With Google releasing a stable version of Chrome that supports extensions, it’s a great time to install some of these enhancements for the Web browser. Google says there are now 1500 extensions to choose from, which you can find and install.
Installing an extension is quite simple. Click Install, and from the screen that appears, click install again. Most extensions will then show up on the upper right hand corner of Chrome.
In some instances, you use the extension by clicking its icon; in others, you don’t need to. To see your list of extensions and uninstall any, click the Chrome tools icon and select Extensions.
You’ll see a list of them, be able to change options on any that allow you do to that, and either disable or uninstall them as well. Unlike in Firefox, when you uninstall an extension, you don’t need to restart the browser.
Enough background --- time to get to my favorites.
Xmarks for Chrome
Xmarks is the single best browser add-on I’ve ever used. It lets you keep your bookmarks in synch among multiple computers using multiple operating systems using multiple browsers --- and now, finally, it’s available for Chrome. Internet Explorer and Chrome on the PC and Firefox on the Mac, and thanks to Xmarks, no matter which browser I use, my bookmarks are always up to date on every browser !
Xmarks also has some extras, including providing information about Web sites when you do searches. I find that feature annoying and turn it off; you might want to as well.
Google Quick Scroll
Google Quick Scroll solves my biggest complaint when doing searches -- after you click a search result and go to a Web page, you don’t know where to find the text you searched for.
With this nifty extension, after you do a search and end up on a page, you’ll see text at the bottom right of Chrome, that shows the text in context on the page. Click it and you jump directly to that text. Definitely a huge time-savers for frequent Internet searchers.
Facebook for Google Chrome
Now I know you’ll love this ! Any Chrome user who uses Facebook will want the Facebook for Google Chrome extension. Click its icon, and you’ll be able to read your Facebook news feed and wall, as well as update your status, without having to visit Facebook !
IE Tab
Like it or not, there are plenty of Web pages built specifically for Internet Explorer. Visit one of them in Chrome and it breaks , unless you have IE Tab. Similar to an extension that does the same thing for Firefox, it will let you view a site using IE right inside a Chrome tab.
FlashBlock
Do Flash ads and other Flash content annoy you? If so, join the club --- and get rid of them. This extension will block Flash content on Web pages, but also let you decide on a which sites on which you want to allow Flash. I simply love it !
Its always fun to play around with extensions, and especially when its Google.
Visit https://chrome.google.com/extensions and have a blast ! |
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