Ok, this may not be the newest tip on the block, and I’m not sure how I ever overlooked it: Pinned Tabs.
I migrated to Chrome on the PC as soon as it was stable, and on the Mac as soon as it was available. Somehow I missed pinned tabs though…
You can pin tabs inside Chrome (just like in Firefox) by control clicking (or right clicking for PC users) on the tab.
I always have the same 4-5 tabs always open, always running. You see the first one is Gmail. I don’t use local email clients anymore (and haven’t for a while); same for my calendar. Pinning the tab saves space and clicks when you fire up Chrome (the pins reopen when you restart your browser…).
If you knew this, thanks for letting me know sooner. If you didn’t know this- enjoy!