Everything is right where it belongs, privacy and security controls are laid out in plain English, and the browser just gets out of your way. With a thriving extension ecosystem, it’s as fully featured or as pared-down as you want it to be. What’s the bottom line? The Google Chrome browser is fast, free, and even better looking than before. There’s also the ability to quiet notifications, so websites don’t bombard you with requests to enable in-browser notifications. Android users will appreciate the Phone Hub for linking and monitoring their phones. There’s a price tracking feature that can help locate the best deals. Other updates have included a Dark Mode for Windows and macOS, better New Tab customization and tab group creation, tab hover cards, and an in-browser warning if your password was discovered in a data breach. And it’s now easier to mute tabs to avoid unwanted sounds. Favorites are more accessible as well, and they’re manageable on the New Tab page. The search bar, or Omnibox, provides “rich results” comprised of useful answers, and it now supports generative AI capabilities.

Managing saved passwords and adding notes to passwords is even easier. Even active extensions stay synchronized across devices.Ĭhrome’s Password Manager can automatically generate and recommend strong passwords when a user creates a new account on a webpage. Sign in to your Google account on one device, and all Chrome bookmarks, saved data, and preferences come right along. Served up on every major platform, keeping data in sync is easy, making browsing between multiple devices a breeze. The 5 best laptops for browsing the web in 2024Ĭhrome boasts some of the most extensive mobile integration available. Download Mobile Legends Bang Bang for Android.Download Adobe Flash Player for Windows.With Chrome, expandability is limited to the usual content plugins - Flash, Acrobat, Silverlight and so on. There's no doubt that Firefox is the Swiss Army Knife of the internet, boasting an unrivalled collection of extensions and themes - although to be fair, IE is catching up with a decent collection of Toolbars and Extensions in the Internet Explorer Gallery. Bookmark management is non-existent, Chrome doesn't appear to know what an RSS feed is let alone offer any features to deal with one, and where IE and Firefox can zoom in and out of entire web pages Chrome merely makes the text bigger or smaller while leaving images intact. Firefox does this too, but where Firefox then saves the page as a link Chrome opens it as a new browser window. We particularly liked the ability to delete a particular day's browsing history without getting rid of everything else, and the ability to resize on-screen text input boxes is brilliant.Īs with Firefox and IE you can re-arrange open tabs by dragging them around, but Chrome also enables you to drag a tab over the desktop.

Click on the spanner icon and choose History to see a Google-style list of the pages you've visited along with a prominent search box for finding exactly what you want, and when you create a new tab there's an Opera-style collection of nine thumbnails to show you your most commonly visited sites along with your most recently added bookmarks. That doesn't mean Chrome doesn't have some nifty tricks. IE8 does the same but keeps a separate search box just in case, while Firefox sticks with URLs and previously visited pages in the address bar and search suggestions in the search bar. Instead, you use the same box to type URLs and search criteria if it's the latter, Chrome comes up with some helpful suggestions. One thing Chrome has done is simplified the traditional combination of address bar and search bar.

Its address bar and tabs remain at the top of the screen, whereas in full screen mode IE8 and Firefox get rid of absolutely everything. In fact, Chrome's slight space advantage disappears completely when you maximise it. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox

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