Are You Ready To Transfer To Chrome? – 30 Irreplaceable Chrome Extensions
Dainis Graveris
I’ve always been using Firefox browser, I mean already for 5–6 years and never thought I would want to choose something else. Firefox is great browser and what makes it so great is all those thousands of plugins you download freely. You can find now plugin for almost everything you could ever think of – there is only one big downside. Firefox is much slower than Chrome and actually eat’s more of computer’s CPU than other browsers.
I have a friend who suggested to try Chrome again and I thought I will give it a try – now I will check how much and how good extensions Chrome has and is it enough to transfer now???
This article will try to answer to question – can designer, web developer, social marketing, SEO person actually transfer to Chrome without any loss of extension features. Are there something similar to FireBug, WebDeveloper, Color Picker, SEO For Firefox, Alexa ranks, debugging tools, which can be replaced to be used daily?
Let’s put Chrome on test – shall we?
If you know a little about Google Chrome read our previous article about this browser features – Google Chrome Review.
Chrome Extensions For Daily Browsing
1. Aviary Screen Capture
Take a screen capture of the visible portion of any web page and it will open in an editor where you can crop it, add text and arrow markup, get color information or move around areas. You can easily save it to your desktop or host it online. The extension also lets you quick launch any of Aviary’s web editor design apps. View extension screenshots by clicking on the thumbnail and using the arrow keys.
2. Xmarks Bookmarks Sync
Backup and sync your bookmarks across computers and browsers. Xmarks is also available for Firefox, Safari and IE.
Since I am working on one computer at work and laptop, I love this automatic tool syncing my bookmarks and allowing me to worry about other things.
3. AdThwart
Block ads on websites. Supports EasyList and many other ad blocker filter lists.
4. Evernote Web Clipper
Evernote’s Web Clipper extension let you save interesting stuff you see on the web.
5. LastPass
LastPass is a free online password manager and Form Filler that makes your web browsing easier and more secure.
6. RSS Subscription
This extension auto-detects RSS feeds on the page you are reading and upon finding one will display an RSS icon in the Omnibox, allowing you to click on it to preview the feed content and subscribe. Very handy extension for daily blog browsing.
7. Chrome Gestures
Allows you to execute common commands (like page forward/backward, close tab, new tab) by mouse gestures drawn over the current webpage, without reaching for the toolbar or the keyboard.
If you don’t know how mouse gestures work, check out this video.
8. Google Similar Pages beta (by Google)
Discover webpages similar to the page you’re currently browsing. I understand this extension works similar like StumbleUpon, but it’s more objective because it’s based on Google search engine and it’s been released by Google – cannot be bad!
Here I tested it on my own website and got 4 very popular design blogs displayed – first test looks good, I am trying it more definitely.
9. Feedly
A magazine-like startpage. A fast and stylish way to read and share the content of your favorite sites and services. Provides seamless integration with Google Reader, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube and Amazon.
10. Delicious Chrome Extension
Very simple and clean Delicious extension allowing you to simply bookmark page to Delicious. This extension adds just one button, without whole bookmark bar, I loved it!
11. Google Quick Scroll
Google Quick Scroll is a browser extension that helps you find what you are searching for faster. After you click on a Google search result, Quick Scroll may appear on the bottom-right corner of the page, showing one or more bits of text from the page that are relevant to your query. Clicking on the text will take you to that part of the page.
Chrome Extensions For Social Networking
12. Google Mail Checker
Displays the number of unread messages in your Google Mail inbox. You can also click the button to open your inbox, very handy tool for daily browsing.
13. Chromed Bird
Chromed Bird is a Twitter extension that allows you to follow your timelines and interact with your Twitter account.
14. Facebook for Google Chrome
Extension which lets you read your Facebook news feed and wall. You can also post status updates.
15. StumbleUpon Extension
Simple StumbleUpon toolbar for Chrome, you should be very familiar with it if you are stumbling daily.
