Well, it looks like I’m screwed. Should I try resetting browser settings? I don’t wand to mess things up and lose stuff.
Thank you to all for the generous help. Much appreciated. 
What happens when you click on the home icon? Where does it take you?
I don’t have a home icon. I’ve looked and looked, but nada. Windows 7.
just in case you are not seeing it.
But it’s possible its not turned on, you can find in setting near where the home page is, this is on another computer of mine and the homepage is set for duckduckgo.
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Ah, yes. Now it’s turned on. It takes me to Chrome.
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Maybe do a reboot and start Chrome up again, hopefully the first site it takes you to is the google homepage.
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I’m a bit reticent about “hopefully”. 
I think I’ll just hold on until the whole thing crashes again, and see what happens.
Thanks, @Mick . 
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Very welcome Jimi, have a great evening.
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That’s me. I’ve never had any need to know how that stuff works, hence I don’t. Ask me about the unreal conditional and post-punk, however, and I’m your man.
We all have different fields of expertise. Some, admittedly, more useful than others. 
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I’m not sure, but this is just to let you know you’re not alone, and you’re not going crazy. Please note that I’m not endorsing PCMAG’s advice (linked below) on how to get rid of the toolbar in question. I have no idea one way or the other whether their instructions are effective or even safe. I’m just posting that article to show you that that toolbar is a thing, and in some people’s views, it’s a negative thing.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/how-to-remove-the-askcom-toolbar-from-your-browser
My memory’s not what it used to be, but I think that a few years back, some of the computers at my workplace had that thing, and it seemed kind of difficult to get rid of it.
Also, a few years ago the adware cleaner software on my home computer (or some other antimalware software that I had) would detect some file or other, or some kind of presence, vestigial or otherwise, of that Ask thingy deep in the bowels of my Chrome browser. And it came back after being removed, but I don’t remember how many times it came back. Anyway, it seemed harmless in my home computer, and it finally went away (I hope, knock wood).
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Geez. That looks extremely complicated for a computer moron like me, but thanks!
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You’re welcome, and I hope it helps, or at least does not harm.
That describes me. I didn’t even look at PCMAG’s instructions, because I was pretty sure they would at least give me a headache, or maybe even blow my mind.
I can turn the computer off and on, and I can usually follow very simple instructions, and I can lug it over to the shop to be repaired. But that’s about it.
I classify OS as follow:
Dumb User: Go to MacOS, it just works out of the box.
Gamer User: Windows unfortunately is your area.
I know what I’m doing user: Linux
I can write my own device drivers: FreeBSD and alike.
Cheers.
For most non work, home use, if you’re not a gamer, chromeos is where it’s at. Or really, maybe just an ipad.
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Really helpful. Thanks. 
Rather than start a new thread, and as this one is also about Google…
It seems that many Android Phone users are having some trouble using Apps such as LINE, Yahoo Mail, GMail today. Apps start, then suddenly shut down. A bit of searching reveals that there has been an update to a thing called “Android System Webview” which is in some way part of Chrome. Its stuffed up, and apart from Google confessing that they have a problem, no fix has been forthcoming.
One of the fixes suggests that the App be disabled, then enabled. Another suggests Uninstalling and reinstalling Chrome. My partners phone is one of the affected, and naturally it was passed on to me to fix. I took the second option as the App concerned wasnt even visible and therefore i couldnt reinstall.
All now works, though Google seem to have kindly removed recent chats from LINE, while reinstating old ones from an old backup, as well as wiping many saved passwords.
Hasn’t happened to my phone yet as the update hasn’t yet happened, and it wont be as i just turned Auto Updates off.
Of course, there is no point in complaining to Google, apart from raising ones BP, it will achieve nothing. I guess that at least with Android, we can stop Auto updates, unlike Windows 10.
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Google have now issued updates for both Android System Webview and Google Chrome, which, when installed, should fix the issue.
It happened to me today!
But I fixed it by cleaning the cache of some Google services. No need to reinstall anything, not even restart the phone.
I tried the cleaning cache, disable and enable, but no result, then did some searching and found that I wasnt alone.
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It may be different problem, then.
Big coincidence as it happened at the same time, but still possible.