Google Chrome has became my favourite browser lately; it’s faster to start up, simple to use, and most importantly, the address bar let me search and navigate at the same time. With Instant enabled, search results and webpages (prioritized by my browsing history) appear as I type in the address bar. I am so used to this feature of Chrome, in fact, I have removed all other browsers from my dock.
Another useful feature is the ability to install extensions for additional functionalities, and here are 12 highly recommended Chrome extensions that will surely impressive you.
Diigo
It allows you to highlight, bookmark and put sticky notes on webpages. All annotations are hidden until you active the extension. You can tag bookmarks, view all the highlights and sticky notes in your online Library, share them via email or social networking sites etc. It’s very useful if you are reading a long article, and want to jog down some notes or review the key points later.
PanicButton
You can hide all tabs with one click of the button or a configurable keyboard shortcut. Click again to restore the tabs. You can even set a safe page to be displayed when all tabs are hidden. Simple enough. You can use it to protect privacy in emergency situations or avoid some awkward moments (i.e. your boss randomly walked by your at work… )
Forecastfox
It delivers international weather from AccuWeather.com. Nothing fancy, but could save you sometime in opening the website multiple times to get updates on weather conditions. Once click shows current conditions, 7-day forecast, with configurable details for each day, and you can switch between multiple locations within the extension.
Craigslist Helper
Craigslist is great, but its interface is crap. This extension lets you preview the ad text and image without clicking into it, add notes, bookmark, configure alerts etc. You can also hide ads or favourite them for easy comparison. It just makes your craigslist search results so much richer and meaningful.
AddThis
It enables you to instantly share web pages, blogs, news, photos, videos, and any other content to over 300 services. Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, Live, Mixx, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Twitter, TypePad, WordPress, and anything else you can probably name. Don’t worry if the list runs on and on, it’s customizable.
SpeedDial
Displays a number of website on a new tab/window with its logo or page preview, so you can access them quickly. You can add website to the dial from the page, drag and drop to arrange. The maximum number of dials is 81 (9×9 matrix), you can also customize the background image and theme color. Simple yet essential.
IE Tab
Just like the name describes, it turns Chrome into IE once clicked. It solves the compatibility issue for some older websites that built to only support IE… so you don’t have to switch back and forth between browsers. However, it only works on Windows not on Mac.
Mail Checker Plus for Google Mail
If you are a Gmail user, this is a must. It not only delivers desktop and sound notifications when new mail arrives, you can also preview the mail, mark as read, delete, archive, or mark as spam, all within the notification window. There are more than 10 icon sets to choose from as well.
Boomerang for Gmail
Ever wonder if you can schedule your emails to be sent or returned at a later date? Maybe you want to send an email tomorrow at 8am but you will be stuck in traffic at that time. With this Gmail extension, emails will be send at scheduled time and you don’t even have to be online. Even set a reminder if you don’t receive a reply for important emails within a set period of time.
Feedly
Feedly provides seamless integration with Google Reader and Twitter, so you can read and share the content of the RSS feeds with a fast and stylish interface. The seamless 2-way synchronization with Google Reader let you manage your content easily, but not stuck with the boring and hard to read interface of Google Reader.
ChromeMilk
The Chrome Extension for Remember the Milk. You can access the tasks right in the toolbar, or add a new task within the window. It shows Remember the Milk’s Gmail, iGoogle, iPhone or Mobile gadget in a popup when clicked. The extension can also show your incomplete tasks in a badge. Basic but handy sometimes.
Google Shortcuts
Display all Google services as buttons, includes 150+services from Google, such as Gmail, Google Reader, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Docs and tons of others I never heard of… You can customize the icon size, rearrange them etc. A great extension if you are using many of those Google Apps, or you are just obsessed with Google.
Oh, and if you ever run out of spaces for extensions (or your address bar becomes very short due to the crowded toolbar), you can hide the ones you don’t use that often by dragging the separator between the address bar and toolbar.