16. goo.gl url shortener
goo.gl url shortener is an extension which allows you to shorten the current website URL with the new Google URL Shortener service http://goo.gl/.
Chrome Extensions For Web Designers, SEO specialists and Web Developers
17. Lorem Ipsum Generator
Many other extensions of this type – in other browsers – simply complicate this task, using really extensive code, XHR, etc. The main purpose of this one, is to use the less amount of code (and also memory) and help the developer/user to get the job done.
Great and simple classic Lipsum extension, required in every designer’s toolbar.
18. Firebug Lite
Firebug Lite is a tool for web developers, that allows you to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
19. META SEO inspector
A Google Chrome extension useful to inspect the meta data found inside web pages, usually not visible while browsing.
20. Pastebin
Post and coloring source code (C, Python, Ruby, HTML, CSS, …) on a pastebin service. Although useful for the share on the forums, IRC or social networks (like Twitter).
21. Speed Tracer (by Google)
Get insight into the performance of your web applications.
22. Resolution Test
An extension for developers to test web pages in different screen resolutions, with an option to define your own resolutions.
23. Copy Without Formatting
Provides various ways (customizable keyboard shortcut, floating button, or auto-copy) to copy your selection WITHOUT formatting.
24. IE Tab
Use Internet Explorer to display web pages in a Chrome tab. Some sites can only be displayed using IE, and with this extension you can now see those sites without leaving Chrome. Great for web developers who want to test the IE rendering engine, users who use sites with ActiveX controls, and users who want to use the explorer view for local files (i.e. file:// URLs).
25. Chrome SEO
I couldn’t live without great SEO tool, where I could see stats of current page I am visiting, this tool is under development still, but already it’s very lightweighted, fast and working just excellent.
“The Google Chrome SEO extension provides easy access to Search Engine Optimization Tools that can help you with Competitive Analysis, Keyword Research, Backlink Checks and other daily SEO tasks.”
26. PageRank
Very simple and light extension which only task is to display pagerank automatically while page loads. For advanced browsing I would use Chrome SEO, but for automatic,fast stats display I like this plugin in my Chrome Extensions as well!
27. SitezMeter
SitezMeter displays traffic charts from Google Trends, Alexa and Compete side by side, as well as ranks. This extension is a handy tool to webmaster, web site owner and SEO/SEM specialists.
Of course, you can go to SitezMeter website directly, but this helps sometimes to do it faster in handy way, anyway – your pick!
28. Chrome Flags
Chrome Flags displays a country flag indicating about the physical location of the websites you’re visiting. The extension also provides access to detailed information regarding the website’s servers, owners, traffic and trustworthiness.
29. Eye Dropper
Eye Dropper and Color Picker extension which allows you to pick color from any webpage or from advanced color picker. You can also check option, that selected color HEX code will be automatically copied to clipboard. This tool is even more handier than ColorPicker on FireFox, because HEX code I needed to copy/paste manually.
30. MeasureIt!
Draw out a ruler that will help you get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
Yes, this popular Firefox extension for designers is available on Chrome as well! Great!
31. Pendule
Built in features for developers
I didn’t know there are already built in features for web developers, but wow, there is – and you don’t need to install anything.
This “Inspect Element” feature works similar like Firebug, but it has different features. Just select and element, text you are interested in, click right mouse button and check inspect element – you will get advanced and precise results right away! Very, very handy!
Read more about built-in features for developers in this google guide.
Summary
While testing all those different extensions, what I enjoyed the most – extensions are super easy and extremely fast to install/uninstall/activate. I was used to Firefox restart browser statement all the time, I never really thought about it. With Google Chrome you just click on install button and extension is live and working in seconds without any slow downloading or restarting, lagging. And in the same time, if I decided not to keep that extension, I could easily uninstall it as well without any problems.
I am amazed, it took me so long to try Chrome extensions, because I thought there could be nothing better then Firefox, all those thousands of plugins it has and there no way Chrome could compete with something like that EVER.
