Okay Geek Farm
My Top 5 Google Chrome Extensions
Ricardo Trejo
Earlier in the week we posted up TechCrunch's starter pack for Google Chrome extensions. Well, I wasn't too happy with their choices since out of all of them I only liked one. So I went ahead and made a list of the add-on's that I think make for a great starter park, or better yet, an essentials list.
Just to give you some background I haven't used FireFox in about two to three months. I literally packed up all my belongings and bookmarks and made Chrome my default browser. Why did I do this, especially when I've been using FF since 2006 and I've never questioned its style or methods - I mean, what else was I going to use, Internet Explorer? Pfff.
Well, speed and performance were hindering my online experience! I had to look elsewhere. Firefox had some great tools but at the expense of sucking my computer's resources dry. I had dabbled with Chrome when it was back in its Beta form a year ago, so I thought I'd give it another go. My only real concern with becoming exclusive to Chrome was a lack of Add-On support, so I persevered... that was until now. With extensions now available to every user, and not just developers, I have no need to even look back at FireFox. I mean how can they compete with a browser that has the resources of Google behind it? Not sure exactly, but I'm already forgetting my days with FF, so I think that answers the question.
Before I get into my list I'd like to point out how add on's look and feel in Google Chrome. The first thing you'll notice that the Chrome extensions have is a clean and quick install. Just find the add-on you're interested in, click INSTALL, and you're done. No restarting the browser; just Hassle free, immediate access. And once you have installed a couple you'll see that some come with nifty icons located in the right hand top corner, next to your address bar. Going into your tools drop down menu, and then extensions, will give you your options for each, as well as disabling and uninstalling.
My list in no particular order:
Having a good Gmail notifier is hard to come by; my last one was via Growl notifications which did a great job, but I've really been wanting an in-browser solution. So this add-on really was up my alley. Its icon animation is minimalistic and responsive - notifying me of emails within seconds of receiving them, and how many unread I have in my inbox. Clicking on the icon itself takes you straight to gmail in a new tab. Best Gmail notifier out there in my opinion.
Everyone who is or has been an avid FireFox user knows of AdBlock; the premiere ad blocker. It works perfectly in Chrome and I never have to worry again about loading issues due to huge distracting ad's again. My only gripe with this version is that there are no options. The firefox equivalent offered extensive features to choose which you wanted to see, though, I don't see why you'd want to unblock ads on certain sites - that is unless of course those ad's are hosted on t3chh3lp! /shameless plug
Just about everyone uses twitter, so why not cut out that extra step and check out your tweets in browser? The icon is simple, turning red when new tweets have been posted, and turning blue when you've caught up with each of them. It's lightweight and doesn't break your browsing flow when you access it from your toolbar.
If you have a Google Wave account (which you should, and if you don't stay tuned) then this is for you. It's a bare bones notifier with the icon changing colors when unread waves are available. Clicking on the icon takes you to your Wave page, but it's good to know ahead of time before you go ahead and decide to load up that behemoth.
It's a very simple PDF reader. It opens the file in Google Docs and makes reading PDF's a breeze; taking only seconds rather than minutes when other programs are put up to the task. The one down side is the inability to save as a Google Doc, and that files open within the current tab instead of a new one. Updates can solve both problems.
As more are released I'll be sure to try them out and suggest the keepers.
