How to use Google Chrome for Productivity

Browsers are the gateway for computer or smartphone users to enter the fascinating world of the internet. There is always a debate among users regarding which browser is best among all. While every browser has its merits and demerits, Google Chrome is undoubtedly the most popular and advanced web browser among its competitors. In terms of introducing the latest features, it is always ahead, and statistics clearly depict its reliability among internet users.

The reason for such massive popularity of the Chrome browser is its adaptability, sleek UI, a vast collection of web extensions, and its advanced features. Other than that, it also comes with many hidden features and tools to ease your work.

In this post, we will discuss how you can use the Google Chrome browser’s tools to enhance your work productivity.

Make Chrome better with Flags

Though Chrome is already an advanced web browser, you can make it even better by using the Flags. Chrome Flags are not part of the browser; they are actually the experimental features to squeeze more out of the Chrome. You can get access to many unique features by utilizing the best Chrome Flags. 

To use the Flags page, type chrome://flags in the address field of the browser and hit enter. The browser will navigate you to a secret Chrome page where you will find many experimental Flags like Quieter Notification, Password Import, Smooth Scrolling, Parallel Downloading, and many more.

To enable any of the Flags, you just have to expand the drop-down menu and choose Enabled.

Cast your Browser Window

Many of you might be using the Chromecast app or device to cast your phone content to your TV. Many modern TV comes with the inbuilt capability to launch the screen of other devices on the TV. If you want to present something from your Google Chrome desktop browser to a bigger screen, you need not require a projector. Google Chrome has a direct option to cast your browser window to a larger screen that supports in-built screencasting or Chromecast device. To cast a web page, open it in the Chrome browser, right-click on it and select the Cast option.

Alternatively, you can also choose the Cast option from settings.

Control YouTube from any Tab

If you love listening to YouTube music while working on Chrome, you don’t need to switch to the YouTube tab repeatedly to control it. Chrome browser allows you to control YouTube from any tab you are working on. When you start playing anything on YouTube, you will find a music note icon that appears on the browser menu at the top-right.

When you click on this icon, you will get the option to pause the currently playing video, play the next video of the playlist, or playback the previous one again. Further, you can also enter the picture-in-picture mode to display the YouTube video’s small screen on top of your current screen. 

Use Omnibox to Perform Quick Tasks

If you want to maintain your workflow, the Chrome search box, also known as Omnibox, can be used to perform several tasks, for example, performing calculations, conversions, and answering the basic question.

Use Omnibox to search inside any Website

If you are using Google Chrome, you don’t need to visit any site and perform any search inside it. You can do that without visiting the website. Type the website URL on which you want to complete the internal search—for example, Youtube.com. After entering the URL, press the Tab key on your keyboard.

You can now search for anything on Youtube.com without actually visiting it.

Perform a Quick Google Search 

While browsing any website, if you find any word or phrase for which you need to perform a Google search, you can directly do that without typing that word or phrase. Just select the word or phrase, right-click, and choose “Search Google for..“

If you efficiently use it, you can save a lot of time.

Relaunch an Accidentally Closed tab

On the Chrome browser, if you have accidentally closed any tab, you can reopen it quickly. Right-click on the menu bar, and choose Reopen closed tab from the menu. It will open all the recently closed tabs. Remember to right-click on the menu bar and not on any opened tab.

Pin Tabs

It is possible that you might be working with a lot of tabs opened in the Chrome Browser. To avoid any loss because of an accidental crash, you can consider pinning the important tabs so that they will automatically open when you relaunch the Chrome. To pin any tab, right-click on it and choose the Pin option.

Open Image and Play Video/Audio

If your media player got crashed while you want to play any audio or video urgently, Chrome could be your savior. Just drag and drop any media file, and Chrome browser would act as a player. Similarly, it can also open the image of any format.

Utilize Chrome Task Manager

Just like any Operating System, the Chrome desktop browser also comes with a built-in task manager. You can use it to monitor and control all the processes running on your browser. To launch Chrome Task Manager, click on the three-dots at the top-right corner, hover over More tools, and select Task Manager.

The Task Manager would display how many tabs, extensions, plugins are opened and how many resources they are eating up. You can stop or close the process, which is unnecessarily utilizing the resources. 

Use Chrome Antimalware to Detect Virus

Google Chrome also comes with an in-built malware detecting tool that can scan your whole system then catch and report the malicious file and apps that are troubling the browser or system. Navigate to Settings -> Advanced -> Reset and clean up. Next, click on Clean up computer.

If you are facing any trouble, you can also Reset the browser.

Final Words

Today, Chrome is not just a tool for browsing websites or web pages. With the advanced features it is providing, it has become a productivity-enhancing tool. By applying the features or tools listed in this post, you can fully utilize the Chrome browser’s capability and be sure to speed up your workflow.