Say what you want about the famous Google Chrome browser: that it takes a serious toll on your computer’s resources, that it drains the battery too fast, and so on. But you can never deny its amazing powers when it comes to useful features.
Google Chrome remains the most popular web browser, which means that it has to have some interesting tricks up its sleeves. In other words, popularity is rarely a synonym for quality, but surely there are some strong arguments why you should at least give Chrome a chance.
Everybody is well aware of classic features for browsers, such as bookmarking pages or checking the history once in a while to see how wild your mind can go after you exaggerate with the drinks. But today, we want to talk about some special and exciting features that Google Chrome has and that you probably didn’t know about.
Change the downloads destination
When you download something from the internet, whether it’s a song, video, or game, those files will be stored in your Downloads folder by default. However, not everyone is a fan of this scheme, which is why the guys from Google thought that it was a good idea to give them the chance to change the default destination of the downloaded files.
To do so, head over to the settings menu and hit the ‘Downloads’ tab. From that point, you’ll find the ‘Location’ section, and you must hit the ‘Change’ function. From that point, you’ll simply have to select the desired folder from your PC so that Google Chrome will know where to put your downloaded files. Easy as a walk in the park!
Choose different languages
Did you know that Google Chrome can allow you to change the language you prefer for the UI, as well as for the translation function? Let’s say you navigate to a website that presents its stuff in Japanese. You might not know the language, which is why Google Chrome can translate the whole webpage into English for you or in any other language. All you need to do is right-click anywhere on the webpage and hit the ‘Translate’ function.
To select different languages, you need to head over to the settings menu and in the ‘Languages’ section. From that point, everything is intuitive and easy.
Improve the hardware
Did you know that Google Chrome can allow you to accelerate the hardware of your PC and tweak the proxy settings as well? To do so, you need to head over to the system option, which is located in the Advanced settings. Everybody knows that Chrome is, by default, not too friendly with the computer’s resources, but improvements can still be made. The browser will be able to work much smoother after you use the system option. Pages will load significantly faster, which is great since time is a luxury for everyone these days.
Developer Tools
If you’re a web designer, a programmer, or even if you wish to become one and have some knowledge in such fields, it’s important to keep in mind that Google Chrome has also put the Developer Tools (aka DevTools) at your disposal. This advanced feature allows you to easily see the programming code of a webpage, identify issues in such a code, check out HTTP requests and responses, and so on.
You shouldn’t be intimidated by the advanced features of Google Chrome that we’ve spoken about in this article. Anybody can use them to their advantage as long as they pay a little attention.
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.
