Google Chrome

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Google Chrome uses the Chromium engine, an open source web browser project. Google Chrome is more secure than Microsoft Internet Explorer. It loads and runs faster than both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. It is less secure than Firefox due to the fact that the NoScript security extension does not support Chrome. Specifically, Firefox + NoScript is more secure than Google Chrome. Furthermore, Google Chrome has been criticized along with all Google products for a lack of privacy. Google collects user data for their own company agenda which may include marketing and profiling.

Overall, it is recommend that individuals try using Google Chrome when a web site does not render or function correctly in Mozilla Firefox. It is also recommend using Google Chrome with Google web applications such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+. It is recommended using Google Chrome as an alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer and where Mozilla Firefox cannot be used.

Google Chrome is one of the top three web browsers in use on Microsoft Windows desktop systems well into 2015. Marketshare is roughly ranked by the following:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (on the PC)
  • Mozilla Firefox (on the PC)
  • Google Chrome (on the PC)

In the mobile market browsers such as Apple Safari have entered the top three web browser category. With the success of the iPhone and other Apple mobile devices, Safari based browsers are ranked first in popularity by many pools.

Plugins and Extensions

Looking for the extensions area of Google Chrome browser? As of version 71.0xxxx here's some ways to find it:

  • Click the stupid hamburger (three vertical dots) menu -> More tools -> Extensions

or

  • In the address bar type: chrome://extensions/

Wanting to download extensions for Google Chrome? As of late 2019 the following URL gets you there:

The crackers at Google change this stuff at a moment's whim and in between spending thousands of man hours going through programming code not to fix bugs, but to change anything that might be politically incorrect about the syntax of the code, whatever that means, and censoring free speech online. (the term "man hours" is not politically correct.)

Flash Block Extension Not Necessary

Flashblock is not needed on Chrome - go to settings/advanced/content settings/plugins and select "click to play". Now flash will not run automatically. But you can decide to click on something and allow it to play if you want. Works great - no plugin needed.

Ghostery

Ghostery looks for third-party page elements (or "trackers") on the web pages you visit. These can be things like social network widgets, advertisements, invisible pixels used for tracking and analytics, and so on. Ghostery notifies you that these things are present, and which companies operate them. You can learn more about these companies, and if you wish, choose to block the trackers they operate.

Font Changer with Google Web Fonts

Font Changer with Google Web Fonts allows you to change the font on Facebook, Twitter, Google, Youtube or any other site. Test Google Web Fonts

See also: Sans serif fonts and I can't tell I from l when they look alike but not exactly like 1.

Font Finder

An easy-to-use font inspector to get CSS styles of the selected element.

Google Voice (by Google)

Make calls, send SMS, preview Inbox, and get notified of new messages. Although this can be accomplished on the Google Voice web page "voice.google.com" the functionality is buggy. Using Chrome, on the official site at voice.google.com it sometimes is not possible to place a call. The plugin allows the call to be placed by clicking an icon in the menu of the web browser as an alternative. It is a functional workaround for buggy crap Google software.

Proper Menubar for Google Chrome

Includes the File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Window, and Help menu items. Proper Menubar is a lightweight and useful add-in to restore classic UI design. Available on Chrome.

Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy

Every now and then we all come across sites that prevent users from copying snippets of text by disabling right-click menu. A practical solution would be to use a simple browser extension to copy and paste text on websites that don’t allow it.

Discord will not allow users to right click and copy text conversations. If you run Discord via web browser in Google Chrome, there is a great way to override Discord blocking copy and paste.

Download and install Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy on Chrome or Firefox browser.

Annoyances

Nonstandard button size in upper right corner: In the thread: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/4W9ZNDwKeZo

they are blaming Windows XP. When using Linux, Mint, Cinnamon desktop the Chrome buttons are the wrong dimensions also. It is a Chrome problem, not a Windows XP or other desktop problem. It does cause problems, except on the Cinnamon desktop the chrome buttons are smaller and more squished. Chrome obviously doesn't call the common button widget of the OS desktop.

Unable to Escape pause animations: Hitting the escape key should freeze any animated GIFs on a web page and in Chrome it doesn't work.

Copy Without Formatting: Especially when trying to paste something into LibreOffice Writer there needs to be a way to copy just the text, without all of the formatting. Because of all the formatting and crap included with the copy from Chrome, LibreOffice Calc or Write wont do a "paste special" from Chrome sometimes.

Audio playing in a tab you're not using: or videos for that matter. The user should have more control over this.

No Support for 32-bit: Come on Google, there's still folks out there that deserve basic security updates for their 32-bit version of Chrome. And what's with that annoying message that pops up every time you open Chrome exclaiming "no longer supported." How about a "we get it" button so that it stops telling us.

Google monitors the Internet and forbids anyone from offering old versions of Chrome to download. Wow what control freaks! Google's the new Micro$oft, except worse. Right, it is important to run the latest for increased security, which is why it sucks they no longer provide updates to the 32-bit, however, there are times when an older version is needed. Also, it is next to impossible to disable the updater.

Chrome Advertisement blocking doesn't block Ads well: it uses the standards of the Coalition for Better Ads to decide what ads get blocked. If the ad follows a lose set of rules then you still get ads in your face. So now Google becomes the authority on what types of ads are acceptable and which ones go over the line, all when Google makes big $$$$ on advertising revenue.

Google Doodles

Someone once (actually many many times from many other people) asked on the official Google forum, "Hate google doodles want it stop. How do you disable this?"