Dear readers, I was very wrong – of course, there aren’t so many extensions available just yet, but already all of them works way better, way faster and for now I haven’t got any problems with Chrome at all – just big, positive surprises.
For designers and developers I would suggest to give Chrome a try and check out design related extensions, there are already. They aren’t so much but already very handy and fast to use, which usually wasn’t the case with Firefox however.
Huh..but for daily browsing, tweeting, stumbling, mail management, blog writing ( yes, I mean all bloggers) – I suggest to switch to Chrome today and give it a chance. Try it for 3-4 days, install several your favorite extensions from this list and I am pretty sure, you will not want to go back to Firefox for daily browsing. Just my personal opinion, but I was very strong Firefox lover until yesterday, so there must be something good with this new browser I think :)
Let me know about your pros,cons and experiences with Chrome comparing it to Firefox! Let’s go to browsing!
You can download latest Chrome version here, but you need to install Google chrome BETA version in order to use and try extensions as well – get it here.
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nietzsche
Posted 760 days ago 36I feel like I’m being a cheating husband. I love Firefox, but now and then I can’t help but sneak a day or two away using Chrome. Firefox welcomes me back when I start developing again, but I feel so guilty! I’m still on the fence. Should I leave her and run off with Chrome? Will I realize too late that I should have stuck with Firefox, only to understand that its doors are closed, and it’s now out of date and rarely maintained? :(
Dumm
Posted 760 days ago 35i`ve already switched to chrome from a long time
Steve
Posted 760 days ago 34Is there an extension to get the bookmarks to drop down on the left side of the screen? I don’t like the way they have it now, dropping on the right side. Makes it hard to see.
Lowes Coupon
Posted 760 days ago 32Now that I have read this I might actually use Chrome! Most of these extensions I was unaware of and the reason why I stick to Firefox….
.-= Lowes Coupon´s last blog ..Black Vinyl Fence Products =-.
Ray
Posted 760 days ago 31So far so good, but once you have installed a few extensions and opened a couple of tabs …go have a look in the windows task manager and see the number of processes spawned by chrome…with two tabs open + 7 extensions I have 12 chrome processes running in my PC using up more than 220 MB memory.
In chrome each tab is a process and so as google says ‘one tab crash does not crash the browser’
pablo
Posted 760 days ago 30Do these extensions slow down performance? I am not yet decided to use some of them because of this.
Evil Mammoth
Posted 760 days ago 29I was skeptical about switching to Chrome myself, and I still think there are a couple of things it doesn’t do as well as Firefox. PDF handling has been a problem, though with the right extension, this is now working for me. Otherwise, Pendule is an excellent extension for Chrome, but I have yet to see a developer extension even get close to being as good as Web Developer for Firefox. The ability to use the right-click menu to carry out all the actions offered by the plugin makes it, by far, the most versatile and intuitive plugin for inspecting CSS, HTML, and page elements. Its keyboard shortcuts also prove very convenient.
Perhaps I’ve missed something with Pendule.
That being said, I do think Chrome [4] is now a legitimate contender to Firefox, though it does prove almost as resource heavy in XP. It runs much more efficiently in Windows 7.
Nice article. I have downloaded many of these extensions already but you’ve pointed me in the direction of a handful of them that sound interesting.
Evil Mammoth
Posted 760 days ago 33I forgot to mention as well that Firefox’s application handling is still far superior to Chrome’s. There is no easy way in Chrome (as far as I can tell, anyway) to configure how the browser handles different filetypes. Some of this is covered by extensions, but there should be a way to configure these settings in Options.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 760 days ago 28Oh wow, yes really! I will change it soon! :) Thank you for sharing such great bookmarklet!
