How to speed up Chrome on Android

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-speed-up-chrome-on-android/?tag=nl.e067&s_cid=e067&ttag=e067&ftag=TRE40fd434

If you're looking for ways to speed up Chrome on Android, Jack Wallen has four tips that are sure to give your browsing a performance boost. 

If you're a heavy browser user on the Android platform, chances are that you're using Chrome. When you first started using that browser, it was probably pretty zippy--but as time wore on, the browser slowed a bit until its performance degradation was noticeable. Or maybe, from your initial usage, Chrome never seemed fast enough.

No matter your case, I have a few tips that will help you speed up the Chrome browser on Android. None of these tips will require the installation of third-party software, and they're do-able by any level of user. Let's get to it!

Close tabs

It's really easy to forget you have that plethora of tabs open... until Chrome bogs down. When you have too many Chrome tabs open, your browser may slow down and your device can take a performance hit.

When you open up the browser, look for the small square with a number inside. Tap that number to open up the Chrome tabs overview (Figure A). Close any of those tabs you don't use by tapping the associated X.

Figure A

Closing tabs on a Verizon-branded Nexus 6.

Clear the cache

Your browser cache can get out of control. Clearing the cache can clean out temporary and fragmented data. When the cache gets too full, Chrome can slow down. This is a very easy fix. Here's how:

• Open Settings
• Tap Apps
• Locate and tap Chrome (you might have to swipe to the ALL tab)
• Tap the CLEAR CACHE button (Figure B)

Chrome should now be a bit faster.

Figure B

Clearing Chrome's cache.

Give Chrome more memory

Some websites are simply more demanding of memory than others. When you land on such a site, Chrome can come to a crawl. Why is that? By default, Chrome gets 128 MB of memory. For older devices, that should probably remain as-is. For newer devices, with over 32 GB of memory, you'll want to bump that up to gain more performance on demanding sites. Here's how:

1. Open Chrome
2. In the address bar, type chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area
3. Tap the "Go" button (which is probably a right-facing arrow at the bottom right of your keyboard)
4. Locate the entry for Maximum tiles for interest area
5. Tap the drop-down and then select 512 (Figure C)
6. When prompted, tap the Relaunch Now button

Figure C

Giving more memory over to Chrome.

The one thing you must take into consideration with maxing out memory for Chrome is that it will get priority over memory. This means that if you have a lot of apps open, and there isn't enough memory for Chrome, some of those other apps will be closed. On modern phones (especially flagship models), this won't be a problem. If, however, you find that maxing out memory for Chrome causes issues with other apps, lower the memory to 256 MB.

Turn on Data Saver

Chrome includes a handy little feature called Data Saver. When this is on, Google's servers reduce the amount of data that gets downloaded when you visit a site. This saves on your data plan, plus it has the added bonus of speeding up the loading of certain pages. There are a few caveats to this:

• Some sites may not be able to determine your location
• Some site images may appear fuzzy
• Internal sites (such as company CRMs) may not load
• You might have trouble logging into certain sites (especially sites for carrier billing)

If you're still interested in Data Saver, here's how to to enable it:

1. Open Chrome
2. Tap the menu button (three dots in upper right corner)
3. Tap Settings
4. Locate and tap Data Saver
5. Tap the On/Off switch until it's enabled (Figure D)

Figure D

Enabling Chrome's Data Saver.

After enabling and/or using all of these tips, you should see a noticeable improvement in Chrome's performance... all without having to use a single, third-party application.

Google Tips

Google Tips: From Android to YouTube, Google's handy tutorials for its services

https://www.google.com/get/googletips/

Tips are presented in the form of cards. Find a card based on your needs and flip it over to learn more.

Google Voice Search Hotword (Beta)

This extension allows you to say ‘Ok Google’ and start speaking your search.

Now you can talk to Google when you’re using Chrome. Hands-free. No typing. Simply say “Ok Google” and then ask your question.  Note: this extension sends your question to Google only when it hears the phrase “Ok Google.”

How to get started
1) Download the extension.
2) Click “agree” to give your permission to use your microphone. 
3) Visit Google.com on Chrome and give it a try.  Just say “Ok Google” and then ask your question.

