02 Nov 08 Google Chrome – Mac V1.0 Theme
HOW TO USE
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1. Im guessing you have downloaded the file, otherwise you wouldnt be reading this.
2. Extract the files from the archive using your own extraction tool. Ie: WinRAR
3. Go to: (Replacing USERNAME with your username)
Vista – C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\0.2.149.27\Themes
XP – C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\LocalSettings\AppData\Google\Chrome\Application\0.2.149.27\Themes
And backup your existing, Default.DLL file (Just incase anything goes wrong)
4. Copy over Default.DLL from your extracted files into your Themes folder
5. Open up Chrome and walla! You have a new theme installed.
6. Share with as many people as you may wish to do so!
02 Nov 08 Google Chrome Theme – No Icons
Author: M-WaR
Author Notes: A stab at a Google Chrome theme without the icons on the bar. I could only fit 4 characters per button so…
02 Nov 08 Google Chrome – Go Green Theme for Chrome
- Google Chrome Theme Name: Go Green
- Theme home page: http://chromable.com/2008/09/go-green-google-chrome-theme/
- Theme Author: Chromable
Description: A mix of green colors in a truly “Green” environment. This is a theme for all of you who care about our planet. Go Green!
[this is the first theme from Chromable]
Downloads:
02 Nov 08 Google Chrome Fixes Problems As Browser Wars Continue
The browser wars are alive and well. While Google is working out the kinks in its beta version of Chrome — a Wednesday update fixed issues with crashing and video playback — Firefox is pushing a beta 3.1 version that promises new features and better performance. Meanwhile, market leader Microsoft Relevant Products/Services still dominates with Internet Explorer 7.
“The browser wars continue. But consumers already have plenty of choices with IE, Safari, Firefox and Opera. The real question is if Google can get those users to shift. Mainstream consumers are wondering why they need to make the transition,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile Relevant Products/Services strategy for Jupitermedia. “Chrome is still a solution in search of a problem.”
02 Nov 08 Google Chrome Updates To Version .3
Chrome launched as v0.2 and made a huge impact almost months ago. Interest in the browser has somewhat faded since then. According to Net Applications, Chrome currently has a market share of about 0.7%, down from more than 1% in early September. While it has made an overall positive impression on the media, the browser is far from complete. One major update was rolled out today.
The new version a pop-up spoofing vulnerability, enables touchpad scrolling, promises more performance and reliability for Flash, Silverlight, Quicktime and Windows Media plug-in, fixes a “Chrome has crashed” message when closing a tab with an Acrobat 9 PDF and works much better with web proxies now. Also, Chrome no longer stores data from secure web sites.
02 Nov 08 Pros of Chrome – Good points of Google Chrome
PROS OF CHROME – Here are some of the good things (I am listing only things which are not available in FireFox one way or another):
Process Isolated Tabs and Add-Ons – this adds stability to the browser in case a particular plugin or a page goes rogue. Also, since each tab is its own process, overall security should be better.
Faster JavaScript Engine – Chrome uses a custom built JavaScript environment which Google claims to be faster than anything currently in the market (though next version of FireFox is supposedly going to have something much faster).
DNS Prefetching – I am not sure if FireFox does this (I think not) or whether there is a plugin which turns this one, but Google Chrome performs prefetching at a number of places making for a faster browsing experience (as people have been pointing out). Here’s a detailed explanation of this feature on the Chromium Blog.
Page Search – The neat thing about Chrome is that it has a little itsy-bitsy things that set it apart from other browsers. One such thing is how it does page search. You can access page search by hitting Ctrl+F, and when type what you are looking for it highlights the word in the page – but that’s not all, other browsers do that as well. Chrome also marks all occurrences on the vertical scroll bar. This allows you to quickly scroll to the occurrence (useful if you are on a long page). Take a look at the screen shot below to see what I am talking about (all those yellow lines on the vertical scroll bar mark the occurrence of the word that I searched for):
THINGS WILL GET BETTER
Of course, Chrome will not always stay this way. It is an Open Source browser and enterprising folks will make it every bit as powerful as FireFox in time. There is already a non-Google version of Chrome (Chromium).
Here are some interesting links on what the early adventurers are doing with Chrome:
- AdBlock for Chrome – this post on LifeHacker talks about how you can block ads on Chrome.
- Chrome for Linux – there is port for Linux using Wine, go here.
- Chrome for Mac – Chromium is the open source (non-Google) version of Chrome, and yes, there is a port for Mac as well, go here.
- Greasemonkey for Chrome – its actually called GreaseMetal, but check it out.
- Changing the User Agent of the Browser – if you can’t wait for an official way to do it, here’s a neat hack.
- Users are reconsidering their original negative opinions already – take a look at this tweet.
- The Chrome Song – yes, someone put together a song about the browser.
- Backup your Google Chrome Profile – someone wrote a tool for this already and you can download it from here.
There is so much more going on about Chrome, and I will keep updating this post as I find it.
02 Nov 08 Google Chrome – CONS of Chrome
CONS OF CHROME – Let’s look at the bigger list first:
Lack of Add-Ons – this is the single biggest problem with Chrome and why people just look at it, say “Nice!”, and never run it again after that. For example, it doesn’t have a StumbleUpon toolbar, or AdBlock, or S3Fox, or any number of add-ons and extensions that people have come to depend on.
