Google launches Chrome theme gallery

Google now offers a gallery of themes for its Chrome browser.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Google on Tuesday launched a gallery of 29 themes for Google Chrome (requires Google Chrome 3.0 beta for Windows). But Mozilla, while refraining from sniggering, boasted it's now up to 20,000.

Cosmetic changes are, well, cosmetic, but a lot of people like them as a way to add some flair to their machines. Many had been pestering Google to add themes support even though Chrome employs a Spartan user interface without much acreage for artistry. Last week's developer version of Chrome added a "Get themes" button in the Options dialog box, and now Google has flipped the switch to activate the Web page that button points to.

The collection of themes includes Legal Pad, Star Gazing, Transparent (it's not, on my Windows XP machine), Dots, and Pencil Sketch. One monochromatic theme called Minimal downloads nearly instantly, but Grass, at 1.3MB, takes more time.

Why so large? Themes can come with a background image that shows on Chrome's new-tab page that offers a much greater chance for expressiveness, especially since that page is the default when Chrome launches. That could help Google with its attempt to recruit artists to supply their own themes, as some have done with the iGoogle customizable home page.

Mozilla has its own skinning technology in the works, a plug-in called Personas that launched on Mozilla Labs in March. That head start, coupled with its vastly larger and more engaged external audience, gives it a big lead over Chrome when it comes to getting gussied up.

Mozilla Labs announced Monday that Firefox now has 20,000 Personas, with 10,000 of them arriving in the last 10 weeks.

This theme is called Grass.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

[G|Net]

Fantastic. Now Chrome users can make their browsers look like tacky MySpace pages while they're viewing....tacky MySpace pages...!

[AEnzhRu]

It's hard to find anything these days (whether it be web browser designs, PC games, Ipods, etc. etc. etc.) that DOESN'T look like it came straight out of the mind of a pre-schooler -which has been a trend for almost 10 years now. Even many uniform designs (NBA basketball or otherwise) has fallen into this trend. "Names" of things (monster.com, godaddy, Blackberrty, etc.) all come out of the minds of pre-schoolers or punks or rap artists -all the dumb retarded 'schlock' in society that should be considered exactly THAT (schlock) is idolized as the apex of civilization. Just one of the many signs of de-evollution in today's society. Question is...is there any thing out there (PC game, browser, or otherwise) that has a semblance of intelligence to it, in terms of its design, gameplay, or any other imaginable attribute? I haven't seen anything resembling intelligence of maturity in a LONG time...since the early 2000s when everything decelerated at an exponential rate into stupidity beyond belief...
Is there a T.V. show or website out there, that isn't idiolized -when if fact it sucks (in its stupidity or premise) beyond belief (E.g, MySpace, You Tube, Facebook, American Idol, etc., etc.)? And now the clowns at google bring us more "kindergarten schlock" with pre-school designs to get us 'real adults' (if there ARE ANY LEFT in society) excited about their web browser. COOOOOOOOOOOL!

[indiemixer]

*crickets*
Add-ons would be nice.

[clinttaylor]

My thoughts exactly. As fast as Chrome is, I didn't convert back to FF for the aesthetics.

[Shankland]

Themes are actually one example of Chrome's add-on system (Google calls them extensions) in action. Even though themes are enabled in the developer channel, extensions are very much a work in progress. It's the top-starred item on the issues tracker: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=18

[B1gC72]

i agree. i love Chrome for it's speed (using it now actually) but i hate having to go back to FireFox to do stuff like rip videos from sites. hopefully this is going to help them get these extensions out pretty soon. i would like to move to Chrome exclusively but i can't yet because of this reason.

[assman]

I know you posted an image of that grass theme because it looks laughably bad. NEEDS MORE GREEN!!

[Shankland]

Actually, I've been using it, and Grass is growing on me.

Just kidding. I find it rather over the top, too, but to each his own.

[t8]

People forget that this is a new browser. Pride goes before a fall and all big things were once small.
I think Google will get the last laugh. That is my guess.

[gerrrg]

Anyone else having a problem with installing the majority of themes? I'm getting a popup warning, "Invalid value for theme colors - colors must be intergers."

[dracoaffectus]

I got similar warnings for most of the themes I tried.

Actually, I noticed t hat some of the warnings were about the theme color, others were about the theme tint. I guess it's still buggy.

