Google Chrome: There’s a lot under the hood
Here you’ll find 10 essential Google Chrome extensions for every-day use. Add-ons that save you time as well as enhance your web browsing experience.
Google Chrome is now the king of browsers.
By the end of 2012 it had nearly 47% of users, followed by Firefox at 31%, Internet Explorer at 14.7% (and dropping yay!), followed by Safari at 4%. See current web browser statistics here.
Why is Google Chrome so popular?
It’s fast, has a clean, easy-to-use interface and already has an impressive list of extensions to enhance the needs of both developers and every-day web browsers. It’s adoption was boosted massively by being on the Google homepage of course, but kudos to them for making it awesome from day one as well.
Did I mention it’s fast? Check out a current speed comparison of all the major web browsers here.
Summary: (Links open in a new window)
- Adblock
- Buffer for Google Chrome
- Downloads
- Google Dictionary
- Instant Translate
- New Tab Redirect!
- Search Preview
- Webutation
- World Clocks
- WordPress Stats
10 Essential Google Chrome Extensions
Adblock
This does a great job of blocking almost all ads on the web and speeding up your browsing in the process. If you need to make an exception for a site, just click on the Adblock button to allow a specific page or domain.
Buffer for Google Chrome
Buffer is the most convenient way to share web pages with your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networks. Browse to the webpage you want to share, click the Buffer button and a pop-up window appears, allowing you to select and share to your social networks.
Downloads
Quick access to the downloads section. Why is this not part of Google Chrome??
Google Dictionary
Instant access to the entire Google dictionary within your browser. Just highlight the word and click the dictionary button.
Instant Translate
When you’re on a page with some foreign text, just select the area you want to translate and click the button!
New Tab Redirect!
Makes Google Chrome open a specific URL when opening a new tab.
Search Preview
This adds website screenshots next to the Google search results making it look more colorful and easier to recognize what you’re looking for.
Webutation
Gives you a score from webutation.net for the website you’re currently viewing. Clicking the button will give you much more detail, including data from WOT and Wikipedia if applicable.
World Clocks
Adds some very slick-looking analog and digital clocks to Google Chrome that allows you to synchronize with people around the world. Great for webinars and conference calls on the web.
WordPress Stats
A quick and simple way to check the stats for your WordPress blog. Just enter the full URL and your Akismet API key into the fields and you’re good to go.
For more detail on getting the correct key, click here.
Did you find this list of essential Google Chrome extensions useful? Think we missed a useful extension? Let us know in the comments.
You can put a downloads link in your bookmarks bar by linking to “chrome://downloads/”
newtab and history work the same way. Even better is to make it not have any text so it shows up as just the navicon.
Will give it a test drive. Thanks for the tip and taking the time to comment!
I already use some of them… OK now will try the rest…
Cool. If you’re using any others that you think are good practical ones let us know.
Surely I will…thnx.
Here’s a cool one if you have WordPress
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/post-to-wordpress/hhmhfcfbheceghfbfjgkjnlhooadpnej
Looks great will add it to Chrome and give it a spin around the block. Thanks for commenting!