Walker News » Browser

Google Chrome 0.4.154.25 Changelog

Walker — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:58:18 +0000

Suppose the GoogleUpdate.exe is not terminated or restricted by firewall rules, it will automatically update Google software when there is latest release posted to Google file servers.

As Google Chrome is part of the Google software, the auto-updater has already updated my Chrome browser to the latest beta version 0.4.154.25.

For the sake of performance and security, it’s recommended to be updated as soon as a latest (beta) release is available for general public.

If the Google auto-updater is not working, you might manually trigger the auto-update process, i.e. click the wrench (spanner) icon (tooltip description as Customize and Control Google Chrome), select About Google Chrome to bring up About dialog box and click Update Now button:

Google Chrome version 0.4.154.25 Changelog/Release Notes

According to Mark Larson (Google Chrome Program Manager), Google Chrome 0.4.154.25 includes these items:

1) Bookmark Manager allows users export or import bookmark, search bookmarks, create folders, and drag and drop bookmarks to new locations. The keyboard shortcut to access Bookmark Manager is CTRL+SHIFT+B.

2) The Privacy section in Google Chrome Options dialog box (Under the Hood tab) groups all the configuration options for features that might send data to (Google) web services.

3) You may or may not notice that the earlier beta version creates one “constrained” window for each pop-up and minimize it to the bottom right corner. As with version 0.4.154.25, there is a small notification in the corner that shows the number of blocked pop-ups, along with options to allow a specific pop-up that you think is important/useful.

4) Fix a security threat, where the downloaded HTML files being able to read other files on client computer and send them to attacker. The corrected codes prevent local files from connecting to the network with XMLHttpRequest() and prompt end-user to confirm a download of HTML file.

5) Fix some bugs found in major components, e.g. Gears is updated to version 0.5.4.0 (from 0.4.24.0) and V8 (JavaScript engine) is updated to 0.3.9.2 (from 0.3.5.0).

Google Chrome Memory Usage Is Better Than IE7 And Firefox

Walker — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:26:04 +0000

Google Chrome is not only efficient in handling flash video cache but is also good in memory utilization.

If your system often runs out of free memory or you are habitually open many web links in new tabbed browser window (not bother to read and close it before open another URL in the current page, like a typical me), do consider to browse happily with Google Chrome. It’s really worth to try, but no refund if you’re not happy with it (as it’s absolutely free of charge)!

To examine CPU and memory utilization of active web browsers, use the Google Chrome Task Manager or Google Chrome memory diagnostic page.

To access the browser’s Task Manager, right click on Google Chrome title bar or the task bar icon and select Task Manager option from the right-click menu.

To access the memory diagnostic page, type about:memory in Google Chrome Address bar and press ENTER.

Google Chrome Task Manager only reports processes related to Google Chrome itself. The memory diagnostic, however, provides summary of memory usage of all active web browsers.

While this following screenshot was taken, there are two Google Chrome open with a total of 52 tabbed windows (i.e. 52 web pages; each tabbed window = 1 web page), three IE 7 with a total of 8 tabbed windows, and one Firefox 3 with a total of 6 tabbed windows:

^{Google Chrome memory utilization is more efficient than IE 7 and Firefox 3.x}

Although not all three active browsers are opening the same web pages, all of them have been running more than 24 hours and used to browse all type of web pages.

According to tooltips, the Private Memory described as resident memory that is not shared with any other process and is the best indicator of browser memory resource usage.

Now, considering the number of pages open in respective web browsers, and the belief of memory usage reported by Google Chrome memory diagnostic page is without bias (i.e. the about:memory), do you agree that Google Chrome is more efficient in utilizing the memory (and thus suggest Google Chrome has better performance than IE 7 and Firefox 3.x)? Have you says, please.

How Easy To Access Web Search Engine In Google Chrome

Walker — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:11:07 +0000

No one will be happier if there are no web search engines available to locate pieces of information from billions of web pages virtually stored in World Wide Web.

Thus, Google Chrome user interface presents easier way to access a user’s default Web search engine, be it Google Search, Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo! Search, Wikia Search, etc.

Access web search engine in Google Chrome Address bar

This first method is the simplest and fastest way to access user’s default Web search engine:

While Google Chrome window is active, press CTRL+T (to open a tabbed window) OR CTRL+D (to set input cursor to Address bar or to highlight text in Address bar) AND type your search term (in Address bar, of course) follow by pressing ENTER key.

In this way, you can access the default Web search engine with one hot key (CTRL+D or CTRL+T, depend on you expectation) and start typing the keywords followed by ENTER key.