By installing this item, you agree to the Google Terms of Service and Privacy Policy at https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/.

http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/list-of-google-now-voice-commands_5294dc0a62462_w587.png

Google Chrome Browser Tips and Tricks

These tips will help you to get most out of the Chrome browser.

1. Pin Tab

When you pin a tab, it minimizes the tab to display only the icon. When you have several tabs opened, this feature is very helpful, as the Tab title displays only the icon and takes only little real estate.

Before pinning:

After pinning 1st two tabs:

2. Display Home Button

By default, chrome doesn’t display the ‘Home’ button in the toolbar.

Click on the ‘Wrench Icon’ on the right-hand corner of the browser to get to the “Customize” option for Chrome browser -> Preferences (or Options) -> Select the check-box for “Show home button in toolbar”

This will now display the ‘Home’ button in front of the URL field. Click this button to go to your home page quickly.
3. Omnibox

The URL address bar (also called as Omnibox in Chrome) in the Chrome browser is not only to enter your URL. Just type the keyword you want to search and press enter, which will perform a google search.

You can also perform calculations or conversions directly in the Omnibox. Try typing any one of the following in the URL address bar and press enter to see the results yourself.

7 + 200
7 * 200
1 lb in kg
2 miles in km

4. incognito – Secret Mode

Incognito mode is for private browsing, where Chrome doesn’t record your browsing history, download hisotry. Any cookies that are stored during the incognito mode is deleted when you close the browser.

You can launch incognito by pressing Ctrl + Shift + N, (or) Settings -> New incognito Window, (or) right mouse-click on a link from a regular Chrome session, and select “open link in incognito window”.

One of the practical use for this mode (apart from private browsing) is to login to the same site using two accounts.

For example, if you have two gmail accounts, login using the first account in your regular Chrome browser, and login using the second account in your Incognito mode on your Chrome browser. This way, you can be logged in to two gmail accounts at the same time on Chrome browser.

5. Reopen Recently Closed tab

If you’ve closed a tab by mistake, you can open it by pressing Ctrl + Shift + T, (or) right mouse-click on the empty area in the title-bar -> and select “Reopen closed tab” as shown below.

6. Chrome:// commands

There are various about command that you can type in the address bar.

chrome://histograms
chrome://memory
chrome://cache
chrome://dns
etc.

7. Task Manager

Task manager displays the memory and CPU usage of the Chrome browser, broken down by each and every Tab. If you have multiple Tabs open, and when your system is slow, you can use task manager to identify which Tab is causing the issue.

Right click on empty space in the title bar and select “Task manager”, (or) Press Shift + escape key to launch it as shown below.

8. Change Search Engine in the Omnibar

Type “amazon” in the address bar AND press “Tab”, which will change the address bar to “Search amazon.com:”, any keyword you type after this will be searched in the amazon.com and it will take you to amazon.com website.

You can also change the default search engine. Right click on the address bar -> and select “Edit search engine”. From here you can choose other search engines.

9. Open a link at a specific Tab Location

As you already know, when you right click on a link, and say “Open link in a new tab”, it opens it as a new tab (next to the current open tab).

However, if you want the link to be opened at a specific tab location, you can hold the link, drag it and drop it as a specific tab location. You’ll see a small arrow when you drag and drop the link. In the following example, I tried to drop the link at 2nd tab location.

10. Carry your Chrome Settings with You

If you are using multiple computers (at home, at work, etc.), you don’t need to worry about trying to setup the Chrome browser in the same way on all the computers you use. Instead, setup your bookmarks, extensions, themes, settings, etc, on your Chrome browser on one computer, and select “Sign in to Chrome” from the settings menu as shown below.

This will ask you to enter your google username and password. This will save all your chrome settings on your google account. Next time when you sign-up from another machine, all your chrome settings will be visible on the new system. If you make any changes to your chrome settings on this new system, it will be available on your other computers too. Use this feature only on the systems which you trust and not on public computers.

11. Drag and Drop Downloaded file

Once a file is downloaded, you can just drag and drop the file (from the Chrome download window) to your Windows explore, or any other file browser that you are using on your system.

12. History

Press Ctrl-H, or go to Customize -> History, to launch the history window. From here you can search for a specific website from your history, delete all your history, or delete only selected items from your history.