Another commenter said, "Google Doodle content can be offensive, such as the current celebration of [..]. It is unfair to force this upon users of the Google search engine. There should be an option to revert to the classic Google wallpaper on the search engine's homepage."

  • Google Chrome used to have an option "doodles on the local NTP" where you could disable them. They have since taken that away. They wish to FORCE you to view their juvenile little pictures if you choose to use their market dominate search engine or browser. The flag is gone for good from Chrome 76+.

You can get rid of the doodle from the new tab page by installing an extension which forces new tab pages to be blank

Another option is to Stylize the New Tab Page with an extension called Stylish.

can't update chrome

Noted on Ubuntu/Mint with Google Chrome. An annoying popup message that appears in the upper right part of the screen with text"Can't update chrome" appears without the user initiating any kind of update.

  • See Installation: Updating Chrome section below for details on how to update Chrome from within relevant distribution

autoplay video advertisements

The team over at Google decided to take away the option that allowed users to toggle on and off the auto-playing of embedded video. The problem with this is now a plethora of obnoxious video advertisements bombard the user when visiting popular web sites. As of 2023 an extension called "Disable HTML5 Autoplay (Reloaded)" addresses the issue and is verified to work with Chrome version 118.x (Official Build) (64-bit)

Usage and Customization

general customization

In the URL bar type: chrome://flags/

force dark theme

There is a flag in the settings where you can force a dark mode on any website which is is useful for using Google Voice. If you prefer GV in a dark background with white text. Open a new chrome tab and paste this in the address bar: 

chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark

Change the flag from Default to Enabled. No extension needed.

Bookmarks Backup

To manually backup your bookmarks to a file:

  • Open Google Chrome > Click Customize and Control Google Chrome menu; (this used to be the hamburger menu, it is in the upper right)
  • In the menu choose BOOKMARKS and then BOOKMARK MANAGER 
menu -> bookmarks -> bookmark manager  -or-  navigate to:  chrome://bookmarks/
  • Click on the hamburger menu in this Bookmarks tab and choose EXPORT BOOKMARKS

Search From Address Bar

The address bar or url bar is for entering a web site address in the form of a Uniform Resource Locator address that via the magic of DNS resolves to the IP address of an Internet web server. It should not be used for a random text entry search, that is what specific search engine web sites for for. Why are we AOLizing the world wide web experience? Google Chrome was to blur the distinction between a URL and a search string. They suck.

  • An Omnibox is similar to the traditional web browser address bar, but you can also use it like a search engine.
  • Disable Omnibox, it causes confusion and redirects unwanted entry into a search such as an accidental malformed URL. ie: a URL typo is not a search term.

Google does not want you to disable this. Suggested settings in "flags" cannot be found. For example:

  • Enable search in omnibus - not found
  • Enable search button in Omnibox - not found

NO SOLUTION. Google communists control your web browsing experience and give you few options.

Installation

Linux Installation: Example for Ubuntu/Mint

Google Chrome is not FOSS. But it does stuff Chromium does not do. You can replace Chromium with Chrome, or have them both on the system. You do not have to choose one or the other because you can have them both.

Apparently in Mint 18.3 Chrome cannot be installed via the Mint Software manager. Instead we shall go to console and install it.

  • Create a text file in the path /etc/apt/sources.list.d 
cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d
vi chrome.list
  • Add the following text to the newly created chrome.list file 
deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  • Download the current signed key 
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | apt-key add -
apt-get update
  • Install Google Chrome from the new repository 
apt install google-chrome-stable

This procedure was verified in 2017 on Mint 18.3 Sylvia installed Google Chrome Version 63.0.3239.108 (Official Build) (64-bit)

***note:Although Ubuntu requires the repository be added manually as shown above, it is probably not necessary with Mint as this distribution allows non-FOSS. Try installing w/o adding the repo first.

***note:sudo can be used with the deb command, but cannot be used with wget to add the key (for some reason) so you may have to sudo bash then use wget to update key.

Linux Upgrade Problems

In attempting to upgrade Google Chrome from Version 71.0.3578.98 (Official Build) (64-bit) to Version 78.0.3904.97 (Official Build) (64-bit) in linux it was necessary to uninstall Chrome and reinstall the latest stable build with Synaptic.

Determine Chrome Version

You can get the version number aka build and great detail by typing this into the URL bar: 

chrome://version/

Updating Chrome

Current releases of Mint Linux Distribution

Even though the "Can't Update Chrome" annoying prompt will take you to the Google Chrome web site, with an option to download their "Chrome Installer" it is not recommended to pursue this course. Instead, simply run Mint Update Manager and select Chrome from the list to update.

It is recommended to have "Google / stable" in the Additional Repositories of Mint Software Sources. 

deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main

Older releases of Mint

On 18.3 the first step is go go into synaptic and search for chrome then click remove.

or do the entire update from CLI 

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt remove google-chrome-stable
sudo apt install google-chrome-stable

your bookmarks and settings will not be lost.

Once your linux distribution version is no longer maintained the repository will not be updated with the latest release of Chrome. (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint...)

Debian / Ubuntu / Mint and Related Distributions using APT

A more proper method: 

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --only-upgrade install google-chrome-stable

Troubleshooting

Safemode

Start Google Chrome in Safe Mode, it is a mystery.

There is no true safe mode for Chrome. In fact, Google controls how Chrome starts, and what level of process launch you have. There are some useful command line parameters you can use. 

/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --high-dpi-support=1 --force-device-scale-factor=1 --disable-extensions --disable-plugins --guest

The particular parameter "--disable-extensions" you may find most useful.

For privacy you can use "--guest"

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