10 tips for Chrome on Ubuntu Linux

Chrome is getting more and more popular and even if it doesn't have all the features and extensions like Firefox It is very fast, slim and simple. Google made it open source (Chromium) and it is avalaible for Windows, Mac and Linux.

(Yep both the Pagerank extensions currently doesn't works)

Now some useful customization to make Chrome better, in particular on Linux.

Install it via PPA

Chromium executable binaries are directly avalaible for Linux in DEB format, but if you use Ubuntu is better to install it via PPA. So you'll keep Chromium updated easly.
Just add to the package manager this repository:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Then import the key:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xfbef0d696de1c72ba5a835fe5a9bf3bb4e5e17b5

Use gtk theme

The default theme is nice and it could became even nicer enabling the gtk option. The gtk icons and colors will be inheredited and it will look like more integrated with the rest of the system.

Security & Privacy

Check in the options "save cookies only from visited sites".

Smoothscroll

If you enable this extension the scrolling will be more smooth. [Download]

chromeTouch

This is another extension that improves the scrolling. On Firefox if you do the middle button click you can move quickly in the page, this is different, it is "kinetic scrolling" (like on iPhone) but the result is quite similar. My advice is to enable "Full dragging" and then to use shift+selection to select the text. [Download]

Bubble Translate

It is very useful to translate some paragraphs directly on the page. It could be in conflict with the extension above so check the shortcuts.

AdBlock+

It look like the NoScript plugin for Firefox to block javascript and advertising from unknown site, but it is still far from it. [Download]

Control the extensions

Type chrome://extensions/ and manage them. You don't need to restart the browser just reload the page if you want to see the changes.

Shortcuts

You can zoom with ctrl+wheel and use the middle click on a tab to close it without looking for the cross.

Inspector

It is in some way similar to the Firebug plugin for Firefox, it permit you to debug the web pages.