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How to Change Your Background on Google

Evan Gower May 9, 2021

No matter who you are, if you are spending time online you are probably using Google to search for anything that might interest you. The design of Google’s homepage is very plain with only the logo and a solid-color background. But since we all spend so much time of our lives googling, why not make the Google page a lot more enjoyable to look at? Here is how to upgrade your enjoyment while using Google.

Go Into Your Appearance Settings

Changing your Google background won’t work with Microsoft Edge or Firefox, so make sure that you are running the Google Chrome browser.

Open your Chrome browser.
Click on the three dots on the top right side of the browser. A drop-down menu will appear.
Towards the end you will see an option called Settings, so click on that.
Find the section called Appearance and click on Theme. A new tab will open directing you to the Chrome Web Store.

Pick your Favorite Theme

The web store will open and show the themes section. You can then browse the many available themes until you find the one that suits you. The image you see when browsing the themes is usually the one that will be applied as the background, so keep that in mind. Each section also shows only the most popular themes, so if you want to explore further you can click on the View all button on the top right of the section.

If you already have something specific in mind about what you want your background to look like, you can type it in the “Search the store” bar.

Click on the Theme of your choice.
Then click on Add to Chrome on the top right side.

This will apply the theme automatically and you will see a notification pop up telling you that the theme has been installed. There will be an Undo option, in case you do not like the Theme and want to revert back to the original one. You can always go back into Appearances in the Settings menu if you want to change the theme back in the event that you don’t like it.

Using a Custom Image

Even though there are plenty of themes to choose from, maybe you just can’t find that perfect one or you just want to use some cool image that you already have. Luckily there is a way of customizing your Google background. Changing the background this way will not have any effect on the color or the style of Google Chrome’s tabs.

Make sure that Chrome is updated to the latest version as this option will be unavailable on older versions of Chrome.
Find the image you want to use either from your computer or you can download it. It’s recommended to use higher quality images for backgrounds as the lower quality ones will be stretched and they will not look good.
Open a new tab on Google Chrome.
On the bottom right you will see a pen icon, so click on it. This will open the customization menu.
Select Upload from device to choose one from your computer, or click on Chrome Backgrounds and choose one from there.
Find the image you want and upload it. This will apply the image and you will see it every time you open a new tab in Chrome.
If you want to remove the image, click on the Pen icon again and then choose No background.

Other Ways of Customizing Google

If you want to customize your Chrome browser some more, you can:

1. Add Bookmarks

You can add bookmarks to your Google Chrome so that you can find and open your most used websites with one click without having to search for them.

If you want to bookmark a page, click on the Star icon in the search bar and click Done.
If you can’t see your bookmarks, click on the three dots.
Hover over Bookmarks until another menu opens.
Check the Show Bookmarks bar.

2. Add Shortcuts

You can also add shortcuts to new tabs to quickly open the websites you use most often.

To add a shortcut, click on Add shortcut.
Paste the URL of the website you want to use, and name the shortcut whatever you like.

Now You’ve Made Google Your Own

Even if you enjoyed googling before, now you can enjoy it even more, as you have something cool to look at while searching and you can also do it more quickly using shortcuts and bookmarks. The best thing is that when you’re bored of the background, you can change it anytime you like.