netflix streaming subscription is $8 a month. That would be only two rentals on YouTube.

Last, but not least is Amazon Prime. If you are a big Amazon shopper, this may be a no brainer for you because you get free 2-day shipping as a member of Amazon Prime. The “Prime” catalog, while it has many movies and television shows to stream, is not as extensive as Netflix. Amazon has around 5,000 movies for streaming, however 1,668 of them offered for free on-demand streaming for Amazon Prime members. Not a very high number if you ask me.

The bottom line is, I wouldn’t get Amazon Prime for simply streaming movies. It simply doesn’t have enough movies for me to consider it a viable alternative to Netflix and I’m not such a big Amazon shopper. The movies available for free streaming under Amazon Prime are not the kinds of big studio releases you’d likely want to see. If you are a big Amazon purchaser, then Amazon Plus will be of value to you, otherwise, Amazon’s Prime streaming feature doesn’t compete with Netflix. I’d just wait for Netflix to be available.

While the libraries these services offer may not be as extensive as that offered by Netflix, you may want to give them a try. You will likely be spending a bit more than a Netflix subscription because chances are you will have to rent (or buy) the movie you want to watch. The average cost of a streaming rental is $4. Rent more than two movies and that equals the Netflix flat fee for a month of all you can eat streaming $8 a month.

On the positive side, at least these alternative services can tied you over until Netflix is finally available to stream.

Chromies, we will have Netflix streaming yet!

Editor’s note: this article originally appeared on our partnership site ConceivablyTech.

We have been recently asked frequently about a listing of the hidden system, analytics and configuration URLs that reveal some options and information about the inner workings of a browser. Here we go.

All browsers support several local URLs that can be entered in the location bar to access some additional information of features. While this information may be rather boring for casual users, enthusiasts and developers can use those URLs to retrieve core information about their browser. We will start with Chrome and follow up with all other major browsers within a few days.

Chrome’s best known configuration URL is about:flags, which provides access to all experimental features (there are even more available via switches), but there are several more, which I will list below. Please note that Google recently replaced the about: prefix with chrome://, which means that you can access the flags now via both about:flags as well as chrome://flags (the same goes for all remaining URLs). I only list currently functional URLs.

chrome://appcache-internals
Details about the application cache (particularly useful, if you would like to know how much memory a certain web app occupies). Size, creation/access/update times. You can also delete the cache for certain apps.

chrome://blob-internals
Analytics about binary large objects (blobs).

chrome://chrome-urls and chrome://about and about:about
List of all Chrome URLs.

chrome://crashes
Crash reports are functional, if crash reporting is enabled.

chrome://credits
There is a lot more going on in Chrome than you might think. This page lists all the external features, the license and link to the owner’s website.

chrome://dns
DNS analytics. This page also lists the URLs of DNS prefetches during future Chrome startups.

chrome://flags
Access to all public experimental features.

chrome://flash
Information about the installed flash version, graphics card and driver version.

chrome://gpu-internals
Hardware acceleration data (all graphics features should be accelerated), installed driver and GPU/display features and support. There is also a profiling feature with a record/save/load function.

chrome://histograms
Feature metrics.

chrome://net-internals
This is one of the most useful tools that provides clues about your connectivity. Among others, it provides information about SPDY connections to Google servers, the browser’s http cache, http throttling support, a recently upgraded feature to force secure HTTPS connections to certain servers, as well as information which pages have been pre-rendered by Google.

chrome://plugins
List of all installed and running plugins.

chrome://settings
Quick access to the settings page.

chrome://sync-internals and chrome://sync
Detailed information about the background data sync progress.

chrome://tcmalloc
Statistics of the most recent page reload.

chrome://terms
Terms of service.

chrome://version
Lists browser version, as well as core engine data, including V8 and Webkit versions.

chrome://conflicts
All modules loaded by Chrome

chrome://crash and chrome://kill
Crashes the current tab (for debug purposes)

chrome://hang and chrome://shorthang
Hangs or briefly hangs the current tab (for debug purposes)

Just came across this. In case you’re not aware, you can access the task manager from the wrench menu by going to Tools and then Task Manager. You can also hit Shift+Esc in Windows, and ⌘ Cmd+⌥ Opt+Esc in Mac.

