HubSpot Dev Team's Top Five Google Chrome Features

Chances are you don't spend much time thinking about your web browser. It's just there -- the tool you use to check your email, read the news and run your company.

Google is trying to change that. On Tuesday they launched a new web browser called Chrome. It plays the same role as Internet Explorer and Firefox, but it plays the role very differently.

How? Dan Abdinoor and other HubSpot developers have been using Chrome since it launched on Tuesday. They answered that question with a list of five features that set Chrome apart:

(1) Terrific Tabs --  Drag any tab off the bar to launch it in a new window. Drag and drop tabs between separate Chrome windows. External links open in a new tab directly to the right of the tab you're viewing instead of the right-most tab. Create an application shortcut from any tab, you'll get a shortcut icon and a clutter-free window each time you launch it. If a web page malfunctions it only crashes the tab, not the whole browser.

(2) Outstanding Omnibox (Address Bar) -- Use the Omnibox to go directly to a URL, or use it to guess the page you're looking for -- Google site suggest is built right in. If you want to search Google, just type a question mark before your keyword. Need to access a bookmark but don't want to dig through your folders? Just type a few characters of the bookmark name or URL, look for the star next to the page title that indicates a bookmark.

(3) Bookmarks Be Gone -- Keep your bookmarks out of sight. Unless you import them from another browser, Chrome will remove the bookmark bar. Just open a new blank tab and you'll see the bookmark bar at the top, on the right there's a list of recent bookmarks. You can also type part of a bookmark name or URL into the Omnibox to fetch it. To bookmark a page, click the star icon next to the Omnibox.

(4) Helpful History -- Open a new tab and you'll see tiles of your most visited websites. Click the full history link on the bottom to see your browsing by time and date. There's even a search box to find a site by any part of the name or URL.

(5) Useful Utilities -- Digging into the guts of a web application is not fun, but sometimes it is necessary and Chrome offers a whole suite of utilities. There's task manager that shows you what tabs are running and the resources consumed. Use Chrome's inspector tool to see page structure, javascript performance and make CSS changes on-the-fly. You can also launch a separate javascript debugger console for each tab. Even the ubiquitous "view source" feature is taken a step further by color coding markup and making URLs into links.

Chrome is a great new tool that will make you more productive. By itself it won't change your business, but it's part of a series of changes having a huge impact on your business. Just like Tivo, the iPod or caller id, Chrome makes it easier to find the content you want, and avoid annoying interruptions.

As a marketer, that means you need to do even more work to create great content and attract an audience.