It’s the tenth anniversary of Google Chrome this year and to celebrate it gets a new look and some cool new features in Chrome 69. Available right now, the browser has a flat design to bring it in line with many apps and some extra tricks. As a Firefox Quantum user, I wanted to find out if Chrome is now better than Firefox and exactly what was new with the browser.
The new flat design looks great. It works on phones, tablets and on desktop and is much more pleasing to my eye at least. The default theme is okay too. It’s inoffensive, colorful and works well on all screens. You can still theme it though which is good.
Other new features of Chrome 69 include:
Password generator
If you don’t use a password manager, first why not? Second, Chrome can now generate strong passwords as well as store them. While I would always want to use my trusty LastPass, Chrome can now compete on more of a level playing field. When you join a website, Chrome will offer to generate a password for you. You can either accept the suggestion or ignore it.
Tab locator
I tend to work a lot on the internet and could have anything up to 30 tabs open at once. That means finding a specific tab can take a couple minutes while I try each one looking for the one I want. No longer. Type the page or website name into the URL bar and the tab should appear, select Switch to Tab to do just that. A small thing but with so much potential!
Omnibox
The URL bar has been renamed to the Omnibox as it now can do more than just take URLs. As well as locating tabs, it can also answer basic questions. Type ‘what time is it in New Jersey’ and Google will display the time. Type ‘what temperature is it in New York’ and it will show the temperature. Omnibox can only display answers to basic questions right now but you can expect more soon.
Shortcut improvements
Chrome 69 also brings slight improvements to shortcuts but using them more effectively on a new tab page. Add your most used web pages by selecting Add Shortcut to access your favorite pages quickly. You can also theme the new tab page with backgrounds by selecting the cog icon in the bottom right and select backgrounds.
Other improvements include a bunch of behind the scenes tweaks to improve system resource utilization, latency, boot time and usability.
- To get Chrome 69, select the three dot menu icon and Help.
- Select About Google Chrome and allow the browser to update.
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