Choosing a web browser Which browser is better? Edge vs. Chrome vs. Opera vs. Firefox What is the best browser? Edge vs. Chrome vs. Opera vs. Firefox The browser you are using right now may not be the best for you. The browser arena changes so frequently that your conclusions from comparisons made last year may be dead wrong this year. Read More They all have pros and cons, and if you're anything like me, you jump between them from time to time just because you can. But there's no question about it:a browser is far away more popular than the others (with a 58 percent desktop market share), and that browser is Chrome.
There are plenty of reasons to love Chrome, and I've highlighted a few of them in our Chrome vs. Firefox Chrome vs. Firefox in 2016:Which Browser is Right for You? Chrome vs. Firefox in 2016:Which Browser is Right for You? I want to explore why people might prefer one over the other, and hopefully those reasons will shed some light on features and aspects you might not have considered before. Read More . And yes, user profiles are useful even when you're the only one using your computer.
The user profile feature is not new. First released in Chrome 16, back in late 2011, we've been able to take advantage of them for a while, however I must admit I never really gave them a try until earlier this year. And boy, have I been missing out!
A Chrome User Profile allows you to keep all your browser details as a separate unit:apps, extensions, settings, browsing history, bookmarks, saved passwords, themes, and open tabs. Profiles launch as separate Chrome windows, with each window only using the details for its particular profile.
An added bonus is that user profiles are synced with Google servers. Any changes you make on one machine (for example, installing a new extension) will be applied everywhere else using Chrome as long as you use the same user profile.
This is also useful if you have a Chromebook How to Make Your Chromebook More Secure in 7 Easy Steps How to Make Your Chromebook More Secure in 7 Easy Steps You can easily claim that Chromebooks are the most secure laptops on the market. However, that doesn't mean you can't improve their security. Here are four ways to make your Chromebook even more secure. Read More Even with a Chromebook, user profiles stay in sync between your devices.
To switch between profiles, look at the top right of the Chrome window and you'll see a button in the title bar with the name of your current profile. Click to browse and switch to other profiles. (On Mac, you switch profiles by going to the People menu.)
Here's the aforementioned nifty trick: In Windows 10, if you created a desktop shortcut when creating a new profile, you can right-click and select Pin to Taskbar to add that specific profile to your taskbar. As you can see above, I use four separate profiles and each one is set individually.
To see how Chrome user profiles can make your life easier, here are some types of profiles I'm using right now (or have used in the past). You may be surprised by some of the benefits you can start realizing right away.
A long time ago, I used to designate Firefox as my “main” browser and Chrome as my “work” browser because I have a work-related extension just for Chrome. This worked fine, but I often lamented the fact that I couldn't use Chrome for anything other than work.
Now that I have a separate work profile, I can freely use Chrome for other things. But the biggest benefit is that I have become much more productive because the work profile has no distracting bookmarks or tabs. It helps me swipe into "work mode" significantly faster, too.
Since user profiles have their own unique bookmark collections, I've found separate profiles for different hobbies to be awesome. Gone are the days when I had thousands of bookmarks in Chrome , organized in a messy hierarchy of a hundred folders and subfolders.
Instead, I now have a blogging profile where I store blog-related bookmarks. I also have a main profile where I store bookmarks of personal interest, like reference articles or cooking recipes. If you're working on a long-term project (for example, a thesis paper), you could also use a separate profile to collect research bookmarks.
Bookmarks aren't the only unique aspect of each profile. In fact, each profile also maintains its own set of cookies. What is a cookie and what does it have to do with my privacy? [MakeUseOf Explains] What is a cookie and what does it have to do with my privacy? [MakeUseOf Explains] Most people know that there are cookies scattered all over the Internet, ready and willing to be devoured by whoever can find them first. Hope for? That can't be right. Yes, there are cookies... Read More For example, when you log into a forum and check "Remember me," a cookie is used to store your identity.
Now consider a site like Twitter. Imagine you have three accounts:one for work, one for your novel-writing pseudonym, and one for your game development shenanigans. Juggling all of this can be a pain. Not to mention all the other accounts associated with each effort (for example, Twitch, Facebook, GitHub, cloud storage, etc.).
By keeping the profiles separate, you can stay connected to all the relevant sites for effort. For example, your novel writing profile could be on Twitter, Goodreads, and Dropbox, while your game development profile could be on Twitter, GitHub, Twitch, and a different Dropbox account. Switching is as simple as launching the other profile.
A travel profile is useful in two ways:first, you can store travel-related bookmarks without cluttering up your other profiles, and second, you can get cheaper plane tickets.
When you buy tickets online, sites sometimes use cookies to track whether you've seen a flight before, and then increase prices when you come back later. 5 Rules for finding cheap airline tickets. 5 Rules for finding cheap airline tickets. Who says it? can't fly for cheap? Sometimes it comes down to whether or not you click the right links, search for the right terms, or choose the right times to search the web. Read more.
You can also avoid this by using private browsing mode, but I prefer the trip profile method because of the bookmark collection bonus.
If you've ever felt like Chrome has slowed down over time, a likely culprit is a large number of installed extensions. Each extension needs a bit of CPU and RAM to work properly, some more than others. If you have too many installed at once, they can affect browser performance 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Install Many Browser Extensions [Opinion] 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Install Many Browser Extensions [Opinion] We all love our browsers , and we all love the extensions you can install with them. We love browser extensions because they allow us to do what we want our browser to do with it... Read More .
Remember that each Chrome profile has its own set of extensions installed. This helps avoid clutter and overload by making sure that each profile only has the extensions necessary for that context.
An example would be the StayFocusd website blocker extension:maybe you only need it when you're working, so just keep it in your work profile. Similarly, you may want to keep shopping-related extensions like CamelCamelCamel and ReviewMeta in a shopping profile.
After learning about user profiles (and getting a new Chromebook), I appreciate Chrome a lot more. The idea may seem insignificant at first, but it really pays off on a day-to-day basis.
Other things I like about Chrome:Built-in Task Manager Why Everyone Needs to Use Chrome's Best Feature Why Everyone Needs to Use Chrome's Best Feature Chrome has a lot of useful features, but one stands out as being so useful that all The person must learn to use and take advantage of it. Read More your life easier. Read More Incognito mode in Chrome:What's the difference? Guest Mode vs. Incognito Mode in Chrome:What's the Difference? Chrome offers incognito mode and guest mode for private browsing. While they are similar, a few key differences separate them. Here's when to use which. Read more . Keep in mind that Chrome tends to use more CPU than other browsers, even right away, so check out these tips to reduce Chrome CPU usage. &Battery Drain Is Chrome using too much CPU and draining your battery? There may be a way to reduce its impact. Read more.
Will you use Chrome user profiles now? If you already do, how do you use them? What profiles have you configured? Let us know in a comment below!