Eric
Posted 760 days ago 27You can save ink and paper by using Print Friendly. I wrote a chrome extension that makes it easy to use.
http://erichamiter.com/print-friendly/
midlifemom
Posted 760 days ago 24Upon reading lots of advice, I put Chrome on my new netbook. I was skeptical at first b/c I too am a long time user of FF and I have it ‘tricked out’ to the max. But I was pleasantly surprised to find all of my ‘must have’ FF extensions also available in Chrome. I feel guilty saying this, but I am really getting hooked. B/C of the speed, using Chrome on a netbook is a no-brainer. But, now I am thinking about using it on my desktop and laptop as well. I would add Brizzly (a reader for both twitter and FB) to the list.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 760 days ago 25Thank you, I will check out Brizzly and consider it :)
Yes, same happened with me, I was very surprised in good way about Chrome as well! :)
Shawn Hooghkirk
Posted 760 days ago 23Currently I browse the internet with Chrome, but still develop in IE. There’s just no way around it. Although I do wish everyone was using Chrome 100% of the time, I would rather see some healthy competition and innovation (ahem IE).
I’m looking forward to adding a few extensions on Chrome and hopefully it will keep its speed, compared to that of Firefox which bogs down after a certain amount of Add-Ons.
Anyways, thanks for sharing the list of extensions, especially Eye Dropper!
Mark
Posted 760 days ago 22Hay!
I’m already using it but thanks for sharing a valuable information with us.
Regards,
Web Design Company London
Ecenica
Posted 760 days ago 20Got excited when I spotted the FireBug Lite extenion – only to get this message “Google Chrome Extensions are not supported on Mac yet. We are working to enable them soon.” Fail ;-(
Dainis Graveris
Posted 760 days ago 21Yeah, it is a pity..currently Chrome do not support extensions for Mac..it’s strange though.. -1 to Google for now.
Bolero
Posted 760 days ago 26They do work if you use the dev channel. I am using 4.0.288.1 dev and all the extensions are working. And the version is very stable.
Also, check out Google Mail checker plus. Better than gmail checker. Gives you the ability to del/mark as read/archive in the pop up itself.
chris
Posted 760 days ago 18you can also sync your bookmarks in your google apps account which would eliminate the need for a third party bookmarking system
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/08/sync-google-chrome-bookmarks.html
and there’s an AdBlock extension, which a lot of us old FireFox user will recognize for ad blocking
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom
i’ve been using chrome since they first released it publicly and have slowly phased out my usage of firefox. i was a firefox devotee, as well. now i only use it to test webpages or for the one or two sites i go to occasionally that don’t play nice with webkit.
i find the built-in developer tools (they’re in safari, as well…it’s a webkit thing) to be an invaluable resource and i use it daily when i’m coding a website. i honestly don’t know how i survived without it, i use it so much. the only thing i could wish for is an extension that adds the same sort of user agents that safari has that allows it to emulate an iphone/mobile browser.
.-= chris´s last blog ..How not to use Twitter =-.
Designers-House
Posted 760 days ago 16what a great post !!!
i never thought that i can find all this extensions for Google chrome , really amazing post but i am still with Firefox til Google makes it open source , and a more little thing Firefox faster that Google chrome in browsing
.-= Designers-House´s last blog ..HQ Games DVDs Labels – PSD =-.
designi1
Posted 760 days ago 14I used chrome for a while with no extension so this article will be my guide for this week.
chrome: did not so excited about it. At the start i couldnt open my gmail acc with chrome… and so many other sites. Now seems everything is fixed. Going to try some of this. thanks for share!!
.-= designi1´s last blog ..Design for the smile – what the feelings can tell more about your design? =-.
Alice
Posted 760 days ago 13Great post! I’ve been thinking for a while now to switch to Chrome but I kept thinking about all the extensions I have installed now that I could not replace on Chrome, but there you go. I’m definitely going to make the step. Thanks!
.-= Alice´s last blog ..5 Cool Flash Menus to Use in Your Website =-.
Katrina Thompson
Posted 760 days ago 12Hi there
This is an excellent post, I’ve been using Chrome for a while now because it’s fast but have missed the tricks from Firefox. These have made my day, I’m such a geek!!
