10 Chrome address bar icons you need to know

These icons and their function can prevent your information from being stolen, help you access your favorite websites with a single click or watch YouTube videos without having to mess around on the page. web.

1. Safe Browsing Icon

Over the years, Google Chrome has experimented with a number of different icons to the left of URLs in the browser to determine how safe a site is to keep your Chrome browser secure.

Not all icons will stand the test of time, such as the green padlock or the white page icon, but keep an eye on the ones being used to make sure you're browsing. Internet securely.

The first is the gray padlock icon that you'll see to the left of this post's URL. Note that at the time of this writing, Google plans to update this icon to a new design.

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When a website has a security certificate from the domain hosting company and Google trusts that certificate, the site will show this gray padlock. You'll also notice the site uses HTTPS instead of HTTP, meaning it's secure.

The padlock icon suggests that on this particular site all your passwords or credit card information will be stored privately and securely. Clicking this icon will give you a snapshot of the certificate's validity, the number of cookies in use, and the site settings.

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You can even click on any one of these options to get more information.

2. Unsecured website icon

Sites that are not fully secure and still use HTTP are shown in a gray circle with an exclamation mark inside.

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This means that the site is not using a private connection because it does not have a secure certificate. But this icon is just a warning that the information you submit through the website may be seen or modified by others.

You could try removing the HTTP part of the URL and changing it to HTTPS to see if there is a more secure version of the site.

The last icon you'll see next to the URL is a triangle with an exclamation mark inside. It will even say "Not Secure" or "Dangerous" next to the triangle.

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You should avoid browsing these sites altogether if you see this icon. It could be a website with an expired security certificate or malicious code. Someone will certainly be able to see the personal information you submit through this website.

Dangerous websites will have a full warning before allowing you to visit because it has been deemed unsafe by Google's Safe Browsing feature.

3. Pop-up blocker icon

There are few factors more frustrating when browsing the Internet than pop-ups that give you various "offers" while you're browsing. Google has a built-in blocker to help reduce the number of pop-ups you encounter while browsing.

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Whenever Google takes action on a pop-up, you'll see it show up on the right side of your address bar for a few seconds next to the star icon. It can get complicated if it blocks a pop-up that you really want to see.

For example, a pop-up blocker can prevent you from downloading your balance statement if the download link is displayed via a pop-up message on Chrome.

Use the pop-up icon

Click the icon for blocked pop-ups and choose the option to allow it. You can also choose to always allow pop-ups from websites by adding them to Chrome's exceptions list.

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If you don't see the icon when it appears, you can click the three dots on the far right of the Google Chrome screen and select Settings.

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Click Privacy and security on the left side, then click the section that says Site settings.

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Scroll down until you see Pop-ups and redirects , then click this section. Copy and paste the URL below Allow and Chrome will not block pop-ups from the site in the future. You can also manage all blocked or allowed websites from here.

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4. Bookmark icon

At the far right of the address bar, you'll see a star icon, and when hovering over it, you'll see a prompt to Bookmark this tab . Bookmarking tabs is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to access the websites you visit frequently while browsing the web.

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When you click the star, Chrome will ask you to name the website (default name is already entered) and where you want to save the bookmark. If you just started bookmarking, you can go ahead and add it to your bookmarks bar and you'll immediately see it below your address bar.

Clicking on that website will immediately open it in your browser. But if you plan to save a lot of bookmarks, you'll want to start creating folders where you can store many of the same types of web pages within.

If you want to bookmark multiple news pages, you can create a folder called "News" and after clicking the star you can find this folder from the drop-down options.

To create a News folder, click the More. option . Then you'll want to click the New Folder option at the bottom right and you'll see your new folder appear with the option to give it a name.

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You can always delete a folder or bookmark by right-clicking the folder or bookmark and clicking Delete .

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5. Play control icon

Have you noticed that whenever you open YouTube in a new tab in your browser, you can hear the video playing, no matter what tab you're in?

You can actually control play, pause, forward, backward, and picture-in-picture settings from any tab in your browser. When you open YouTube and start playing the video, go to another tab while the video is still playing.

To the right of the address bar and all Chrome extensions will be an icon consisting of three lines and a musical note. This icon allows you to control playback easily from the toolbar.

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Clicking on the icon brings up play, pause, forward, backward, and picture-in-picture options. You can also click the "X" in the top right to get rid of the icon completely.

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This makes it easy to listen to your favorite music while you work, and you can pause it at any time to jump to the next video without having to always navigate back to YouTube. This function also works with other media sites.

6. Language icons

When you visit a website that doesn't have the same language set up in Chrome settings, you'll immediately be prompted to translate the site into your native language. But if you miss that prompt, you can still change the language of the site using the language icon to the left of the bookmark icon.

The icon is hard to describe, but has Google's "G" on it. Clicking on this icon will give you a set of options that will allow you to translate the page as you see fit.

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The first and easiest option is to translate to the same language that is the default language on your Chrome installation. You can even check the box below to always translate any web page in your current language into the default language.

Clicking on the three dots will give even more options for how you want to translate pages in this language in the future.

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7. Share this page icon

On any web page, you'll see an arrow to the left of the bookmark icon. This icon allows you to share the web page you are currently on and provides several methods for this.

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You can copy the link, transfer the tab to another device, or save the entire page on your computer. There is also an option to generate a QR code, which you can then scan with your phone (in case you want to access the page on your mobile phone) or download the QR code.

8. Extension Icons

To the right of the bookmark icon, there is a jigsaw puzzle icon. This icon is used to manage Chrome extensions.

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Clicking this icon will open a list of all active extensions. You can pin them to the toolbar from here. You can also use the three-dot icon (shown next to each extension name) to manage or remove extension settings.

Finally, the Manage extensions option (at the bottom) will open the Chrome Extensions (chrome://extensions) page when clicked, allowing you to enable/disable extensions, switch to developer mode, and view details. details of each extension.

9. Show Side Panel icon

Google Chrome has a side panel where you can view bookmarks, reading lists, and Journeys. Using the square icon in the toolbar (next to your profile picture), you can open the side panel.

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From the drop-down list in the sidebar, choose whether you want to open bookmarks, reading lists or Journeys here.

In case you didn't know, the reading list allows you to save articles for later reading. After reading a saved article, you can mark it as read or remove it from the list entirely. Similarly, Journeys allows you to revisit old searches on the Internet by grouping your past searches by subject.

10. App settings icon

On selected sites, you will see an icon showing a downward arrow with the desktop. Using this icon, you can install the Progressive Web App of the website you are visiting.

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For example, if you're using Twitter, you'll see an app settings icon in the toolbar. Click on it and select Install . Almost immediately, Twitter will open in a new window.

You can now access Twitter the same way you would open any other application, including by double-clicking the desktop shortcut. The main benefits of PWA include speed, reliability, and better user experience.

Samuel Daniel

Update 07 July 2023