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17 useful Google Chrome Extensions

Google Chrome’s support for third party extensions might be still in it’s infancy, but already dozens of different extensions has been written. If you are a regular chrome user, you must try extensions just like you must try extensions in Firefox. As you might be aware, the stable version of Chrome doesn’t support extensions yet. You have to use the developer channel version of Chrome to install plug-ins.

How to install extensions in Google Chrome?

1. Download and install the latest developer build of Chrome.

2. Next, right-click on the Chrome icon on your desktop, click on Properties and add “–enable-extensions” (without the quotations) at the end of the target field and click “Apply”.

chrome-properties

3. To install extensions simply download the file which has a .CRX extension, and you will get the installation confirmation box. Click OK.

Chrome Extensions

Gmail Checker: One of the first extensions that shows the number of unread messages in Gmail in the toolstrip (status bar).

gmail

TPGoogleReader: Enhances Google Reader with a number of features.

  • Shows the number of unread items
  • Automatically opens all new items in new background tabs, and marks them as read in Google Reader upon checking the checkbox in the toolstrip. Newstories automatically keep appearing in tabs without clicking anything.
  • When a website has a feed, an icon appears on the right of the omnibox (address+search bar). Clicking on it opens the feed in Google Reader allowing you to read without subscribing.
  • When you navigate directly to an RSS or Atom page normally Chrome displays a mess. With TPGoogleReader you will get the page displayed in a monospace font with preserved formatting

Chrome Gestures: Adds a number of mouse gestures to Chrome.

Cleeki: Internet Explorer 8 Accelerator like functionality for Chrome. Just select some text, and Cleeki can search/share/publish the content and preview the results immediately in a tooltip window.

cleeki

Here is what Cleeki can do:

  • Google search including web, image, video, blog, books, and spell check.
  • Search on Google map including dragging, zooming, direction, and local search.
  • Google translation including both paragraph and webpage translation, with two highlighted features: it automatically recognizes the source language, and remember your target language. So just select any text/page, and it will do the translation automatically.
  • Send it to Share It that provide content sharing via SocialTwist, supporting all mainstream blog/social/IM/email/bookmark services.
  • Other searches: Amazon, eBay, TheFreeDictionary, SearchMe, Hulu, SlideShare, Wikipedia, Technorati, Yahoo, YouTube.

AdSweep: Blocks ads from the page.

Flashblock: Blocks all Flash content from loading. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allows you to view the Flash content.

Sticky Notes: Chrome Sticky Notes adds an inbuilt notepad to Chrome which can be launched by clicking on the little notepad icon on the toolstrip. You get the option to save your sticky note for future reference, and you can view it even if you restart your browser.

Session Saver: This extension allows you to save, manage and reload multiple sessions in Google Chrome. It can save all the open tabs across all Google Chrome windows, save and manage Multiple Sessions, and even let’s you view URLs in a saved session prior to opening it (requires Sticky Notes extension).

session-saver-box

Delicious Bookmarks: Once installed this extension adds a Delicious button to your Google Chrome omnibox for signing in and bookmarking pages. Just click on the button to sign in and post bookmarks to your Delicious account. You can bookmark it directly to Delicious by pressing Ctrl + D.

Chritter: A Chrome Twitter notifier that shows the recent tweets in the toolstrip and fetches new tweets every 5 minutes automatically. One nice feature about this is that it uses “oauth” to sign in so you don't need to give your twitter password. It stores the access token as a bookmark.

Chrome.fm: Listen to music from your Last.fm account in Chrome’s toolstrip. Get control buttons to play, skip, stop songs and Love or Ban them.

chromefm

GoCalendar: This is a simple Google Calendar extension for Google Chrome, that displays the next appointment from your Calendar in the browser toolstrip. You can cycle between the calendar entries by clicking on the toolstrip and when needed can go directly to Google Calendar.

gocalendar

Chrome Clock: An alarm clock on the toolstrip.

alarm-clock

Facebook Notifications: Retrieves the number of notifications from your Facebook account. You have to be logged in to Facebook for this extension to work.

Page Rank: Shows the Google PageRank for the current website.

Alexa Rank Display: Displays the Alexa Rank for the current website.

Aniweather: Detailed weather report in the browser’s toolstrip. Also available as a Firefox addon.

aniwhether

Comments

  1. There's only extensions that I need for Chrome and they don't seem to exist yet :(
    1. Bookmarks in a sidebar (like IE and Firefox)
    2. IE Tab functionality (like Coral IE Tab in Firefox).

    If I could get those, I'd probably stop using Firefox and make Chrome my primary browser. I'm on Win 7 x64.

    ReplyDelete
  2. kalahari, you can try a bookmarks button in chrome. Just add this "--bookmark-menu" (without the quotations)in the target field for chrome's shortcut. Just like the instructions at the beginning of this post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You should also checkout the FlashPlus Extension. You can resize, move and maximize Flash - Games, Videos, etc to full browser. A demo on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHktLVF0yM
    Link to the extension : https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/emaamodndfmmmcjepfigalbjjjemadom

    ReplyDelete
  4. Another great extension for your calendar is Google Calendar Checker Plus - https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hkhggnncdpfibdhinjiegagmopldibha

    ReplyDelete
  5. wish they had foxClocks for chrome! really useful ff add on for people who're on the move.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very handy and useful extension to work with Google maps and Panoramio photos:

    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fidhlplliphaijlenolgdojklmgbonnf

    ReplyDelete

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