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How to give Google’s Chrome browser a big speed boost with one click

Published Jun 2nd, 2022 2:05AM EDT
How To Speed Up Google Chrome Browser
Image: Valentin Wolf/imageBROKER/Shutterstock

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With more than 48% of the global market as of last month, Google’s Chrome browser is by far the most popular desktop web browser by a good-sized margin. It rules the kingdom when it comes to desktop browsers. But, the rise in smartphone browsers has Safari as the best by a wide margin. It’s the main browser for iPhones so it makes sense it’s the most popular smartphone browser. Chrome also has a solid market share on smartphones as well.

Chrome is the browser of choice for so many reasons, not the least of which are things like simplicity and speed. When it comes to speed though, things aren’t always straightforward. Chrome is typically lightning fast when loading webpages, but your browser speed can really take a hit when there are tons of tabs open. And if you’re anything like us here at BGR, you pretty much always have tons of tabs open.

Over the years, Google has made plenty of optimizations aimed specifically at improving performance and reducing resource utilization by background tabs. Even still, things tend to slow down — especially on older PCs — when you leave too many tabs open. As it turns out though, there’s an awesome free Chrome extension that lets you give your browser a big speed boost with a single click.

Make Chrome work more efficiently for you

Google highlights the best Chrome extensions with badges.
Google highlights the best Chrome extensions with badges. Image source: Google

The extension in question is called OneTab, and it’s completely free to download from the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, a OneTab button will appear in your browser to the right of the address bar. Anytime you get overwhelmed by open tabs or your system starts to slow down, simply click the button and all of your open tabs will be closed. In their place, you’ll find a single tab with a list of hyperlinks, one for each tab that had been open. When you need to go back to a page, just select it from the list. It’s a wonderfully simple and effective solution to the problem, and again, it’s totally free. It saves your tabs in a list.

Reducing tab clutter has never been simpler. Here is a brief description of how it works.

Save up to 95% memory and reduce tab clutter
Whenever you find yourself with too many tabs, click the OneTab icon to convert all of your tabs into a list. When you need to access the tabs again, you can either restore them individually or all at once.

When your tabs are in the OneTab list, you will save up to 95% of memory because you will have reduced the number of tabs open in Google Chrome.

Downloaded by more than 2,000,000 users, it is a much-needed and oft-used plug-in. Save yourself time and memory with OneTab.

Download OneTab for free

Editor’s note: This article originally ran on January 16, 2019 and has been updated since.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.