^{Access to web search engine service is easy in Google Chrome.}

If the default Web search engine is set to Google Search, all Google Search features are available in Google Chrome Address bar, e.g. typing either one of these double-quoted search terms (without including the double-quotation mark) in Address bar: “pi” (reference tool), “3ft in m” (calculator / converter), “time london” (local time), “define:addict” (dictionary), etc.

Access web search engine with the highlighted keywords

This second method is not faster than the first, but it’s faster and convenient in its nature. For example, if you would like to search the web for this “friendly” botanical name “Centella asiatica” or a even “weird” scientific name “Callorhinchus milii”, do you think it’s easier to type the keywords manually or to copy and paste?

If the keyword is found on a web page open in Google Chrome, you can easily find out more relevant online information of this keyword, by just highlighting the text and right click, there is a Search For ““ option in the Context menu (i.e. no need to go through extra steps – copy & paste).

How to set default web search engine in Google Chrome?

To configure the default search engine used by Google Chrome, click the spanner button (tooltips as Customize and Control Google Chrome) on top-right corner and select Options from the drop down menu.

In the Google Chrome Options dialog box, go to Basic tab (default tab shown), select your favourite web search engine as the default of Google Chrome.

If your favourite is not there, click Manage button to add in more web search engines to the list, or select one from the list and click Make Default.

An additional note, Google Chrome is smart as it can detect any web search services that you’ve used in a web page and automatically add them to the list.

For example, if you’ve used the Google Custom Search box in this page, WalkerNews.net is automatically included in Google Chrome Search Engines list:

^{Google Chrome automatically detects web search services on a page and automatically add it to the list.}

So, you might no need to worry about the Add button. In most cases, just select the listed search engines and set it as default by pressing Make Default button.

How To Configure Or Disable Google Chrome Proxy Server Settings Independently?

Walker — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:46:52 +0000

Thanks God, the free public WIFI is still working in office. So, I’m happily using this free channel to stay connected with the World Wide Web, watching YouTube and other leisure browsing activities as much as I wish to have, but without worry of being “top surfer” in the weekly proxy server usage report (simply because I don’t have to go through corporate proxy server to surf Internet :-p).

Because of the insecure wireless network (thus I can connect to it so easily), I use IE7 to login to websites that require user authentication (e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, etc) via corporate proxy server.

For all other sites that not require user login (e.g. Google News, blogs, Meta Cafe, forum, etc), I would like to use Firefox or Google Chrome to directly access Internet via the insecure, free public WIFI.

However, Google Chrome doesn’t provide an user interface (UI) to enable or disable proxy server settings. Indeed, Google Chrome is sharing Internet Properties settings (inetcpl.cpl, a Control Panel item that appears as Internet Options) with Internet Explorer.

I.e. Google Chrome uses proxy server if Internet Explorer is using proxy server; both IE and Google Chrome is sharing the same proxy server settings. If I disable proxy server in Internet Properties, I can’t use IE7 to read Gmail via proxy server too.

So, how to force Google Chrome to ignore proxy server settings defined for IE7?

How to enable or disable proxy server settings for Google Chrome without affecting IE7?

I thought I would have to download Google Chrome source code and customize it :-p. Luckily, there is an ready-made option switch called --proxy-server to define proxy server independently for Google Chrome, i.e. –proxy-server overwrites Google Chrome default behaviour of sharing proxy server settings with Internet Explorer.

So, I right click the Google Chrome shortcut and add --proxy-server= to chrome.exe in order to forcibly disable Google Chrome proxy server settings, while still allows Internet Explorer 7 to surf Net via corporate proxy server:

^{Independent Google Chrome proxy server setting.}

With reference:
Google Chrome Help – Independent Proxy Settings for Chrome
Google Chrome Command Line Switches.

How To Find and Copy SWF Or JPG File From Google Chrome Cache Folder?

Walker — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:54:47 +0000

To view Google Chrome cache folder content in the web browser itself, just type about:cache in Address bar and press ENTER key.

Then, you will see a list of HTML links “written” on a canvas, each of the links represent a file cached by Google Chrome. These links, however, do not prompt you to Open or Save the target cached file.

Instead, the link redirects you to a page of cache file “properties”, which includes the HTTP headers value (Content-Type, ETag, Server, Content-Length, etc) and the raw content of the cache file that appears in hexadecimal values (as if the cache is viewed in a hex editor, such as the Linux OD command).

Like it or not, this about:cache is not useful or friendly for average users who intended to retrieve or copy a cache file (e.g. a SWF, MP3, etc played in Google Chrome; a picture or icon loaded in web page, etc).

For example, click this link to watch a SWF file created to show VSS function in Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

After playback completes and says that you would like to keep a copy of the SWF file for offline reference, how could you retrieve and copy the SWF file in Google Chrome cache folder?

