Google Chrome has
much to recommend it as a browser, but a veteran FireFox or habitual Internet
Explorer user may be hesitant to give up the add-ons or plug-ins that make
their favorite web browsers more useful. Chrome extensions are
the answer here, as they replicate or replace the functionality found in
typical browser plug-ins.
Below we list the
top 8 Chrome extensions to get you started.
1. Feedly
If you have bookmarked
RSS feeds from Google Reader, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube or Amazon, the Feedly
Chrome extension is your new best friend. Feedly automatically imports your
feeds, then arranges the content into a eye-pleasing magazine page. The Feedly
extension also keeps a running tally of your unread items in the address bar,
so you know exactly how many stories await in your new personal news site.
If you're a Google
Chrome user, odds are you're a Gmail user, too. This Chrome extension will
direct every e-mail link on a website to a Gmail window, rather than firing up
MS Outlook. No more copy-and-pasting e-mail addresses into Gmail for you. As an
added bonus, you can instantly email the URL to any page you're reading using
this extension. This makes it so much easier to spam out that link for the
latest LOLcats image or OK Go video.
The only real
disadvantage to Gmail compared with a desktop-based mail client is that, unless
you have Gmail open, you don't get instant notification that new mail has been
received. The Google Mail Checker Chrome extension keeps a running tally of
your unread Gmail messages next to the Chrome address bar, and clicking the
extension icon will open a Gmail tab. Never wonder whether you've got unread
Gmail again.
4. IE Tab
Some sites are optimized
to run exclusively in Internet Explorer, especially Microsoft products like
Outlook Web Access. Don't give up that native IE Web functionality just because
you're using Chrome. The IE Tab Chrome Extension creates a virtual IE browser
within Chrome, so you get all the Internet Explorer-ness without running two
different browsers.
Highlighting
text from a page, copying it, opening a new tab, pasting it and hitting enter
to search had already branded itself deep into our muscle memory by the time we
discovered FastestChrome, which executes the whole routine in a single click.
It pops up a bubble full of search sites whenever you highlight text, and does
a lot of other cool tricks, too. The qLauncher, for instance, lets you launch
any of your favorite bookmarks by combining them with a key.
There are a lot of
Chrome extensions that stop videos from automatically playing when you visit their
host pages, but the Stop Autoplay Chrome Extension goes the extra mile: It
stops autoplay but still pre-buffers the video. For those of you with slow
connections, no longer must you suffer through stuttering YouTube playback
while you wait for the entire video to load. Simply wait for the progress bar
to fill up, and then hit play; your video will be waiting for you.
7. AdBlock
Some claim that ad blocking is killing the free
Web; others say that ad blockers are simply killing bad advertisers. Whatever
your position, anyone looking for an equivalent of Greasemonkey for Chrome should start with the
AdBlock Chrome extension. It strips out most ads from the majority of websites,
making for a cleaner, faster (and, thanks to blocked auto playing video ads, quieter) browsing
experience.
Use this extension to help
you locate relevant information faster. When you search for something in Google
and click a link, Google Quick Scroll will highlight the text that’s most
relevant to your query and allow you to jump to that section of the page.
These Chrome extensions will get you started down the road to more efficient, effective Web browsing, but they're just the beginning.
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