10 Useful Google Chrome Extensions
There is no denying it, Google Chrome is making huge strides in the browsers wars and its already claiming its fair share of users, up to December 2009 Chrome was the third most popular browser with 4.63% of worldwide users.
There are Chrome extensions appearing all over the web lately, some aren’t fantastic whilst some have true potential. A few people are comparing the plugins to similar ones on Firefox and some haven’t quiet matched up, but in browser years Chrome is still a baby and has the resources and userbase to mature.
That being said, here are 10 useful extensions for Google Chrome, each extension has a brief description below.
Whilst technically not a plugin, it will enable you to block ads whilst using Chrome.
Splits your browser into two panels and allows you to browse two sites at the same time.
Eye dropper tool that will extract colours from any webpage.
Web developers tool that allows you to debug, edit and monitor CSS, HTML and Javascript in any page.
Displays unread messages from Gmail and allows previews as well as read, delete, archive and mark as spam options.
This Windows only addon allows you to display web pages using Internet Explorer in a Chrome tab, you never have to leave Chrome again!
Developers tools that allows you to reload CSS without full page reloads, disable images and CSS, pick colours, use rulers and validate using W3C.
Checks the Google Pagerank and Alexa Rank on each page you browse.
Allows you to save you current browser state and reload it up again whenever you want to view it.
In my opinion one of the better developed extensions thus far, WOT warns you about risky sites with a simple but effective website scoring system.
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- Ken
And for Mac users? Seems Extensions are not available on Chrome. Reading that I need to get Chromium. (check) Just installed FireBug Lite but haven’t got it to work. Maybe I have to relaunch. hmmmm?
- Ash
Awesome Extension.. Thanks for sharing..
- FuzzyFox
I would like to point out that all of these, with the exception of maybe one, have existed for Mozilla Firefox for quite a while. However. It is nice to see that you can now get some of the same functionality across multiple browsers. It softens the blow when you are unable to use the browser of your own choice.
- Joseph Pecoraro
For people who like Firebug Lite, you should seriously try out Chrome’s built in developer tools, the Web Inspector. It does everything Firebug Lite can do, and a heck of a lot more. For starters, it can safely access client side storage, ajax/xhr requests, resource download sizes, times, and more request information, a timeline of all javascript activity, event listeners, and more.
The Chromium team has some great guides to using the Web Inspector:
http://www.chromium.org/devtoolsHere’s a glance at some features added a few months ago. There has even been a lot of work since:
http://webkit.org/blog/829/web-inspector-updates/ - McBonio
Beta is a working version, its just not the final version.
I have found them all to work quite well
- louis gubitosi
most of these say “Extensions are not yet supported in this version of Google Chrome.” I only see a Beta version… is there another?
- louis gubitosi
this is great… just downloaded them all. Fire-bug lite is key. thanks for the list!
- joyoge bookmark
very useful extensions, thanks for the list..
January 16, 2010
very useful extensions, thanks for the list..
January 16, 2010
this is great… just downloaded them all. Fire-bug lite is key. thanks for the list!
January 16, 2010
most of these say “Extensions are not yet supported in this version of Google Chrome.” I only see a Beta version… is there another?
January 16, 2010
Beta is a working version, its just not the final version.
I have found them all to work quite well
January 17, 2010
For people who like Firebug Lite, you should seriously try out Chrome’s built in developer tools, the Web Inspector. It does everything Firebug Lite can do, and a heck of a lot more. For starters, it can safely access client side storage, ajax/xhr requests, resource download sizes, times, and more request information, a timeline of all javascript activity, event listeners, and more.
The Chromium team has some great guides to using the Web Inspector:
http://www.chromium.org/devtools
Here’s a glance at some features added a few months ago. There has even been a lot of work since:
http://webkit.org/blog/829/web-inspector-updates/
January 17, 2010
I would like to point out that all of these, with the exception of maybe one, have existed for Mozilla Firefox for quite a while. However. It is nice to see that you can now get some of the same functionality across multiple browsers. It softens the blow when you are unable to use the browser of your own choice.
January 18, 2010
Awesome Extension.. Thanks for sharing..
January 23, 2010
And for Mac users? Seems Extensions are not available on Chrome. Reading that I need to get Chromium. (check) Just installed FireBug Lite but haven’t got it to work. Maybe I have to relaunch. hmmmm?