Google Chrome is a desktop web browser for visiting websites and running web applications on Windows, Mac and Linux. Its tabbed interface keeps several pages open together, while a combined address and search field provides a single place to enter a destination or look for information. Saved form details and site shortcuts handle recurring tasks within the browser.
Omnibox
Chrome calls its combined address and search field the Omnibox. Entering a website address takes you to that site; entering a query starts a search. Suggestions can also show answers directly in the field, including translations and information about public figures, so some queries can be answered without opening a results page.
The Omnibox also connects searching with the pages already open. When a matching website is in another tab, the “Switch to tab” control takes you to it.
For sites you return to regularly, Google Chrome lets you create and manage shortcuts on the new-tab page and choose a photo for its background.
Password generation and autofill
When creating an account, Chrome can suggest a generated password and save it for the next sign-in. The password manager supplies that saved credential when you return to the site. With information saved to your Google account, passwords can also be available when you move between a laptop and a phone.
Autofill extends saved information to addresses and credit-card details. Instead of re-entering those details into each supported form, you can have Chrome populate the relevant fields. The browser toolbar provides access to the saved information.
Site filtering
Google Chrome filters advertisements on sites with persistent abusive experiences. These include deceptive controls such as a video play button that starts an unwanted download or a close button that opens a pop-up. On affected sites, Chrome removes all advertisements; this filtering targets abusive sites rather than removing every advertisement across the web. The filtering control is available in Chrome Settings.
Separate warnings address mobile subscription pages that fail to make charges clear. A desktop visitor can encounter these warnings too: they concern the page’s billing flow, rather than the device displaying it. Before entering a flagged page, the browser offers a choice to continue or go back. The warning draws attention to unclear subscription information before the user supplies a phone number or enters the service.
Site isolation
Chrome separates documents from different sites into different rendering processes. This also applies when one page embeds a frame from another site, so a single tab can involve more than one process. The operating system’s process boundaries help keep another site’s data out of the process running a potentially hostile page, reducing the data exposed to certain attacks. Maintaining those separate processes uses additional memory.
