Tutorial Details
- Program: Google Chrome
- Subject: Browser Extensions
When Chrome first entered the browser wars in September 2008, although it quickly acquired a big 1% of the audience, many resented the fact it wasn’t as extensible as the long-time favorite Firefox browser. Developers want add-ons – things that’ll make their coding faster and easier, with less room for mistakes. Things which, let’s face it, Chrome couldn’t yet offer. But things have since changed.
Chrome features a vast collection of extensions at the moment. It also regularly beats its opponents in various speed and compatibility tests, while the great set of developer tools promoted the browser to a very interesting solution for web enthusiasts. But does it have enough ‘extension power’ to overcome Firefox? Check out the following twenty extensions, and make up your own mind!
1. Web Developer
Some of you might be familiar with this plug-in from Firefox. Although the Chrome version can’t disable JavaScript, due to some restrictions from the browser’s side, WDT remains one of the most powerful additions to a web developer’s arsenal.
You can easily outline different elements of a site, and test it in various environments (for instance, without CSS and images) through the extension. It also offers quick access to important code validation services and some other interesting options.
2. Pendule
Though it isn’t filled with features like Chris Pederick’s Web developer toolbar, Pendule proves itself to be worthy of comparison against the famous Firefox add-on.
Other than the basics (source, images, validators), it contains a couple of very cool tools, like the ruler and the color picker, which will be highly valued by web developers and aren’t a part of WDT.
3. Chrome Sniffer
No, Chrome sniffer can’t produce smells equivalent to your screen picture. Sorry. However, if you’d like to find out which frameworks and libraries a particular site uses, that’s an area sniffer can help you with.
As appealing as looking through someone else’s uncommented code might sound to you, there are times when a web developer doesn’t have time to play games. Sometimes you may just want to figure the library out and get it over with. Is the site using jQuery? Yes? OK, let’s move on. That’s what Code sniffer is all about.
4. Chrome SEO
Although still in Beta, Chrome SEO is one of the best search engine optimization analyzers you can find as a browser extension these days.
It provides easy access to various tools that can help you out with Competitive Analysis, Keyword Research, Backlink Checks, PageRank Checks and other daily SEO tasks.
5. Speed Tracer
Speed tracer is an official Chrome extension, developed by Google. It tracks your site performance in real-time, generating reports on various problems that might have occurred while communicating with the server. You can then use these metrics to optimize your code for better site performance.
Note: You should read the getting started guide before using Speed tracer.
6. Frame Two Pages
“Frame Two Pages” does exactly what it sounds like; it splits your two tabs into resizable frames. In other words, your physical screen will be split into independent areas.
Once you click the extension’s icon, the current tab will be merged with the previous (left) one into a frameset with two rows or columns (frames). Unlike the other similar extensions, “Frame Two Pages” can open links in the same frame they were clicked in.
7. Snippy
Snippy allows you to grab snippets from web pages and save them for future use or upload to Google Docs. The extension is very useful when copying a lot of information from various sites, since it shortens the cpoy/paste process to only one simple click.
8. IE Tab
No matter how much we hate it, the fact remains that some sites need Internet Explorer to work properly. IE tab acts as if you had the Internet Explorer engine running inside your Chrome browser.
Although most developers will use IE tab to test their work in Internet Explorer, the extension can also be used to access local (file://) URLs (not possible through Chrome itself).
9. Color Picker
Color picker can provide you with both hexadecimal and RGB values of a currently selected color. It does a pretty good job most of the time, but the desired site must be fully loaded at 100% zoom level for best results.
10. BuiltWith
Similar to Chrome sniffer, BuiltWith does a great job of understanding which technologies and frameworks a particular site is using. In addition to their names and short descriptions, you’ll be provided with usage statistics and a list of other websites using the same technologies.
11. Lightshot
LightShot is a tool which allows you to easily make screenshots of any area of a website. You just hit the Lightshot icon on the toolbar; select an area you want to make a screenshot of, and click “Save” or “Upload to server”. In case of uploading you instantly get a link to the screenshot you’ve just uploaded.
You can also copy or edit your screenshots (add text, draw lines and more other functions) using an on line tool much reminding of Photoshop.
12. Xmarks bookmark sync
If you’re working on multiple computers, you likely know it’s not easy to maintain synchronization between your bookmarks in order. Maybe one of the PCs is using Firefox, the other one Safari, the third Chrome, etc. You can’t just keep copying all your bookmarks between them forever.