Katrina Thompson
Posted 760 days ago 15I meant to ask if any Chrome user has had probs with PDF viewing as that is one thing I can’t get my Chrome to do – any advice would be gratefully received as I’ve tried all sorts to fix this. Cheers.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 760 days ago 17I don’t know about PDF just yet but maybe this Chrome Extension will help –
Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer (by Google)
Katrina Thompson
Posted 760 days ago 19Thanks, I’ll give it a go. Apart from testing websites, it’s the only time I use another browser now to view a PDF! Cheers
Claude Sammut
Posted 760 days ago 11mmmm. ….. interesting! Almost all tools needed to switch! Will actually give them a try! Thanks for the update!
Andy Walpole
Posted 760 days ago 7Funny enough I was playing around with the extensions yesterday. The only extension that seems to provide something unique to Firefox is Speed Tracer but there is the YSlow and Page Speed extensions for Firefox Firebug. I can’t imagine ever switching over from Firefox to Chrome. Years ago there was an obvious reason for me to change from Internet Explorer to Firefox as the latter was quite obviously a better browser, however this isn’t the case with Chrome. Sure, the JavaScript rendering may be marginally quicker, but Chrome would have to offer something substantially better to entice me to switch. And their extension selection is not going to do that.
.-= Andy Walpole´s last blog ..The internet 10 years ago this month – January 2000 =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 760 days ago 8I don’t know maybe from developer’s point of view there is no reason to switch, but for daily internet browsing, tweeting, stumbling – I definitely prefer Chrome as it’s much more intuitive.
I would really suggest for you to put in use these extensions and try to work with Chrome for few days to get used to it, I tried Chrome several times until today after getting my favorite extensions – I found several handy features which made me to prefer Chrome:) Interesting enough!
Anne-Marie Kirwan
Posted 760 days ago 6I’ve been using Chrome for the past 6/7 months. Although it had some glitches, I instantly preferred it to Firefox as it was quicker. With each update and added extension (especially the IE tab) Chrome has just got better and better and I hardly use Firefox at all now.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 760 days ago 10Congratulations, I definitely agree – it’s hard to switch at first, but later it’s just become irreplaceable!
Smashing Share
Posted 760 days ago 5Great article Dainis. The future is Chrome definitely. Thanks for sharing these extensions.
.-= Smashing Share´s last blog ..Weekly Smashing Web Design Inspiration – #3 =-.
Chameleon
Posted 760 days ago 4I tried to cross over to Chrome and actually spent hours trying to shape it to work exactly like Firefox. There are some things that do not yet have an equivalent functionality in Chrome. Perhaps in time, but right now. And even though I could live without these, I don’t want to right now. So I guess I’ll buy a new PC :D
But awesome post, thanks for these extensions!
Dainis Graveris
Posted 760 days ago 9There must be spent some time to get used to and find what you need to work as fast as on FF, and if you do you may do things even faster :)
Took some time for me as well, but Chrome did it ;D
Simon
Posted 760 days ago 3Good article. I’ve been experimenting with Chrome plugins for SEO for a while now, and these are good choices.
Personally I’m loving chrome and only use Firefox for SEOQuake (which I’m on the Beta for in the hope of getting an early Chrome verison) but is there anything that you desperately miss from Firefox?
.-= Simon´s last blog ..15 of the best SEO add-ons for Google Chrome =-.
Stu Greenham
Posted 760 days ago 1Great post! I have missed a few that you mentioned and will check them out! I also would recommend the Pendule extension which has some great tools for web developers!
.-= Stu Greenham´s last blog ..Tutorial: Using CSS Shorthand in your Stylesheets =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 760 days ago 2I will definitely try out that extension and consider about adding it maybe to this article! Thank you for support!
*Added extension 31
Checked out – great addition, similar to web developer tool in firefox! Thanks!!