I got one to work, and then had trouble switching back to the classic. I honestly still think the classic is the best, though I'm considering the transparent....if only it worked so I could see it for myself...

[dennisheadley]

I get the same error on all the themes that I tried. Didn't try every last one though because i gave up after nine or ten attempts.

[ibmonkey]

I also get an error for most of the themes. At least it seems a common problem, so it should be rectified pretty quick I would have thought.

[SrgtKid]

I have the same problem on all of the themes.

[gerrrg]

Resolved. Today an update was issued: 3.0.195.4. I tried it again, and now all the themes work.

[tech_hd]

yup... update your Chrome.... then it works 5n... nd love d themes... Unlike Firefox... these are compact, eye friendly nd best of all dont even slightly slow up the Browser launch

[exactlyy]

one word .. UGLY

[titook]

They might be rushing out this feature, but it opens doors to better design...later.

[kheechun]

Where are the skins for IE?

[dlm982]

they are non existent

[morrie 52]

On first reading that one theme was 1.3mb's,wow that's big not realising that was full screen,thinking it was like the brill Persona does in Firefox.But untill it gets the variety of add-ons that Foxy has ,can't see me useing it(very doubtfull).

[stsmith1975]

I wish Google would stop wasting time of these tastless skins and work on Chrome for mac instead....

[Hunnter2k3]

This wasn't done by all of the programmers.
Each programmer has a specific job, and i can guess that the person(s) who done the theme probably doesn't know much about OS internals. (maybe i am wrong, but this is me just stereotyping based on probabilities)

The Mac version is still being worked on.
And considering how long it took to get Chrome for Windows up and running, Mac is only slightly behind.
But it IS a lesser priority, as sad as that sounds. (for Mac users, and Linux users)

[Hunnter2k3]

I hope the theme interface will let you modify icon sizes and bar sizes.
Without this, it won't be able to compete with the awesome Firefox themes i have used over the years, especially the current one i have that makes all the interface incredibly tiny. (smaller than Chrome interface too)

The icons in Chrome are HUGE, i don't like HUGE, i want tiny. (as in, icons as small as the text in the toolbars)
Toolbars will probably remain static for compatability with add-ons toolbars in the future. (if it happens)

[a_flores]

It is said that it is only for Chrome v3. Meanwhile my Chrome is v.2.0.172.39 and when I update it, it is said my Chrome is the latest version. Do I miss something here?

[kivbirdzta]

You have to go look for the Chrome v3 Beta.

[keeeemal]

Classy!

[Knunez100]

good lord both these themes are crap - google needs to have some kind of feature in chrome that lets you choose your color of the browser - I bet you more people will use it and it would be a revolution to the web browser, no other browser has done that in the past.

[xtiminator]

Opera has an option to let you choose the color of the browser. You can also download skins for Opera as well. Press Shift-F12 and find the Color Scheme menu at the bottom. You can also change the icon size easily with the drop down menu to the right of the Color Scheme menu. Opera has so many features people don't seem to know about. I much prefer it to Chrome or even Firefox. You can even easily block content (ads) in Opera. Personally, I'm tired of all the attention Chrome gets from CNet.

[jpap93]

And Firefox has personas, what more can you ask for?

[miaminica]

"Zen Spirit" is kind of -- KIND OFF -- okay but the rest of the themes are just God-d*mn-awful!

[stockyjoe]

Why does Googles sense of style always equate to tacky. Their concept of design always makes me think of a 12 year old playing with Corel Draw. Are their engineers the same people who design this stuff because it looks that way.

[deanorulz]

Another feature I find very useful on IE and FF is having a toolbar from your computers antivirus or security software, such as siteadvisor. Is that available in any developing models of chrome?

[FF2009]

still no adblock, still no NoScript, still bugy as hell even on their youtube website I have problem watching Videos, and still no other add-ons I enjoy having on Firefox.

That's what makes me stay way from Chrome. When it becomes ready in 2 or 3 years, maybe I'll give it another try.

[monster_eater123]

Great idea but, most of these themes are a bit ridiculous if you ask me. I did, however, enjoy a few themes they have made ... Desktop, Glossy Blue, Star Gazing, and Topography were not too extreme.The Grass theme is cool but a little far fetched.

[mshari9006]

??? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ???? ????? ???? ????? ???????? ..??????? ?????

[kuykuyko]

omg, they've given in to the feature creature.

functionality first google! and yes we need ABP asap!