13. Create a Shortcut of the Current Tab

If you like to create a shortcut to the website that you are currently viewing, go to Customize -> Tools -> Create application shortcuts. This will ask you where you like to create the shortcut for this website, as shown below.

Once you create a application shortcut, next time when you click on it to open it, it will open this site in a Chrome browser without any tabs, url location bar, etc.

14. Navigate Between Tabs Quickly

• Use Ctrl+Tab to navigate Tabs one by one
• Press Ctrl-1 to go to 1st Tab
• Press Ctrl-2 to go to 2nd Tab
• ..
• Press Ctrl-9 to switch to the last Tab

15. Resize TextArea

You can also resize a textarea that you see on any website. Please note that you can resize only the textarea and not a textbox. At the bottom right corner of the textarea, you’ll see two slanted lines, use your mouse, hold this, and drag it to resize the textarea on the screen.

You can try this yourself on the comment box (which is a textarea) located at the bottom of this page.

16. Detach a tab

If you have multiple Tabs opened, and like to detach a single tab as a separate Chrome instance, just drag the tab anywhere outside the browser, which will detach the tab and run it in a separate Chrome browser window.


17. Highlight a Text and Search

When you are browsing a website, if you come across some word that you are not familiar with and like to perform a google search on it, just double-click on the text to high-light it, right mouse-click, and select “Search google for”, which will open a new Tab and search for the selected text. This saves some time.

18. Autofill

You can use the autofill option to enter one or more addresses that you can use to fill-up any web forms. You can also use this feature to store one or more credit card information that can be pre-populated on web forms. Don’t use this feature on a computer that you don’t trust.

Go to settings -> Options -> Personal Stuff -> Click on the check-box “Enable Autofill to fill out web forms in a single click” -> Click on Manager autofill settings -> Click on ‘Add new Address’ and enter the information.

19. Google Cloud Print

Go to Settings -> Options -> Under the Hood -> click on sign into “Google Cloud Print”.

Once you setup your printer using Google cloud print, you can print to it from anywhere. i.e You can print to it from your mobile, other PC at work, or any other system that is connected to the internet.

20. Google Chrome Browser Shortcuts

The following are some useful shortcuts:

• Alt+F – Open the wrench menu (i.e chrome settings menu)
• Ctrl+J – Go to downloads window
• Ctrl+H – Go to history window
• Ctrl+Tab – Navigate Tabs
• Alt+Home – Go to home page
• Ctrl+U – View source code of the current page
• Ctrl+K – To search quickly in the address bar
• Ctrl+L – Highlights the URL in the address bar (use this to copy/paste the URL quickly)
• Ctrl+N – Open a new Chrome browser window
• Ctrl+Shift+N – Open a new incognito window (for private browsing)
• Ctrl+Shift+B – Toggle bookmark display
• Ctrl+W – Close the current Tab
• Alt+Left Arrow – Go to the previous page from your history
• Alt+Right Arrow – Go to the next page from your history
• Space bar – Scroll down the current web page

Following are the 12 most helpful chrome:// commands that you should know.

1. chrome://flags

From here you can enable some of the experimental features that are hidden in the google Chrome browser. Please note that as mentioned on this page, since these are experimental, these might not work as expected and might cause issues. Enable these features and use it at your own risk.

2. chrome://dns

This displays the list of hostnames for which the browser will prefetch the DNS records.

3. chrome://downloads

This is also available from the Menu -> Downloads. Short cut key is Ctrl+J

4. chrome://extensions

This is also available from the Menu -> Tools -> Extensions

5. chrome://bookmarks

This is also available from the Menu -> Bookmarks -> Bookmark Manager. Short cut key is Ctrl+Shift+O

6. chrome://history

This is also availble from the Menu -> History. Short cut key is Ctrl+H

7. chrome://memory

This will redirect to “chrome://memory-redirect/”. This will display the memory used by Google chrome browser, and all other browsers running on the system (including firefox).

This also display all the process related to browser with their PID, process name, and the memory it takes.

8. chrome://net-internals

This displays all networking related information. Use this to capture network events generated by the browser. You can also export this data. You can view DNS host resolver cache.