Integration with Windows OS – there are little bitty things that don’t work:
- Speech Recognition on Vista doesn’t work.
- If you try are trying to Tile Multiple Windows (as talked about here), and one of these Windows is Chrome, then it won’t work (at least on XP).
- Some people are noticing continuous heavy hard disk activity when running Chrome on Windows XP 3.
Privacy Concerns – It’s from Google – most users are vary of the Terms of Service which Google has (and for Chrome these have been revised, but are not much better). There is very little trust, when it comes to Google tracking user data, and from Chrome, it has a license to track everywhere you go. The German Government has actually warned the citizens against using Chrome.
Other Annoyances – There are other small problems that keep the hate going:
- Some users reported that animated GIFs are jerky on Chrome.
- Most sites with Flash on them are in deep trouble.
- Zooming is clunky as compared to FireFox.
- Is not supported on all Operating Systems.
- Many popular sites don’t work on it despite the claims made in the Chrome Comics. (e.g. Facebook Dropdown Menus).
- The back browser button doesn’t have a drop down that lets you jump directly to 2-3 pages back. This is not true – as pointed by Christian, you can access this through a Right Click on the back button.
- I hate the fact that Chrome doesn’t remember entries that I have made in form fields (like FireFox does) and I have to enter complete usernames/email IDs, address info, etc. every time and every place.
02 Nov 08 Google Chrome – Downloads: Downloading a file
When you download a file from a website, the downloads bar appears at the bottom of the tab where you can monitor the progress of your downloading file. The file button indicates the size of the download and the amount of time remaining until the completion of the download. An arrow appears in the tab to signify a download in progress.
- To pause a download without canceling it, go to the Downloads page (Ctrl+J) and click the Pause link next to the download.
- To cancel a download completely, click the arrow next to its button in the downloads bar and select Cancel.
After the file’s download is completed, click the file button in the downloads bar. You can also click this button while the download is in progress so the file opens as soon as it’s downloaded. The file’s now listed as the newest link on your Downloads page.
To make sure that files of its type always open immediately after they’re done downloading, click the arrow next to its button in the downloads bar and select Always open files of this type.
To open the folder on your computer containing the downloaded file, click the arrow next to its button in the downloads bar and select Show in folder.
Copy a downloaded file to a different folder on your computer by dragging its button from the downloads bar to the desired folder window that’s open on your computer.
02 Nov 08 Google Chrome – Importing Settings from Internet Explorer and Firefox
By default, Google Chrome copies your browsing history, saved websites, and passwords from your default browser when it installs.
Currently, you can only import settings from Firefox or Internet Explorer. To manually import information from these browsers, follow these steps:
- Close any other browsers that you’re running.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click the Tools menu
. - Select Import bookmarks & settings.
- Select the browser from which you’d like to import data from the drop-down menu at the top.
- Deselect the items that you don’t want to import:
- ‘Favorites/Bookmarks’: Webpages you’ve saved in the selected browser.
- ‘Search engines’: Alternative search options that you’ve saved in the selected browser.
- ‘Saved passwords’: Passwords stored in the browser you’ve chosen for websites you’ve visited.
- ‘Browsing history’: A list of all the websites you’ve visited while using the selected browser.
- Click the Import button.
Importing information into Google Chrome doesn’t remove the information from the other browsers.
02 Nov 08 Google Chrome – Instant Bookmarks
Chances are you visit some websites on a regular basis. If you’re on a website, you can tell that it’s bookmarked if the star icon 
on the address bar is highlighted. You can create bookmarks in several ways. Click a link below to learn more about each method:
If you come across an interesting webpage that you’d like to access again in the future, click the star icon on the Google Chrome toolbar to create a bookmark. A bubble confirming the addition of the bookmark appears.
- To tweak the bookmark’s name, edit the text in the ‘Name’ field.
- By default, the bookmark is filed in the bookmark folder that was most recently used. Use the ‘Folder’ drop-down menu to choose where you want to store the bookmark.
- To tweak the bookmark’s URL, click the Edit button.
If you accidentally clicked the star icon, you can quickly revert by clicking the Remove link in the bubble.
If you’re on the History page (Ctrl+H), you can also click the star icons that appear next to the links of websites you’ve previously visited to create bookmarks for them.
If you know the web address that you want to bookmark, you can right-click the bookmarks bar (Ctrl+B) and select Add page. Provide the following information in the ‘Edit Bookmark’ dialog box, then click the OK button.
- Name: Type a label for the webpage you’d like to bookmark.
- URL: Type the specific web address for the webpage.
Select the appropriate location for the new bookmark from the folder list. Click the OK button when you’re done.
You can quickly create a bookmark for any link on the webpage you’re on by clicking and dragging it to the bookmarks bar.
Learn how to import bookmarks from Internet Explorer or Firefox. After importing, folders and bookmarks on your Firefox bookmarks toolbar or Internet Explorer links bar are placed on the Google Chrome bookmarks bar directly (Ctrl+B). All other items are filed in the ‘Other bookmarks’ folder at the end of the bookmarks bar.
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