It’s Google’s stated goal (somewhere, post the link if you find it) to make menus all HTML-based. There’s a good reason for that: it lessens the differences that users find across platforms. A menu or window should in theory look the same whether you are using a Series 5, Chrome Stable on your Windows PC or its Mac and Linux siblings.

What do you think about web-based menus and windows in Chrome?

via @ruslanrudenko

So, we’ve got a (relatively) new functionality in Google Chrome’s browser and OS. Known as chrome://sync-internals, it’s pretty much what’s written on the box- it lets you view internal and technical data about your connection to the Google Cloud. It’s pretty simple to use, and pretty simple to navigate as well- though I get the feeling that several tabs (and for that matter, some of the information) is intended primarily for devs, and not for your average, run of the mill user.

The Basics

Anyway, I’ll give you folks a rundown of the sync-internals page, and then go over how to search your sync data. The first tab, “About” is pretty straightforward. It’s pretty much a summary page, and tells you the status of your sync. You can see when you last synced, whether you’re authenticated, the server you’re syncing to….you get the idea. Note that here, like much of ‘sync-internals’, you’ll need a touch of technical knowledge to understand some of the listed information.

What I’m basically saying is that a working knowledge of CSS, HTML5 and Java would certainly be assets here- particularly on the next tab, “Data”. This tab provides you with a text dump of all your sync information, but the problem is it’s in Chrome’s base programming language. So, if you don’t understand it, you won’t understand this wall of text the browser vomits at you.

The “Notifications” tab presumably displays any notifications Google’s browser has seen fit to send you about your sync status. The “Events” tab shows, as expected, events related to your browser’s connection to Google’s server. Since I’ve been suffering from a rather shoddy internet connection of late, it displayed a lot of reconnects on my end. Next, we have the “Sync Node Browser.”- currently the final tab in the stable version of the Chrome browser. This tab lets you manually browse your sync data- though said data is strictly ‘read only.’   Oh, and there’s no search function- at least, not in the current stable and beta releases of the Chrome browser. In other words…if you’re looking for some specific information, well…have fun, and here’s hoping you enjoy sifting through data.

If you’re virtualizing Chromium OS or using the most recent developer build of Google Chrome, well, we’re not done here yet- there’s a bit more ground that we’ve yet to cover.

Searching Your Sync Data

You’ll notice I said that the “Sync Node Browser” is the final tab in the stable version of the Chrome browser. There’s actually another tab, but it’s only available in some of the latest Chromium builds (one version of which you can grab from Hexxeh’s site, here- download a version from March or April, virtually all newer releases have bugged network) and in the latest developer build of the Chrome browser(here’s a list of release channels for Chrome, assuming you don’t already have this page bookmarked- which you probably should, if you’re interested in the subject matter of this article.)

Oh…hmm. Seems I forgot to tell you what the tab is actually called, didn’t I? Well…it’s aptly titled “Search.” You can probably guess what it does it lets you search through your sync data for specific lines of information, rather than having to trudge through line upon line of text and code. A rather convenient addition to the browser, if you ask me. Anyway, you may need to enable this feature before using it. Don’t worry, it’s really quite a simple task.

All you need to do is go to the page “about:flags,” scroll down the list until you see the flag titled “IndexedDB uses LevelDB.”(It’s near the bottom of the list).  Then click enable. Oh, and the other flags? You probably shouldn’t touch them if you don’t know what you’re doing. Playing with fire, and all that.

Final Word

Well, that’s pretty much it. I’ve said pretty much all there is to say about the sync-internals functionality of Chrome. It’s pretty nifty, knowing about how your browser (or operating system) is connected to the big cloud on the airwaves, for sure…but you might not understand one hundred percent of what’s going on unless you have at least a passing knowledge of some of the scripting languages utilized by Google’s browser.  As a result, the channel seems more geared towards developers for the time being. Perhaps we might eventually be seeing it release in a format that can be understood by your run of the mill user.

