The debut of Google Chrome 5 a few days ago brought a new Content Settings menu that promised to deliver better content control to Chrome users. Back then the settings where not selectable which caused some confusion. The latest Google Chrome dev channel release however has filled those content settings with, ehm, content.
Update: Please note that Google modified how content settings are accessed in Google Chrome. You need to load chrome://settings/content in the browser to load them. They are no longer displayed in their own window but as an overlay on the settings page.
Google added more content options to Chrome in recent versions, which is why you get options to handle things such as location-based settings, notifications, or the microphone as well there in recent versions. We have added information about those options at the end of this guide. End
Google Chrome Content Settings
The Content Settings in the Google browser are divided into the five tabs cookies, images, JavaScript, Plug-ins and Pop-ups each with the means to control the display or creation of those items in the web browser.
It is for instance possible to disable JavaScript or Plugins globally, and use an exception list to allow the execution only on trusted sites.
That’s however nowhere near as comfortable as it sounds. The exception list needs to be edited manually. This means that the user has to copy and paste (or write) the urls of all pages that should be excluded from the global blocking into the Content Settings form.
Google Chrome displays an icon in the address bar if a script was blocked on a website. This icon can be used add that website to the whitelist so that the content type will be loaded on future visits.
NoScript for Firefox for instance does that better by providing the controls in the web browser’s status bar and offering to block or allow scripts individually. But it is of course unfair to compare standard browser contents with an add-on.
If you look at how the Firefox web browser is handling those global settings by default you will notice that it uses similar options than the Chrome browser.
These Content Settings might however mark the first step of a conversion of the popular NoScript to the Google browser. Before that the developer simply stated that the Internet browser was not capable of blocking scripts like JavaScript (all those ad blockers and script blockers for Chrome hide the scripts which means they are still executed).
With those settings however it can very well be that the Chrome developer’s have created the foundation for a successful port of NoScript.
New Google Chrome Content Settings
Content Settings in Google Chrome are now displayed in a different way. You won’t find them in a popup window anymore. What you need to do is click on the settings icon in the top right corner of the browser window and select Settings from the context menu there.
Locate the show advanced settings link at the bottom of that screen to display additional settings, and there the Content Settings button under Privacy.
Manage content settings for websites
Here you can permit or block specific types of content and manage the exception lists. From Google Chrome 23 on you have another option to handle website exceptions.
A click on the icon in front of the web address displays a new menu listing all permissions of the website that you are on right now.
A click on any item here lets you change the permissions for the website.