I’m a big fan of Chrome’s Bookmarks Bar, which puts my most frequently visited sites across the top of the browser, just one click away.
The problem is that I have so many favorites, they don’t all fit. Instead, they get squeezed out of view, requiring me to click the little double-arrow on the right end of the Bookmarks Bar. Then I’m stuck perusing a drop-down menu, which takes, like, all day.
1. Right-click any icon in your Bookmarks Bar, then click Edit.
2. Remove the text from the Name field, then click Save.
3. Presto! Now you’ve got just the favicon for that favorite.
4. Repeat the process for all the other icons in your Bookmarks Bar.
Keep in mind that because not every Web site has an easily identifiable favicon, you might not want to take this approach for each and every favorite.
For example, sites like Facebook, Ebay, and PC World have instantly recognizable favicons. But others are more vague, and if you have any bookmarklets, those are usually represented by nothing more than a gray globe — and therefore shouldn’t be shortened.
Thus, you’ll want to fiddle with this to find the best arrangement for your particular setup. You could always reduce a favicon’s name to an abbreviation, like “LMI” for LogMeIn (which has a fairly generic-looking favicon). That would allow you to condense your Bookmarks Bar while keeping your icons easy to identify.
Contributing Editor Rick Broida writes about business and consumer technology. Ask for help with your PC hassles at hasslefree@pcworld.com, or try the treasure trove of helpful folks in the PC World Community Forums. Sign up to have the Hassle-Free PC newsletter e-mailed to you each week.