Common Dream

Chrome Extensions I Use

I've been using Chrome on and off for a while now, and one thing I really like about Chrome when I'm using it is its awesome extension support. Developers can write extensions for Chrome in javascript, so no fancy tools are required to get going with writing extensions. As much as I like extensions, I use them fairly sparingly, because it's easy to clutter up the browser with them. Here are my 3 favorites so far:

Instachrome by edgar.js

This extension lets you mark stuff you'd like to read later in Instapaper. I'm an avid Instapaper user, so I wanted something that made shoving articles their way easier. This extension sits in the Chrome toolbar and gives a few options for marking articles and getting back to articles in Instapaper.

Chromed Bird by Cezar Sá Espinola

Chromed Bird is a Twitter client for Chrome. I was a big user of Tweetie for Mac, but Tweetie doesn't support the new style of retweets, so I figured I'd try out Chromed Bird. I haven't opened Tweetie since I installed Chromed Bird. It's basically a Twitter client in a big drop down, and I'm not in love with the general design, but it's met my tweeting needs really well.

It's kind of suprising that Google didn't include subscribing to as a default Chrome feature, but this extension handles the task handily. It shows up in the unibar (that's Chrome's name for their hybrid search/address bar).

I do have a few critiques of how Google handles extensions. I'd be far happier if Google would:
  • Publish human interface guidelines for extensions so that developers would know better when to use the different extension points, 
  • Add the ability to add to context menus from extensions (it's coming in a future release). There are quite a few extensions that would be better if they were far more out of the way. 
  • Sync extensions like bookmarks are synced.
Chrome has never felt native to me like Safari does. It will be interesting to see if Apple adds extensions to Safari like John Gruber hinted at yesterday. Safari has to stop beach balling so much on my computer for me to ever be fully content with it as my primary browser.