And you don’t have to, because Xmarks will do that for you. It can synchronize across multiple computers and web browsers, and is available as a free extension for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.
13. Web of Trust
Chrome is an extremely safe browser. The safety measures actually go as far as to start entirely new processes for each tab; so there is very little room for any wandering viruses to crawl thorough and attack your computer. It also warns you if you’re visiting a site that is on the Chrome “blacklist.”
If you need more security, “Web of Trust” is for you. WOT ratings are powered by the users and their experiences with websites, so it’ll warn you when trying to access a site others have had problems with. It’ll also rate your Google/Yahoo/Bing search results so you are warned about a particular site reputation in advance.
14. Last Pass
LastPass is a free online password manager and form filler that easily remembers your on line passwords and auto-fills them for you. The only password you’ll need to remember from now on is the one of your Last pass account!
15. Chromeshark
ChromeShark is a Chrome extension containing basic playback controls for your Grooveshark account. You can pause a song, skip it, or stop the playback entirely.
Note: The extension has problems when multiple Grooveshark tabs are opened.
16. Recent History
Chrome has a fairly complicated way of accessing your browsing history. It can be done through two long mouse clicks! That’s why Recent history is such a big time saver. It’s positioned in the right-hand side of your address bar, and allows you to access the recently closed tabs and most recently visited pages from only one pop-up.
17. L(ink)y URL Shortener
Twitter users will absolutely adore this extension. It automatically shortens your URLs using the popular Bit.ly URL shortening service. It also remembers the most recent shortened URLs so you don’t have to retype them.
18. Tab Menu
For those who like to get carried away opening new tabs in Google Chrome, this tool will be of great assistance. Instead of looking at tiny horizontal tab icons, it gives you a vertical overview of all your current tabs opened and enables searching as well!
19. Note Anywhere
With “Note Anywhere,” you can post a sticky note on any page you are viewing, customize it, and then review the note on a later date.
It can be quite useful when doing on line research, since the sites you posted the stickers on will be remembered in the extension’s options page. They remain posted until you delete them.
20. Auto Translate
This translator can be customized according to your preferences, so you can choose when will the translate pop-up appear.
For instance, you could set it to translate from English when Control double clicked, but to try to detect the language automatically when you Shift select a word.
Thanks so much for reading. Which ones are your favorites? Any I missed?
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Nice!
I’m gonna stay with my long-time friend Firefox as my standard browser, though.
Just curious, are there any equivalent Firefox add-on to “Chrome Sniffer”? Looks sweet.
Hi, Erik.
Glad you like my article. There is an equivalent to Sniffer available for Firefox, called Wappalyzer (http://wappalyzer.com/). ;)
I tried to make the switch from firefox last month and only lasted 4 days. It’s getting there quickly but some of the plugins I installed simply didn’t work.
chrome seo and speedtracer look awesome. I think I’ll give it another go next week.
I think the translate is not needed, because Chrome always ask if the website’s language is not the same as user’s language.
I always use the LastPass and XMarks extensions for both Chrome and Firefox, they keep my profile synchronized.
Thanks for introducing some new interesting extensions :)
Great list! :)
Although I always use FireFox for WebDev and Safari for browsing I’ll give Chrome another try with these new extensions.
@Erik
FF equivalent can be found here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10083/
Its called ‘Library Detector’
@Toni Nice article. Good to know this stuff.
Chrome is the best.
Thanks for the add-on suggestions!
Web Developer, Pendule, Chrome Sniffer, and Speed Tracer. That will come in handy. Thanks!
Very interesting!
What about Firebug? I have considered switching over to Chrome before, but at the time it dident have all the extensions I use i Firefox, but having seen this list it makes me wanna try again. But its hard to switch to something new, when I have used Firefox for such a long time.
Firebug Lite for Chrome – https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bnbbfjbeaefgipfjpdabmpadaacmafkj
Haha, maybe should have shortened that URL…
Safari/Chrome actually have a built-in tool called the Web Inspector, which is the WebKit answer to Firebug, and the Web Inspector rocks. For some reason Chrome calls the Web Inspector “Developer Tools.” Open Chrome and hit Ctrl+Shift+I to pull em up (or under the page icon > developer > developer tools).