One of the important feature in this feature is “Test”. If a URL failed to load, you can go to “chrome://net-internals” -> click on “Tests” tab -> type that URL which failed, and click on “Start Test”, which will do some test and report you why that URL failed.
chrome://plugins/

9. chrome://quota-internals

This gives information about the disk space quote used by the browser, including the break down of how much space the individual websites took under temporary files.

10. chrome://sessions

This displays the number of sessions and magic list that are currently running.

11. chrome://settings

This is also available from the Menu -> Options (on Windows), and Menu -> Preferences (on Linux). From here you can control various browser related settings.

12. chrome://sync-internals

This gives information about the chrome sync feature, including the Sync URL used by google, and sync statistics.

Finally, to view all the available chrome:// commands, type chrome://about/ in your chrome browser URL as shown below.

Also, please note that all of the commands mentioned above can also be called using google chrome about command, which redirects to chrome://.

For example, both of the following are exactly the same.

about:dns
chrome://dns

12 Most Useful Google Chrome Browser chrome:// Commands

To get to the Menu on Google Chrome browser, click on the “Wrench” icon on the top right-hand corner. From here you can access certain browser features.

However, there are several features that are not available from the Menu, which you can access only using the chrome:// commands. Some of the features are available under both Menu and chrome:// commands.

Following are the 12 most helpful chrome:// commands that you should know.

1. chrome://flags

From here you can enable some of the experimental features that are hidden in the google Chrome browser. Please note that as mentioned on this page, since these are experimental, these might not work as expected and might cause issues. Enable these features and use it at your own risk.

2. chrome://dns

This displays the list of hostnames for which the browser will prefetch the DNS records.

3. chrome://downloads

This is also available from the Menu -> Downloads. Short cut key is Ctrl+J

4. chrome://extensions

This is also available from the Menu -> Tools -> Extensions

5. chrome://bookmarks

This is also available from the Menu -> Bookmarks -> Bookmark Manager. Short cut key is Ctrl+Shift+O

6. chrome://history

This is also availble from the Menu -> History. Short cut key is Ctrl+H

7. chrome://memory

This will redirect to “chrome://memory-redirect/”. This will display the memory used by Google chrome browser, and all other browsers running on the system (including firefox).

This also display all the process related to browser with their PID, process name, and the memory it takes.

8. chrome://net-internals

This displays all networking related information. Use this to capture network events generated by the browser. You can also export this data. You can view DNS host resolver cache.

One of the important feature in this feature is “Test”. If a URL failed to load, you can go to “chrome://net-internals” -> click on “Tests” tab -> type that URL which failed, and click on “Start Test”, which will do some test and report you why that URL failed.
chrome://plugins/

9. chrome://quota-internals

This gives information about the disk space quote used by the browser, including the break down of how much space the individual websites took under temporary files.

10. chrome://sessions

This displays the number of sessions and magic list that are currently running.

11. chrome://settings

This is also available from the Menu -> Options (on Windows), and Menu -> Preferences (on Linux). From here you can control various browser related settings.

12. chrome://sync-internals

This gives information about the chrome sync feature, including the Sync URL used by google, and sync statistics.

Finally, to view all the available chrome:// commands, type chrome://about/ in your chrome browser URL as shown below.

Also, please note that all of the commands mentioned above can also be called using google chrome about command, which redirects to chrome://.

For example, both of the following are exactly the same.

about:dns
chrome://dns

Carry your Google Chrome with you everywhere

If you are one of the hardcore Google Chrome fan and you are very much used to it then you will definitely want to carry it with you wherever you go.  Having a portable browser can make your life a lot easier. You can have your favorite bookmarks, your saved passwords and everything else with you at any point of time. You’ll only need to plug in your pen drive and start the browser.

All you have to do is download the compressed file from the link given below and extract it in your removable device. Then go to the folder named PortableGoogleChrome and run the ChromeLoader file to get started. No installation is required so you can use it on computers with limited rights as well.

The browser is having all the features which you get on your regular google chrome but you might see some minor difference in performance which is pretty much acceptable as you are running it from a portable device instead of your hdd. If at any time you feel like uninstalling it then just simply delete the folder and you are done.

You can download the latest version of portable Google Chrome from the link given below and if you want to update your portable browser you can simply go to the same site and download the newer version again.

Download Google Chrome Portable