Or maybe it’ll just be one of those little technical back alleys of chrome, navigable only by those who know exactly what they’re doing. As it is, you’re probably not going to be using this without some knowledge of the tech behind it anyway- seeing as how you’d have to either virtualize Chromium or download the developer’s build of Chrome…well, yeah. you get the idea.

See you folks next time.

(Via Howtonew, Chromestory)

Extensions: you’ve got to love them. They add wonderful functionality to our beloved Chrome browser. But let’s face it people: sometimes the icons that we click to evoke that functionality, well, they could look a whole lot better. Take the Google Dictionary Extension icon for example.

No offense to Google, but this icon is a bit ugly. It looks like a toddler’s block, not a dictionary. So what’s a poor Chrome geek to do? Well, I made my way over to www.iconfinder.com, did a search for “dictionary” and lo and behold, I found a snazzy dictionary icon to more fully represent this wonderful resource of knowledge. It looks like this:

Now that I’ve found my icon, next stop: the extensions folder. Paths differ according to what operating system you are working on. The paths listed for your operating system are found below. (Thanks ChromeStory)

Windows 7 : C:\Users\USER NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions.

Mac : ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions.

Windows XP :  C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions

Linux: /home/~USER~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions (thanks to this link.)

NOTE: This is the path for CrunchBang Linux, which is a Debian based Linux distribution. It could be a little different for other Linux distributions.

I just browsed the extension folder to find the icon that was being used currently in Chrome. This one: . There may be several icons that look the same, but have different names. The name of the icon that’s being used for your extension is icon_19.png. I renamed the icon I downloaded to icon_19.png and renamed the old icon dictionaryicon_19_backup.png.

I fired up Chrome and this was the result of my efforts:

Ahhhh….much better.

It’s a good idea to keep a backup of your icons. When your extension is updated, you will loose your customization. Just follow the same steps and your customized icon will be reimplemented.

Pretty fun and easy hack. Hope you like it.

Since I rely on my Google Account for so much, I decided to give Google’s two-step verification process a try. I didn’t want one day to come to the unpleasant realization that my Google account had been hacked. Just recently Google disclosed a phishing attack originating from Chinese hackers. As mentioned in the Official Google Blog, 2-step verification is a highly recommended way to protect your account.

Basically, the way it works is this: two-step verification generates a unique 6 digit code. You then sign in with your regular Google account password then you will be asked to verify. You enter the number you previously generated and bingo! You are in your Google account. It just takes an extra few seconds and a hearty second level of security is added.

Google 2-step verification uses your mobile phone – something you likely have with you all the time – as a tool to give you an extra level of security to your account. Any mobile phone which has the Google Authenticator app can be used. Any phone you have access to really can grant you a second level of security for your Google account, but a phone of the mobile variety is obviously more convenient.

If for some reason, you don’t have access to your mobile phone, you can use a backup phone number to generate the numeric code, or a code from a sheet of 10 codes you’ve printed out previously. What the application does is generate a one-time verification code. Then, you sign in with your regular password and are prompted to enter that one time only code. It’s pretty simple. This code will apply to all your Gmail services until you sign out of your Google account.

Set up time for this feature is 10 to 15 minutes. Here is the run down on the steps to login to your Google account once this feature has been implemented:

Any computer:
(1) Enter your regular password. You will be prompted for your verification code.
(2) Generate new verification code.
(3) Enter verification code.

How it works with your Google Account in your smartphone:
(1) You will need to generate an application specific password. Note that this application only password is different from a numeric verification code.
(2) Enter the application specific password. You will need to do this only one time. You will not be asked for an application only password or a numeric verification code on your mobile phone ever.
(3) Revoke the password should you lose your device via your Google account settings.

For those of you curious on how it will work on your Cr-48 or the upcoming Chromebooks:
(1) Logging into Chromebook is normal. Just use your Google password.
(2) Once you’ve logged into your Chromebook, you will need to generate a one-time only application specific password when trying to login to a Google service.
(3) From then on, you will be asked to enter your numeric code when you sign into your Google account via Gmail or other Google application.

My experience with this feature has been pretty good. No real complications. The trickiest part was that there are some applications that require that one-time application specific password.