The Web Inspector/Developer tools are way better than Firebug Lite, and will give you pretty much everything Firebug does.
I disagree, Web Inspector from WebKit is good, but cannot be considered a replacement for firebug. Not when you use firebug for debugging Ajax and PHP (using FirePHP)
As oskarbravo said, firebug is available for Chrome.
The developer tools Chrome has integrated, however, might just prove you don’t need FireBug :).
Excellent collection, will be using a few of these! :)
What? No JS View? That, besides WDT and Firebug are the sole reasons I still use Firefox.
Give me a JS View and I’m sold.
Though it kinda sucks you cannot disable Javascript from Chrome, you could always accessibility-check on other browsers.
This is me making spam… I just forgot rule # 1 of the internet: search FIRST.
http://tinyurl.com/25uwlh5
Guess I’m sold!
Yea, it really stinks. I have to open up a new browser like firefox to test without javascript…
Excellent!!!!!
There is another remarkable seo extension for Chrome: Seo Site Tools https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/diahigjngdnkdgajdbpjdeomopbpkjjc
I still prefer Chromium to Chrome…
Thanks for this one, I love chrome, really simple and fast :)
Opening local files works fine in Chrome for me without IE Tab.
I used to use Firefox only, but then I got Chrome, which is a lot faster at loading pages, start up time, etc. You can find plenty of extensions for Chrome that are the same or better than some Firefox extensions.
Same thing with Firebug, I now use the Web Inspector that comes with Chrome, it has a nice interface and works just about the same as Firebug.
Chrome is truly the best browser in my opinion. Love webkit! And thanks for the tips.
RE: viewing javascript if you use Pendule it has a “View scripts” link that opens a new tab and shows you the scripts. I actually prefer the way Pendule does it over JSView from Firefox.
Other ones to try out:
- Better Gmail – cleans up gmail and converts all mail to links to open in gmail
- Bit.ly – If you like shortening with bit.ly
- Delicious Tools
- Docs PDF/PowerPoint viewer (Google) – Opens pdfs and other docs in google docs instead of their physical application such as Adobe Reader.
- Gmail Vitamin – cleans up the gmail interface a bit
- Linky – select an area to open all links in the area
- MesureIt! – measure an area on screen
- Pretty JSON – if you deal with JSON quite a bit it is much easier on the eyes with this
- RSS subscription Extension – Chrome doesn’t have a native feed icon that goes in the location bar, this extension which is by google adds it in for you when a page has a feed to subscribe to
- Session manager
- Webpage Screenshot
Good suggestions. But I think AdBlock is definitly missing! :)
Nup, Adblock is available too:
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom
AdBlock is OK, but Chrome does the job of blocking ads very well in my opinion. Just thought the extension wasn’t that necessary. :)
L(ink)y URL Shortener , web dev and the Lightshot
are the best for me
Lightshot is also an add on for IE,Firefox , and also a stand alone app which works better for me. :)
Hmm. I’ve seen this list of Chrome extensions before last month.
Thank you for the list. Not sure if this is an appropriate question: Is there a funtion or add on for IE 8 that allows the user to put and save stick notes on a web page, as Note Anywhere apparently does for Google Chrome? Thanks.
Thanks for posting. I’ve already seen this list of chrome extensions on other blog.
But explanation is given good here.
Great list .. All the more reason to use Google chrome.. ;)
I’m fan of chrome because load page speed, javascript ….
but chrome not is my default browse because chrome not have master password.
I just made the switch to Chrome, and I must say that so far I’m loving it. After seeing these plugins, I’m dying to try some of them out. It looks like I’ve found my browser of choice.
Thanks for the post!
The extensions covered here are a compelling reason to switch to Google Chrome, and there are many that are clearly better than those on Firefox. However I think because Chrome is still seen to be developing the switchover has been slow for many developers.
From the extensions covered I particularly like ‘Chrome Sniffer’. Being able to instantly tell what technologies have been used in a site can be extremely useful for research and analysing competitor sites. ‘Chrome SEO’ also seems extremely flexible and something I can envision using repeatedly.
I’ll be interested to see what other developers comments are on using Chrome in general, and if it is yet at the stage to tempt them away from Firefox.
Chrome SEO does look appealing and it’s good to know that there’s now a Firebug Lite plugin. If you’re able to use Firebug on top of the IE tab in Chrome it will save me having the use the IE dev tool again.
