Culture

You’re already one of the thirty-seven per cent of people worldwide using Google Chrome to navigate our beloved web, right? So I don’t have to begin this by nagging you to use it? No? Still using Internet Explorer like a schmuck? Come on, even my Nana uses Chrome, and all she’s doing is playing mahjong and swooning over pictures of Winston Peters. Get your shit together, download Chrome, and say “smell ya later” to the standard browsing experience. Here’s some things you can do with it:

Game on. No Smartphone Required.

When you should be panicking about an essay, panicking about your plants and zombies seems like a much more attractive option. If you don’t have a smartphone but want to get in on some of that sweet fruit ninja action, rejoice! You can play it right from your browser. Cut the Rope, Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies are all there. Even indie RPG Bastion (with its awesome soundtrack) is available on Chrome. Have at it.

Bend it to your will.

Don’t surf the web like a chump – use Chrome extensions to make the web look and feel exactly as you’d like it. Strip out the ads with AdBlock; create an awesome new tab page with Awesome New Tab Page (a good option to replace iGoogle, which will be joining the Google Grave in November); make Reddit your bitch with Reddit Enhancement Suite; or change the colours of Facebook with Color Changer. Because blue is for sheep.

Study Smarter, Stupid.

There’s a lot you can do to make research easier with Chrome. First, install StayFocusd to reduce the amount of time you waste on Facebook … and YouTube, and Reddit, and Buzzfeed (wicked temptresses). Add in Google Dictionary to define any word with a double-click, and Grammarly Lite to check your grammar. TLDR is a neat extension that will give you a short summary of the page you’re looking at – great if you’re trying to decide if a source is relevant to your topic without reading the whole thing.