One thing that confused me a bit in the process was realizing that I had to generate an application specific password for Chrome Sync. Note: you’ll be prompted anytime you’ll need such a password and you only need to do it once. Under your two-step verification settings, you’ll have the option to revoke it.

Google’s two-step verification isn’t for everybody. It may be a tad too much trouble for some to enter to generate that verification code and enter those digits every time you log in. However, I find Google two-step authentication very much worth the trouble. For me, investing a few more seconds in securing my Google account is a good investment of my time.

For Google’s full instructions on how to activate 2-step verification, click here.

Are you using 2-step verification?

You always have known that Chrome is fast, but have you ever considered that you might be able to always know your frame rate per second within the browser? Sure, you might not be interested in a high level of frame speed in your browser, but it looks like Google might be looking towards a future where that might be useful.

If you’re using Chrome 13, you can turn the FPS gauge on by typing in “about:flags” in the Omnibox, and turning on the FPS counter.

You’ll also need to turn on hardware acceleration. You can do this by enabling GPU compositing on all pages. Mind you, this may be a bit glitchy so this is best left off in normal browsing situations.

I decided to fire up Microsoft’s FishIE browser test to see what the FPS counter would do, and it certainly did jack up the frame rate. It’s quite noticeable; however, that there is a difference between what the browser is counting versus FishIE.

By disabling GPU VSync in “about:flags” I was able to get even higher frames per second because the 60 hertz threshold was removed, but my laptop’s lack of a graphics card still displayed a poor showing when compared to other tests I have seen conducted out there.

So, in the end, the FPS counter is a nice way to represent the fact that the web is becoming more of an active place in terms of graphical capabilities. Normally one would associate FPS with video games, but we may see a future where the web is also measured that way.

So, try out the FPS counter and do your own experimentation. What do you find?

via ConceivablyTech

Even before the first stable release of Chrome browser was released back in September 2, 2008, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and mnmlist fame wrote a very interesting article. The title: Firefox OS: My Hardware and Software are Obsolete. In it, he talks of the benefits of using a browser and cloud computing. And this was before HTML5 really started taking off.

In the post, Leo includes many excellent suggestions on how to incorporate the browser into your work-flow, suggestions which can be easily applied to making a Chromebook the only computer you really need. After all, Chrome OS is “just a browser.”

But Chrome OS has no desktop right? You can’t even set your own wallpaper?

It’s one of the simple joys of having a computer: customizing your desktop, picking and choosing your wallpaper. To those concerned about not having this feature in Chrome OS, I have good news for you. There are actually many ways in which you can customize Chrome and Chrome OS. Below are a few. Because with Chrome OS, certain browser features become OS features, though it may not be so obvious.

Themes:
The Chrome Web Store has many themes to choose from and by many, I mean over a couple of thousand. All of these are compatible with Chrome OS.

iGoogle:
You know all those cool widgets you can put on an Android phone that enables fast access to whatever application or data you might want? This is what iGoogle Gadgets essentially are, and you can load them on your personal iGoogle page. There are many “gadgets” to choose from here. Personally I use it to access Google Reader, date and time, tasks, etc. This has been helpful to me: for example, before I got tired of having to open the Windows calculator application on my work computer this would take several seconds to load. Now I always have a calculator handy. Oh, and just for fun, I have a quote of the day and little virtual hamster.

I just set iGoogle as my homepage and access my apps page via Chrome’s “+” button.

Here are some instructions on how to use iGoogle and set it as your homepage. This is a resource you can use for the iGoogle gadget directory.

Upload Your Own Wallpaper to your homepage:
If you prefer a more minimal set up but still want to add a personal touch, Google gives you the option of setting a wallpaper. You can set wallpaper in your Google start page.

Click here for how to set a background for your Google homepage. You can upload a picture or even use one from your Picasa album. Oh, and if you dig the cat wallpaper, check it out here.

Of course, all of the above ways to customize your browser aren’t Chrome specific, but it goes to show you that the browser makes for a very customizable, flexible, and light OS, attributes that Chrome OS takes full advantage of.

So there you go. Chrome OS doesn’t mean you need to go without a sweet desktop and wallpaper. Customize to your heart’s content!

What are some ways that you customize your Chrome experience?