Last Updated on October 5, 2022 by Mathew Diekhake
Google Chrome is now ten years old. Google has marked this anniversary with a huge release called Chrome 69. It has been a while since we have seen a Chrome release with as many features as this.
The one that everyone notices first is the new material design, or what people commonly refer to as the feature that makes the new Chrome now look rounded—from the curved address bar down to the rounded favicons that appear on the front page as suggested for webpages that you might want to load based on past experiences, known as shortcuts. You can also create custom shortcuts so the favicons for websites that you see are based on what you want to see rather than Google picking them based on what it knows is your most visited sites.
Chrome 69 comes with some other cool features, such as the chance to select custom picture backgrounds for new tab pages so you do not have to just look at the same old basic Chrome white background. This is a feature that is not enabled by default because it requires you to add the pictures that you want to see for the custom backgrounds, but it is there for when you want it.
There are other useful features, such as the built-in password manager that can autogenerate new passwords for websites and save them so you do not have to re-enter them, too. The Chrome password manager is not new, and neither is the option to save passwords, but automatically generating new passwords is usually functionality reserved for the websites that you are using and not something that a browser could control.
You will still find more goodies jampacked inside as well, like the revamped Omnibox that shows details when you start typing, a built-in ad blocker for blocking selected ads from sites that Google deems to be unnecessarily hindering people’s user experience online, Ease of Access now available on mobile, a simpler padlock for SSL that no longer feels the need to let you know if a site is secure or insecure in writing, plus quite a few other features as well.
How to Customize New Tab Page in Google Chrome
You can customize Chrome’s new tab page using the Add Shortcut button on the new tab page itself. Here is how to do that:
1. Start by opening a new tab page in Chrome.
2. Click on the Add Shortcut button on the new tab page.
3. Enter the name of the website and its URL in the available fields.
4. Now next to the Add Shortcut button will be the website shortcut. You can add as many of these shortcuts as you want. You can also use unique domains each time or unique URLs within one domain.
Since everything you do on the Web is done from a domain, you can customize your experience a good deal by adding these shortcuts. Some older versions of Chrome also included a link to the Chrome Web Store. It may be back again in the future. If you don’t see it, don’t try to downgrade, as browsers are not typically downgradable like operating systems are. Google wants you to use the most recent version of Chrome to ensure high levels of security.
In conclusion, that is how to customize Chrome’s new tab page.