First method, you could proceed to Google Chrome cache folder and try with the biggest cache file. I’ve to admit, this method is painful and not efficient.

How to easily retrieve and copy the Google Chrome cache file?

The second method, indeed a wiser method, is to download and use ChromeCacheView program!

ChromeCacheView is another tiny, standalone freeware developed by Nirsofer, allows Google Chrome users to have a more friendly report of about:cache!

The most important feature of ChromeCacheView is allow users to save the selected cache file(s) to backup folder for “safekeeping”, by just clicking File menu follow by “Copy Selected Cache File To…” option (or just press F4 hotkey after highlighting the selected cache files).

[ Downlaod ChromeCacheView from Nirsofer's official site ]

VideoCacheView: Save Flash Video From Web Browser Cache Folder

Walker — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:00:05 +0000

Personally, I do not like to install a program that perform a simply task, to prevent Windows getting bulkier, slower or crash (if there are DLL/setting/Registry conflicts).

If possible, I try to look for an alternative program that is freeware, greenware (without adware), standalone program that not require installation (meaning that the program can be double clicked to run from where it’s kept, even if it is save in an USB drive).

Otherwise, I try to look for manual way to perform that simple task. For example, I use the online YouTube downloader written by my friend to directly download YouTube video (when the Internet connection is not stable), or manually retrieve flash video from browser cache folder to share with mom who is only keen on TV set.

So, the VideoCacheView of NirSofer is definitely my favourite!

VideoCacheView is a freeware, greenware (no adware, at least my Kaspersky IS 7 does not say anything), tiny (less 60KB), standalone application that able to retrieve and save the videos cached by most major web browsers!

VideoCacheView can save a copy of video once the video playback is completed. If you start copying the video while it is playing, the copied file is likely corrupted or the video playback is shorter than original.

To copy the cached video file, just right-click on the selected items and press F7 or click “Copy Selected Files To…”. For those videos that are not cached (In Cache = No), right click the item and press F8 (Open Download URL In Browser) or CTRL+U (Copy Download URL) and paste it to download manager.

^{VideoCacheView - Easily extract and save a copy of video from browser cache folder.}

VideoCacheView is working fine on my Windows Vista SP1 with UAC turned on. The last version 1.25 supports most major web browsers, which include Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

You could also manually define cache folder location of Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome in “Advanced Options” menu. Other than flash video, VideoCacheView supports other common video type as well.

If you are good in Windows Shell Scripting or batch file, VideoCacheView supports command line option switches too!

Google Chrome Has More Efficient Flash Video Cache Technique Than IE7 and Firefox 3

Walker — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:54:35 +0000

First, I would like to say thank you to Nirsofer, a developer of many useful, standalone freeware that I really like to keep along in USB thumb drive.

I left a comment on his ChromeCacheView freeware, suggested him to include flash video cache location used by Google Chrome.

However, his reply really surprise my earlier finding – I said Google Chrome cache folder is defensive! But, it’s not true (I’m sorry).

Indeed, now I believe Google Chrome has more efficient Flash video cache technique than Internet Explorer and Firefox.

After using VideoCacheView (another great standalone freeware of Nirsofer) and verification on the Windows Vista directories, I found that Google Chrome doesn’t have double cache situation as in IE 7 and Firefox 3.

Google Chrome doesn’t cache the flash video, but rely on flash player plugin that automatically caching the flash video in Windows temp folder of user account, with file name appears in flaxxxx.tmp pattern (where xxxx is alpha-numeric).

With IE 7 and Firefox 3 running on Windows Vista Ultimate machine, however, these two web browsers are actually perform double cache!

While the flash player plugin cache a copy in Windows temp folder of user account (Firefox 3) or top-level Low integrity folder (IE 7 running in Protected Mode in Windows Vista), the web browser also keep a copy of the flash video in their legacy TIF folder (a.k.a. Temporarily Internet Files folder or cache folder).

Obviously, IE7 and Firefox 3 take 2x disk space to play a flash video. If the flash video size is 100MB, the IE7 or Firefox 3 takes 200MB of disk space for caching.

Of course, the 200MB used disk space is set to free upon caching period expired, web browser is closed, or user forcibly empties the cache. However, that additional 100MB of I/O could be expensive to CPU utilization and disk defragmentation problem, especially when user actively watching several lengthy flash videos hosted at YouTube, MetaCafe, FLURL, etc.

Although I’ve been actively using Google Chrome for my web activities, I would like to remind myself (and my friends, and you) to watch YouTube / flash movie with Google Chrome (at least for the time being)!