I’m a huge fan of chrome, switching over when I was bored of waiting for firefox to load. I’m already using a lot of these extensions (no reset to install, lovely). I would trade the WOT extension for Ultimate Chrome Flag (https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/dbpojpfdiliekbbiplijcphappgcgjfn) you get the WOT rating and Country or region name, Domain name and IP address, Geo information, Google PageRank, Alexa Rank.
Also rather than L(ink)y for twitterers out there Chromed Bird (https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/encaiiljifbdbjlphpgpiimidegddhic) is great. It has a selection of shorteners built in (go to options) a must have tool. If you don’t want to tweet it, it still works great just as a URL shortner.
Also worth mentioning that IE tab is windows only.
Also for some reason adthwart is better than adblock when it comes to chrome. Wierd. (https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb).
Great post, hopefully it will spur people to try and make the switch. :)
I’ve been using Safari for the past couple of years, now i’m seriously thinking of using Chrome as well. Having the IE tab definitely makes development easier. A few more extensions like this and i will switch to Chrome for all my web development.
Thanks for the great post! I downloaded the web developer, but it seems it doesn’t work on Mac OS X (10.6.3). Still sticking with Firefox I guess…
Very interesting!
I will keep Firefox as my default browser to support Mozilla, but Chrome seems to be evolving nice and quickly. Is there an add-on like Mouse Gestures or FireGestures for Chrome/Chromium/Iron?
Mouse gestures:
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/lfkgmnnajiljnolcgolmmgnecgldgeld?hl=en
It was supposed to be in the article, but later substituted since it doesn’t work on many sites.
I already made the change about 2 or 3 months! Chrome has a nicer interface, and all the plugins I need!
I missed Shareaholic on that list!
Oh great! I also just switched to Chrome and so far I’m just loving it. Thanks for these great extensions!
I recommend “Seo Site Tools” and “AdBlock +”. “Google Mail Checker Plus” is also very cool =)
I like:
- Google Voice, Tasks and Calendar Extensions
- Chromey Calculator
You should include Shareholic to your extensions . It’s great for sharing and update on social networks :)
Man thank you soo much for this!!!
I’ll probably stick to firefox using the chromifox theme :P. Noticed some have comparisons to the ff equiv so Wappalyzer does the same thing as Chrome Sniffer.
The only thing tempting me to re install chrome is the Speed Tracer definately going to have a read up on that.
ok I’m going over to chrome… firefox keeps freezing all the time
is there also a similar fast dial plugin in chrome?
This might be the extension you were looking for ;):
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/dgpdioedihjhncjafcpgbbjdpbbkikmi
Speed dial for Chrome.
See also Mobile Browser Simulator, Full web page screenshot, Lorem Impsum Generator, Vertical Tabs
Pretty good topic.
Very useful since I’m thinking about using Chrome instead of Firefox (my Firefox often freezes due to many Bookmarks I have.).
Very useful list, thanks.
The one which absolutely made me switch recently though is Google Search Sidebar: http://bit.ly/cbnTH4
I can’t believe how addicted I had become in Firefox to its way of adding Dictionary, Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube items to the right hand side of my Google search results… Anyway, it’s in Chrome now and I won’t look back.
I will stay with firefox. Chrome is a software with a commercial company behind it, which is trying to be monopol in internet. We experienced this with IE, after they reliased that they have no rivals, they ignored web standarts, some websites were only working on IE. Still we are trying to get rid of IE 6.0 and it is not going away.
I use Chrome and it looks as very nice web browser.
Thanks for sharing!
Great Article Toni!
Thank you for listing the most useful extensions!
I Don’t get time to go to the extensions gallery, so this post is a great help!
Thanks Again!
Thanks for the Extensions .. Chrome is an awesome browser ..
Chrome is a nice browser. Althought now I have so many extensions installed that the lightning fast loading is no more, just like firefox. I guess thats the price of usability.
I wont ditch firefox but keep using them both. One feature that is missing in chrome is RSS and Atom feeds straight in toolbar which is a big reason why I prefer firefox. There is extension(s) also for RSS etc. feeds but they are not the same..
Until Xmarks does password sync for Chrome I’ll still keep using Firefox – But that is the only reason I am still using it!!!
its amazing.. i like the seo extensions.