In your work time, sometimes you have to spend more time using the browser than any other application. And you also probably waste more time using your browser than any other app. Using the web browser inefficiently is one of the factors that reduce your productivity.
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If you are a user Google ChromeI’ll show you tips for making browsing much more efficient, from automatically opening the most important websites every time you start Chrome, to grouping important websites into tab groups, or Take advantage of Chrome’s hidden functions.
These tips work on Chrome in Windows, but most of them can also be used in macOS, Linux, and of course Chrome OS. Some tips also work in the Chrome mobile app.
8 tips to help you increase productivity on Chrome
1. Group of open tabs
You can group multiple websites with the same topic together to make it easier to manage and find tabs. It’s a bit like Microsoft Edge’s feature Collections.
To use this feature, right-click the tab you want to group. Select Add tab to new group, then enter a name for the group and choose a color. This way you can create as many groups as you want.
To place a tab in an existing group, right-click the tab, select Add tab to group and select the group you want to add the tab to. To remove a tab from a group, right-click it and select Remove from group.
To collapse all tabs in a group, click the group name. To show the tabs again, click the group name. To ungroup, right-click on it and select Ungroup. And to remove the group completely and close the tabs in it, right click on the group and select Close group.
You can also use emojis in any group name. When creating a new group, right click in the text box and select emojithen select the emoji you want to use.
2. Highlight text
If you regularly share text on the web with others, you’ll appreciate this tip: It allows you to quickly send a highlighted text link to others.
To do this, select the text you want to share, then right-click it and select Copy link to highlight. The link has been copied to your clipboard, and you can simply share it with others. When they click on the link, they’ll be taken to the text you’ve highlighted.
3. Sync Chrome across devices
If you use Chrome on multiple devices, this is one of the most useful tips for optimizing your experience. If sync is not enabled: your bookmarks, history, passwords, credit card information, extensions, settings, etc. will not be saved on other devices. You will have to take the time to personalize the new browser to your liking.
Instead, enable sync on Chrome. For any PCs that you want to sync, do the following:
- Open Chrome.
- At the top right of the screen, click avatar.
- Tap Turn on Sync, then confirm that you want to enable the feature (If you’re not signed in to Chrome, you’ll be prompted to sign in first).
That’s all you need. Your information will now be synced. Every time you make a change or update information, the data is synchronized between all devices.
But that’s not all. You can control what you sync and how data is synced. On PC, tap your profile icon, then select Sync is on. Next press Manage what you sync and you’ll see a long list of everything you can sync. First, chooseCustomize syncthen turn off anything you don’t want to sync.
If you’re worried about privacy, you can also encrypt that data. Tap your profile icon, then select Sync is on. Next choose Encryption options and press Encryption options. Follow the instructions to encrypt the information.
4. Find useful websites quickly
Chrome has a way of making it a lot easier to find useful web pages than looking for information in vain with no results.
When you come across a website that offers exactly the kind of information you want, you can quickly find others like it. To find sites similar to any, type related:URL in the address bar, where the URL is the address of the website you are currently visiting. For example, to find sites like anonyviet.com, type related:anonyviet.com into the search bar. You will get results of similar sites.
5. Quick access to multiple search engines
If you use multiple search engines, you’ll love this tip. It allows you to perform a search on any search engine without having to go to the search site, which can save you time.
Tap the three-dot menu icon at the top right of Chrome and select Settings > Search engine > Manage search engines. In the “Default search engines” section at the top of the page, you’ll see a list of search engines that you can quickly access.
To perform a search using any engine, such as Bing.com, type bing.com in the address bar and press the Tab key. Now just type your search and press Enter.
6. Open a specific set of pages when you start Chrome
Maybe this tip will come in handy when you have a set of pages that you always have open in Chrome like Gmail, your company’s website, your stock market tracker, your favorite news site, etc. But having to open web page every time you turn on Chrome can be annoying and time consuming.
There is an easier way. You can tell Chrome to open a set of pages each time you launch the browser. To do it, click the three-dot icon in the top right of Chrome and select Settings > You and Google, then scroll to the “On startup” section at the bottom of the screen. Select Open a specific page or set of pagesthen click Add a new pagetype or paste the website URL and click Add. You can add as many pages as you want.
To remove any page from the group, click the three-dot icon next to it and select Remove.
7. Exploit Chrome’s Hidden Capabilities
Google is constantly testing and adding new features to Chrome, including many that can boost your productivity or save you time while browsing the web. If you’re the type of person who wants to get the latest and greatest productivity tools, there’s a way to help you use them without waiting for Google to officially release the feature.
To do this, turn on Chrome’s experimental hidden features called “flags”. Import chrome://flags in the address bar. You will come to a page with lots of new functions.
To enable flags, drag the list, then click the box next to the feature you want to try. Select Enabled from the list, then restart Chrome.
Then just use Chrome as you normally would. If you want to disable the flag, go back and select Disabled.
There will usually be a lot of flags that you can try at any time. (Note that the available flags may vary by platform, and they tend to change over time.) Here are some flags you can try:
- Parallel Downloading: Enabling this feature will speed up file downloads. It divides each downloaded file into three parts, then downloads each part simultaneously. This can make a difference when you’re downloading large files, but won’t help with smaller files.
- Smooth Scrolling: If when you scroll a web page it feels jerky, enable this flag, then restart Chrome. Scrolling will feel smoother. This may not directly affect your productivity, but it will make it less frustrating.
- Scroll Anchor Serialization: If you want to start reading a web page as soon as the content appears, you can enable this flag. Usually, if you start reading a page while other parts of the page are still loading, you’ll lose your current location and have to find it again. Turn it on and you won’t lose that spot anymore.
- Enable Reader Mode: With the feature, you will only see the content of the page. Everything else, including the ads and side panels, is removed. It allows you to more easily focus on your work. After you enable the flag, you will see the Page icon appear to the right of the address bar to enable Reader Mode.
8. Save time with keyboard shortcuts
Many people use keyboard shortcuts to save time in certain applications, like Microsoft Word, but not often in Chrome. Keyboard shortcuts help you save more time, so please refer to the shortcuts below.
Useful keyboard shortcuts in Google Chrome
Shortcut keys | Function |
---|---|
Ctrl-Shift-Remove | Show or hide the Bookmarks bar |
Ctrl-Draw | Bookmark the current page |
Ctrl-L | Select the URL in the address bar |
Ctrl-F | Search current page |
Ctrl-REP | Search current page |
Ctrl-Last | Open your history in a new window |
Ctrl-N | Open a new window |
Ctrl-Shift-N | Open a new window in Incognito mode |
Ctrl-Shift-W | Close current window |
Ctrl-T | Open a new tab and switch to it |
Ctrl-Tab | Go to next tab |
Ctrl-Shift-Tab | Switch to previous tab |
Ctrl-W | Close current tab |
Ctrl-Shift-T | Reopen tabs in the order they were closed |
Ctrl-+ (plus symbol) | Enlarge |
Ctrl– (minus symbol) | Zoom out |
Space or PgDn | Scroll down a web page one screen at a time |
Shift-Space or PgUp | Scroll up a web page one screen at a time |
Ctrl-P | Print current page |
In addition, you can also see 11 more utilities to increase learning productivity for students here.