CHROME
32 10 - 23 July 2019
Customise Chrome’s
appearance
Chromeisn’t the mostexciting
browser tolookat, which iswhy we
sooften recommendextensionsthat
giveits newtabsa facelift. Thankfully,
Googlerecentlyupdated Chrome’s
developer-focused Canaryversion with
a couple offlagsthatlet you adda bit of
colourtoyournewtabs. You can also
tweak the browser’s overall theme.
TobrightenupChrome,visit
chrome://flags/#chrome-colors
andset the flagtoEnabled.Next
enablechrome://flags/#ntp-
customization-menu-v2. Restart
Chrome,thenopena newtab and
you’ll see the Customiseoptionin
the bottom-rightcorner. Withthese
flagsenabled,it’s a lot easier toselect
anattractivenewbackgroundthat
suits yourtastes.
Haveyou everstumbled acrossa website thatdidn’t
lookorfeelright? BeforeGooglereleasedits
Suspicious SiteReporterextension (bit.ly/
ssreport47 9 ), youronlyoptions weretobackawayor
continueandrisk a malware infection,orworse.
Nowwhenever you findyourself ona suspicious
site, you can get Googleonthe casestraightaway.
The newtoollinkstoGoogle’s SafeBrowsingservice
(safebrowsing.google.com), which warns you whena
sitecontainspotential phishingscams ormalware.
Click the extension’s toolbar buttonandthe
reporterautomatically fills indetailsofthe siteyou’re
on, suchasits URL andIPaddress, andtakes a
screenshot(if you allowit). You can includethe
referrerchain – if you clickeda linkfromanothersite
toarriveatthisone,for example. Google’s tooliseven
smart enoughtorecognisesuspicious activityonthe
referrer’s page andreportthattoo.
Compare prices across
websites
Shopping Helper(bit.ly/shop 479 ) is
anextension thatclaimstobe
“bringing fun backintoonline
shopping”. Thatmay bea bit ofan
exaggeration – inour experience, a
browser toolwon’t changewhether
you love
orhate
shopping- but it does
atleast help
you lookafter
the pennies,
andsaves
you having
toswitch
between
dozensof
opentabs
when
searching for the bestdeal.
You can think ofShopping Helper
asthe extension equivalentof
GoogleShopping.Click the
browser’s toolbar buttonandsearch
for a specificitem. Whenyou find
whatyou want, clicktocheck the
pricesatvarious online stores.
We’dliketosee the toolintegrate
with the productpagesonwebsites,
but if it helpsussavemoney,we’re
not complaining.
StopYouTube checkingup
onyou
Althoughweunderstandwhystreaming
servicessuchasYouTubeandNetflix
display a ‘continue watching’ prompt
after a periodofinactivity, it’s still
annoyingandcan break your
immersioninthe videoyou’reviewing.
The creator ofYouTubeUninterrupted
(bit.ly/yt479) knows exactly howyou
feel. Asthe namesuggests,this
extension,which can alsobefound on
GitHub(bit.ly/ytg 479 ), performsa
singletask:it stops YouTubepausing
videos after a set periodoftimeand
blocksthatinfuriating ‘continue
watching?’pop-up.
The developer suggests thisextension
reallycomes intoits own whenyou’re
listening tomusic playlists,andwe’re
inclinedtoagree,but it alsomakes
binge-watching a seriesofYouTube
videos a more immersiveexperience.Best New Browser Tools
Report suspicious websites to Google