Google Chrome is nearly 10 years old and boy has it come a long way. So much so that Chrome is now the most popular web browser.
In fact, as of this recording, 2/3 of us are using Google Chrome to browse on the web each and every day. So today I want to share with you my 5 tips for getting the most out of Google Chrome, getting the most out of your browsing experience.
Separating your tabs
We're gonna start by separating our tabs and learning a few different things about how we can manipulate and do more with our tabs up top. The first one has to do with actually taking something outside of your tab.
Sometimes you may want to just focus on one particular website or perhaps one particular application. To do so, all you need to do is click and drag.
I'm gonna pick this tab here, I'm gonna start clicking and dragging it outside, and now when I release it, I am now focused exclusively on this particular tab, just the one tab. Now I haven't gotten rid of the rest of my files or the rest of my tabs over here.
Split view tabs
Now I have two browsers open as you can see down in the taskbar, but if I want to, I can just focus exclusively on this particular webpage. Often when I'm working on a large screen, I may drag it over to the right-hand side, and I can enjoy sort of a split view of two different browser windows open at the very same time.
If you want to bring this back into your original configuration, you can do so with the same technique. I'm going to click and hold, and this time I'm just gonna drag it back up here.
Here you can see it's brought it right back into my browser window. So now I'm in my original view, I've got my four different tabs listed at the top.
Pin tabs
Another great thing that you can do with tabs within Chrome is that you can pin certain tabs or keep them in the same place and don't be fearful of accidentally closing them. In this case, I usually want to keep something like my Google Keep open at all times or at least accessible at all times, and I don't want to accidentally close it.
To pin a tab to your browser, all you need to do is right-click on the desired tab, come down and select pin tab. You'll notice a few different things change.
Number one, it took that tab and brought it all the way over to the left, but it also condensed it. Now I can just see the logo here, I don't have an X anymore, so I can't accidentally close it.
It's always going to be accessible here in the left-hand corner. The added benefit of pinning important tabs that you use frequently is that even if I close the browser, even if I close everything here, the next time I go to open up Chrome, this Google Keep tab will appear right here.
Of course, you can pin more than just one tab. There might be three or four applications that you always want to be accessible when you're browsing.
The other great thing about pinning tabs is it keeps them nice and small, right? It keeps it nice and uncluttered, and if you want to unpin it, you can simply right-click and select the unpin option.
The next tip I want to share with you has to do with zoom and actually taking a closer look or maybe getting a further look depending on the type of website or webpage that you're dealing with. When I'm dealing with Trello, sometimes I want to get a higher-level view and maybe I want to see more cards at one time.
Zoom
If I want to change the zoom level, all I need to do is go over to the three dots here and come down to zoom. I can either zoom out a bit, maybe I'm going to zoom out to 80% so I can work with more cards.
Or depending on the website that I'm working with, maybe they have really small text. I can zoom into a higher resolution.
I can get a closer peek at the words and the images that I'm looking at. The great thing about zoom in Chrome is that it's actually going to remember this zoom level with the website that I'm on.
The next time I come to Trello, it's gonna remember that I was viewing it at 80 percent the last time. Maybe that's my preferred view.
You can have a variety of different websites at different zoom levels and customize them to the one that is most appropriate to you or the one that you like the most. For example, when I'm reviewing my online banking, and I've got lots of lines and different financial statements that I'm looking at, I will often take a smaller view such as eighty percent or maybe ninety percent so that I can see more of those items on a single screen.
Zoom allows us to do that and we'll actually save that zoom level depending on the website that we're on. Last but not least, my fifth tip for you today is about browsing in incognito mode or secret mode.
Most browsers allow you to do this. I just want to make sure that you know how to do this within Chrome.
Incognito mode
Let's say, for example, that you're wanting to buy a special gift for your wife, your son, your child, someone else, maybe even a roommate, someone that you might just share this computer with. Well, of course, you don't want them to find out accidentally that you've been shopping on Amazon and that they see the purchases or the things that you've been browsing.
So what you can do is browse in incognito mode. To do so, we're gonna go back to the settings area and select new incognito window.
You're gonna start off with this screen which may look a little scary, but Chrome gives us a little helpful description of what this means. Chrome won't save our browsing history, it won't save the cookies and site data, and it won't save information entered in forms.
This is a great way to give yourself a bit of a clean slate as you're browsing the internet. You'll also notice in the top left-hand corner that we have an incognito icon there just to let us know that we are in this mode.
Now when I go to amazon.com, you will notice that I am not signed in to my account. Usually, we would say here hello Scott, but it's never going to say that when I enter into incognito mode because it doesn't know me yet.
This is like a brand new browser window as if I've just logged into it freshly. None of these advertisements are specifically to me or based on my browsing history because it hasn't followed me here.
Of course, you can use the incognito window or the incognito mode for other purposes as well if you're wanting to hide your browsing history. But this can also be a great way to test certain sites, not only if you don't want to be followed but to see what the sites are showing you when you are not signed into your account or when you don't have cookies that are following you around the Internet.
Of course, when you're done, you can just close this browser and your existing browser remains open. It doesn't replace what you were doing before in the past.
I hope you enjoyed today's video and if you did, be sure to give it a thumbs up and also subscribe right here to Simpletivity. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
