Google Chrome’s address bar is called omnibox and it is used not only for address typing, but also searches and search suggestions. In order to search for something simply type it into the omnibox and the search will be performed by the default search engine you have set up. But what’s great about Chrome is that you can customize your searches and use various search engines all from one box!

By default you’ve got Google set up as your search engine. To change that simply right click on the omnibox and select “Edit Search Engines…” from the menu, then select the search engine you need and click “Make Default”. Alternatively you can enter the settings menu, select Options and then select default search engine from there.

Adding Search Engine to Chrome

Now, in order to search the omnibox and perform searches on search engines other then your default you’ll need to type the keyword for the engine you selected previously (it is set up automatically to the web-address like: yahoo.com) and the search term. Example: "yahoo.com chromable" will search for “chromable” on Yahoo!

To add a new search engine get to the search engines settings (same as described above) and click on “Add” button to add a new search engine, you’ll need to enter the name, keyword and the search URL the engine use. The keyword will be used when performing the search through ominbox, so you’ll probably want to make it short. The URL is the the exact form used by search engine to perform searches only the search term is replaced by "%s". Example of URL for Digg: http://digg.com/search?s=%s.

But the amazing thing about Chrome is that you don’t have to set the URL path for each search engine and replace the search term with “%s” by yourself - it can be done automatically! Just perform a search once on the site you want to ad, open the search engines options panel in Chrome and it will be there already. You might want to change the keyword though, let’s say you added wikipedia search engine and instead of conducting searches by typing each time "wikipedia.org [search term]“ you want to use "wiki [search term]“ form. In that case simply replace the keyword which is set by default to “wikipedia.org” with “wiki”.

Here’s a list of search URL’s for some search engines, in case you want to set them manually:

• Yahoo!: http://www.yahoo.com/r/sx/*-http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%s&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&search=%s
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query= %s&search_sort=relevance&search_category =0&page={startPage?}
• Digg: http://digg.com/search?s=%s
• Chromable: http://chromable.com/?s=%s
• Last.FM: http://www.last.fm/music?m=all&q=%s
• DMOZ: http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=%s
• Baidu: http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%s
• Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/s.php?ref=search&init=q&q=%s

Although officially Google does not support yet various themes the look of your Google Chrome can be changed, you just have to replace the default.dll file responsible for the theme. The paths to the file is:

Path for Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\[current version]\Themes\default.dll

Path for Windows Vista:
C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\ [current version]\Themes\default.dll

Chromium Theme Creator

There is a special tool called Chromium Theme Creator with which new themes can be easily created. Most of the themes available right now were created with this tool and although it might take a bit of time to design a new theme the process itself is very basic. The .dll file contains the png image files of which the theme is actually made and by modifying these images in any image editor you modify the theme itself. So, there’s no coding involved and all in need to know is how to modify graphic images. You might need some patience though ’cause it is time-consuming process.

List of tools you’ll need:

• Chromium Theme Creator: Download
• GoRC.exe by Jeremy Gordon: Find it and download it from here.
• ResHacker.exe by Angus Johnson: Find and download it from here.

How to use Chromium Theme Creator:

1. Unzip the downloaded files into a separate directory, you’ll get a set of folders with png files
2. Unzip and copy GoRC.exe and ResHacker.exe files into the same directory
3. Be creative and modify with your favorite graphic editor the png images inside the folders of your project which are in facts bits of Google Chrome standard theme.
4. Run Themer.exe file to start the Chromium Theme Creator application
5. Make sure you’ve got the correct specified path to your original Google Chrome default.dll theme file
6. Click on “Build” to build a new default.dll file that will be created inside your working directory
7. Make sure you’re not running Google Chrome browser and click “Test” and to launch Chrome and see the changes you made.
8. Alternatively you can press “Build+Test” to save time.
9. Save your project when it’s ready by exporting the default.dll file you created. You might want to save your project files before you start working on a new theme.

UPDATE: Chromium Theme Creator v2 beta

Chromium Theme Creator v2 beta is now available. Updates include:

• Self extracting Installer
• Various projects simple management
• Authorship details inside the same theme file (.cth extension)
• Preview themes: ability show images from the theme file itself by dragging theme files and dropping over it in order to preview and if needed default.dll can be replaced by sepcifying Chrome’s path and it can be launched by clicking “Apply” button.

This article explains how to change your theme in Google Chrome.

Probably in future Google Chrome will have this option integrated into it’s settings or there will be a plugin for that matter, until then you’ll either have to do it manually by replacing one of the system files or use some gadgets already available.

First of all you will need to find a theme - [Browse Themes Category] or you can design one yourself - [How to design a Google Chrome theme?]

Manually changing Google Chrome theme: You’ll have to replace the default.dll file you already downloaded from Themes or made yourself.

Path for Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\[current version]\Themes\default.dll

Path for Windows Vista:
C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\ [current version]\Themes\default.dll

Note: Replace [your user name] with your username! [current version] looks like Application.2.149.27 or Application.2.149.29, use the latest one. The file is located in hidden folders, so in order to view them you’ll have to check the option "show hidden files and folders" (Go to “My Computer”, select “Tools” from the menu, click “Folder Options” and change to “View” tab, select “show hidden files and folders”).

Automatically changing Google Chrome theme: Not so many options available at the moment, but probably the best tool to use would be XChrome Theme Manager.