I’ve been using Google Chrome since the day it came out and to tell you it has simplified my browsing habits would be an understatement. Here are few features I can’t live without:1. I tend to visit certain sites few times a day. Domaining.com , Moniker , CNN , and a couple of others. Since these are the more frequent sites I visit, when I enter the first letter, Google Chrome automatically picks up the most likely domain I would type. For example, to visit Domaining.com all I need to do is type D and enter. To visit Moniker.com it is a M and enter. This saves me lots of typing and clicking to get to the sites I like most.
The second feature I can’t live without is the application view. With Google Chrome you can you can create a desktop shortcut to a site you tend to stay on a lot and when you use that shortcut, A browser window will open up but without the regular browser navigation stuff you usually use, giving you an application type view of the page you are on. I only have two such shortcuts which I leave open all day long. The first one is Facebook and the second is Flowchart.com , one of our sites.
The third feature I like, from domaining point of view, is the combination of the URL bar with the navigation bar. In the URL bar, type a keyword and hit enter and it does a search on Google for the keyword. This feature also creates “traffic leakage” towards domain, that is, if you have already visited a site and later use the navigation bar to do a search, where the first few letters are similar to the site you have visited previously, it will take you to the site rather then to Google. For example, say you have visited Flowchart.com and later tried to conduct a search for “Flow”. You type “Flow” into the navigation bar and click enter and the results? You will end up on Flowchart.com.
And lastly, the fourt feature I like is the ability ty search a site directly from the navigation bar. For example, if I wish to conduct a search for “Mumbai” on CNN I can type in the navigation bar “CNN.COM MUMBAI” and it browser will show me the CNN site with results for “Mumbai”.
What are your favorite navigation features in your favorite browsers, stuff you just can’t live without? And if you were to design the ultimate browser, how would it look like?
Source: Posted on TheConceptualist by Sahar Sarid -- Reprinted with permission -- December 4, 2008