In part one of this article, we introduced you to The Great Suspender, a free extension that can speed up browsing in Google Chrome. If you haven’t haven’t read part one yet, check it out to learn how this extension works and how to get it.
In part 2, we’ll look at some of its great features.
I already showed you how you can manually suspend tabs to speed up your browsing, but there’s a way of automating the process of suspending and unsuspending pages. Click on the Great Suspender icon again and this time select the button called Settings. Once you’re on the Settings page click on the second checkbox. This automatically unsuspends any tab you’re viewing.
Next, set the time it takes for a tab to suspend itself. Click on the dropdown menu that says “Never”. Chose a value that suits you, my preference is 15 minutes. From now on, any tab that you haven’t viewed for fifteen minutes will suspend itself and will stay that way until you bring it into focus again.
Now, the whitelist that I mentioned in part one becomes important. There might be tabs that you don’t want to suspend even if they are not in focus, YouTube comes to mind. To make sure this happens, enter the website’s address into the “Whitelist” form.
You can add the website yourself or you can have the extension do it for you. If you chose the former, type the websites address into the Whitelist form, make sure to have a whitespace before and after it, like this “ www.youtube.com ”.
Be careful! If the formatting is off even a bit, the tab will get suspended. Adding it through the extension is usually easier and safer. Do this by going to a page and suspending it –you have to do this because all pages now automatically reload when you’re viewing them. Clicking on the link that starts with “add” adds it to your whitelist. To remove it, go to Settings and delete the website address from the form.
On a final note, when a page is suspended, all form data is lost. That’s something to keep in mind when you’re drafting a lengthy reply to an email or filling out a registration form. Also any tab that was suspended when you closed Chrome will be suspended the next time you start it up. This has the added benefit of faster browser startups.
Have fun with your new and speedy Chrome browser!
~ Tiberius