Google Chrome is now the most popular browser, and with good reason. It's a powerful, reliable platform with plenty of opportunity for expansion using extensions. There are also a lot of opportunities to tweak the browser by accessing features that are hidden under the hood.

10 cool free Chrome extensions The Chrome browser has evolved into a platform of its own, in large part due to the ability to add functionality through extensions. These are some of the most useful. Read More

Download Google Chrome

If you don't have Google Chrome, you can grab your copy here. Chrome is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as iOS and Android.

Updating Google Chrome

If you already have Google Chrome installed, then the first thing to do is check to see if you need to update your browser. You can tell if there's an update because the burger menu (the three-line icon in the upper right corner of the browser) will change from green to yellow and then red to give you a visual reminder of how out-of-date the browser you are running is.

As a rule, closing and restarting Chrome is all that's needed to reboot it, but you can force Chrome to check for an update by typing chrome://help into the address bar and following the prompts.

Supercharge with extensions

Here are a selection of awesome extensions for Google Chrome.

Optimize your browser

Now that you're running on an updated version of Chrome, you can start removing any unwanted extensions and plugins that you've picked up over the months and years of using it.

To do this, type chrome://extensions into the address bar to see what extensions you have installed. Either uncheck the box to disable the extension or click on the trash can icon to delete it.

Next, type chrome://plugins into the address bar so you can look through your plugins. Just click the link to disable.

Next, if you're the sort of person who browses with a lot of tabs open, you've probably noticed that this eats into your system's RAM. Fortunately, it's possible to have a lot of tabs open and keep memory consumption under control with some extensions.

Here are some for you to choose from:

Another way to streamline your Chrome browser is to clear the cache. If you've been running Chrome for some time, the cache will be filled with your browsing history. Getting rid of this not only frees up a lot of disk space, but it will also make your browser more streamlined.

Type chrome://settings/clearBrowserData into the address bar and decide what you want to delete. I'd suggest choosing only the Cached images and files option. Alternatively, you can nuke everything and start with a clean slate.

For best results clear items from the beginning of time.

Check your browser for malware

Better to be safe than sorry.

To scan your Chrome installation for malware, Google makes a Chrome Cleanup Tool available to Windows users.

It might also be a good idea to scan the system using something such as Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware. Mac users can check out Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware for Mac.

Check your internet speed

What I like to do now with every Chrome installation is download and install the new Speedtest extension, which allows me to measure my internet performance without having to load up a new tab in the browser and type in the URL.

This is a great way to get an idea of how healthy the internet connection I'm on actually is.

Poor internet connection? Here's how to speed it up!

Install the Google Data Saver extension. This extension uses the Google servers to compress and optimize web pages before they are delivered to your browser.

Learn some useful keyboard shortcuts

These can be a huge timesaver!

There are a lot of keyboard shortcuts for Google Chrome, and the list can seem daunting, but I suggest picking a couple that you think are useful and using them for a few days. When they get installed into your workflow, add a couple more. Within a few weeks, you'll have a good selection in your repertoire!

Here are some of my favorites:

Ctrl/Cmd + L - Highlights text in the address bar

- Highlights text in the address bar Ctrl/Cmd + T - Open a new tab

- Open a new tab Ctrl/Cmd + W - Close current tab

- Close current tab Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + T - Reopen closed tab

- Reopen closed tab Ctrl + Tab - Switch tab one tab to the right

- Switch tab one tab to the right Ctrl + Shift + Tab - Switch tab one tab to the left

- Switch tab one tab to the left Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + B - Toggle the bookmark bar visibility

A few other tricks

Want to see some cool stuff going on under the Google Chrome hood? Check these out by typing them into the address bar:

chrome://histograms

chrome://memory

chrome://cache

chrome://dns

Want to use Google Chrome as a notepad? Type the following into the address bar:

data:text/html,<html contenteditable>

See also: