Creating a Chromebook URL whitelist

Chromebook management gives you the facility to block URLs directly on the devices. This has important benefits in primary education as it allows the administrator to limit access to only a few key sites without having to rely on an external filter service.

One issue with this approach is that a blanket block on all websites prevents certain Google services from working correctly. Therefore the normal policy is to block all sites with a set of exceptions that include both the Google resources and the approved sites.

The list of Google resources is constantly updating but the set commonly used in education is listed below.

URL Blacklist http://* https://* */html/crosh.html URL Blacklist Exceptions
accounts.google.com accounts.youtube.com clients1.google.com clients2.google.com clients3.google.com clients4.google.com cros-omahaproxy.appspot.com dl.google.com dl-ssl.google.com www.googleapis.com m.google.com omahaproxy.appspot.com safebrowsing-cache.google.com m.safebrowsing-cache.google.com safebrowsing.google.com ssl.gstatic.com tools.google.com pack.google.com www.gstatic.com gweb-gettingstartedguide.appspot.com storage.googleapis.com commondatastorage.googleapis.com www.google.com/intl/en-US/chrome/blank.html

You could use this approach to create a testing environment but the better solution would use kiosk mode.

A similar list is maintained by Google Admins based in the USA.