Each week we will share interesting articles we have collected – news, software updates, extensions, themes – anything. If you saw something cool, Chrome cover related think we should send us a tip! Without further ado, in Volume 1 of Chrome Corner!

Hey, Big Daddy! Skin Chrome with two awesome Bioshock 2 Themes!

Extensions Gallery hits the 1K mark!
Customizers Browser: Rejoice! While it has been opened recently, the developers are obviously much more enthusiastic about creating extensions to Google Chrome, now that the official has arrived. Sebastian went through the available options and chose 10 that they have and more are arriving every day.

While Chrome gallery will not be updated in the repository of add-ons in the short term, is a sign of good things to come.

Goo.gl link shortening extensions hit the gallery
When Google recently announced that they were launching a service to address short, it was logical that developers do not waste time in creating forms for users to use it. I saw three extensions chromium in the Gallery, and commentators in the post contributed a bookmarklet that lets shorten Goo.gl links from any browser.

Google Chrome is now the third most popular browser
Well, that did not take long. From a new release in December 2008 for the number three slot in the graphical browser, behind only Internet Explorer and Firefox. With the version 4 beta of Google Chrome for Mac and Linux Chrome Safari jumped this month. Involvement of 4.4% chromium, was up almost half a point since November 2009.

Chromium and iron base SRWare ChromePlus keep puffing
The privacy of browser mentality iron released a beta version based on chromium 4 recently, and ChromePlus updated to version 1.3.3. Both songs are intended to maintain communication with Google at a minimum (by doing things like removing the unique identifier, etc.), and adds mouse gestures built ChromePlus, IETab and integration with various download managers.

Chrome announcement powered by Rube Goldberg device
Have you seen one? He was one of last week most talked about videos on Twitter, and pretty damn slick. Check it out below and share your thoughts in the comments!

Chrome Features

1 – Task Manager for Websites

Inside Google Chrome, press Shift+Escape and it will open up a ‘task manager’ with a list of all websites currently open inside Chrome.

This will give you an idea about how much physical memory is consumed by different websites and if any particular page is causing your system to crawl, you can do an “end process” to close that tab directly from Task Manager.

2 – Visual Browser History

This is a feature Chrome borrowed from Google Desktop / Google Web History. Type Ctrl+H to open your browser history and search for a term. In addition to matching pages, Google Chrome will also show you a small thumbnail image of that web pages in the history results. No need for any extensions.

3 – Super Clean Contextual Menus

I simply love this. You right click an hyperlink on a web page and you get only five relevant options to deal with that link. The number comes down to four when you right click any image in Chrome. There’s way too much clutter in Firefox menus.

4 – Search Websites from Address Bar

If you visit a website that includes site search (for instance: search.labnol.org) – Chrome will automatically recognize and add that search engine for you so the next time you can perform a search on that site via the Chrome address bar itself.

5 – See Memory used by Other Browsers

Open a new tab inside Chrome browser and type “about:memory” (without quotes) – somewhere at the top, you’ll see a list of browser processes that are currently running on your system and the amount of memory they are using.

6 – Reopen Mistakenly Closed Tabs

To re-open a closed tab in Google Chrome, just hit Ctrl+T and you’ll see an option that says “Recently closed tabs” – click the one you closed by accident.

7 – Launch Websites from Start Menu/Quick Launch Bar

Desktop shortcuts for web pages are possible with other browsers as well but Google Chrome make the whole flow very easy. Open any site and choose “Create application shortcut” from the File menu.

This will essentially create a desktop shortcut that looks something like this:

C:\Users\labnol\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
–app=http://www.labnol.org/

Clicking the shortcut will launch that web page in a new instance of Chrome that may not contain have any more new tabs.

1. Task Manager for Websites
While you are inside Google Chrome, press Shift+Escape and it will open up a ‘task manager’ with a list of all websites currently open inside Chrome.

This will give you an idea about how much physical memory is consumed by different websites and if any particular page is causing your system to crawl, you can do an “end process” to close that tab directly from Task Manager.

2. Visual Browser History
This is a feature Chrome borrowed from Google Desktop / Google Web History. Type Ctrl+H to open your browser history and search for a term.

In addition to matching pages, Google Chrome will also show you a small thumbnail image of that web pages in the history results. No need for any extensions.

3. Super Clean Contextual Menus
I simply love this. You right click an hyperlink on a web page and you get only five relevant options to deal with that link.

The number comes down to four when you right click any image in Chrome. There’s way too much clutter in Firefox menus.

4. Search Your Favorite Websites from the Address Bar
This is brilliant. If you visit a website that includes site search (for instance: search.labnol.org) – Chrome will automatically recognize and add that search engine for you so the next time you can perform a search on that site via the Chrome address bar itself.

To see this in action, open cnn.com or search.labnol.org in your Chrome browser and then type cnn.com followed by the tab key to search CNN. Simple.

5. See Memory Used by Different Browsers
Open a new tab inside Chrome browser and type “about:memory” (without quotes) – somewhere at the top,

you’ll see a list of browser processes that are currently running on your system and the amount of memory they are using.

6. Reopen Website tabs that you closed by mistake
Firefox 3 has this “Undo Closed Tab” option in the menu while you can open closed tabs in Opera via the Ctrl+Z shortcut.

To re-open a closed tab in Google Chrome, just hit Ctrl+T and you’ll see an option that says “Recently closed tabs” – click the one you closed by accident.

7. Launch Websites from the Start Menu / Quick Launch Bar
Desktop shortcuts for web pages are possible with other browsers as well but Google Chrome make the whole flow very easy. Open any site and choose “Create application shortcut” from the File menu.

This will essentially create a desktop shortcut that looks something like this:

C:\Users\labnol\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
–app=http://www.labnol.org/

Clicking the shortcut will launch that web page in a new instance of Chrome that may not contain have any more new tabs.

Related Tutorial: How to Create User Profiles in Google Chrome

Chrome lets you move tabs around different windows but I didn’t find this feature very useful. I like the Firefox approach better where you can drag tabs onto the desktop and turn them into web shortcuts.

Overall, I am pretty impressed with Chrome but did miss support for extensions especially Customize Google. But Chrome may be a good thing if you are web publisher as it has no adblock plus – good for Google as well.