When compared to other browsers, Google Chrome has one of the most cleanest and sleekest interfaces around. However for Google, that too wasn’t sleek enough; hence, they’ve introduced a new compact navigation menu to their experimental feature set. This feature gets rid of the navigation toolbar and places the back and forward buttons to the left of the tab strip, making the browser even more compact. Here’s a quick look at this new experimental feature and how to enable it.
Here’s a look at the default toolbar:
Here’s the new one :
How to enable the compact navigation menu
Step 1 : Update to the latest stable version of Chrome, that is, version 14. For some reason, the menu works only on Windows.
Step 2 : Go to about:flags and look for the option which says “Compact Navigation” . Enable it and scroll down to Relaunch the browser.
Step 3 : Once you’ve restarted the browser, right click on any tab. In the context menu, select the option which says “Hide the toolbar”.
Using the new menu
At first, the new menu might seem a bit confusing to many users; however, once you get used to it, you probably won’t switch back to the old menu. To open the address bar, just click on the active tab. A small address bar will drop down allowing you to navigate to your favorite site. Alternatively, you can use the Ctrl+L shortcut. If you want to search, try using the Ctrl+K shortcut. This will open a nice blue searchbar at the top.
For Linux Users : I’ve tried Chrome 14 (stable) on my Mint desktop, and for some reason, Google hasn’t enabled the menu for Linux users yet. It maybe there in unstable versions of Chromium but I haven’t tried it yet. If you’re able to access the new menu on Linux, please leave a comment about it (stable versions only).
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