Breadcrumb navigation, for those who are not aware, is a type of text-based Web site navigation feature that provide links back to each previous page the user navigated through to get to the current page in hierarchical site structures. Breadcrumbs provide a trail for the user to follow back to the starting or entry point of a website and is considered a useful navigation feature by most web designers.
Breadcrumb navigation is commonly used in ecommerce Web sites to display categories of products. Blogs rarely use this kind of navigation. If you want to see breadcrumb navigation feature on every website, then Breadcrumb Navigator is the tool for you.
It is an extension for Chrome that allows users to navigate any URL in a breadcrumb-like way. To access the breadcrumbs, click on breadcrumbs icon in the address bar, and depending on your choice of style, a menu will drop down with links to navigate to various sub-sections or folders in the URL.
There are two navigational options that users can choose from: breadcrumb style …
or folder style.
The extension allows for navigating on subdomain level. Example:
Path level. Example:
or a mixture of both.
Very useful extension for navigating websites with large number of sections like new sites.
For Firefox user there is Breadcrumb.
Breadcrumb navigation is most definitely a useful tool to have on a website. It can be slightly frustrating having to keep going through various pages just to get back to the start. As a web designer myself I always use this navigation feature where appropriate.
As you mentioned breadcrumb navigation is commonly used in ecommerce websites for the navigation of various products which is very useful indeed. However to have this feature on every site would be great. It would save a lot of time and make the process of viewing someones site so much easier.
The fact that the working of this tool depends only on the click of an icon just adds to its success. Along with the choice of style options I will most definitely be using this tool in the future.