FOR most of us, who do lot of work on the web, the Google Chrome has become the browser of choice. Chrome is popular primarily because of its speed, functionality and features like synchronisation of bookmarks, great HTML5 support, and built-in Flash and PDF readers. However, for many users all these features are not enough, they always look for shortcuts that can save time on the repetitive or mundane tasks. So we need extensions, which are like the “apps” of the browser world.
Here are some interesting extensions that you can install to improve your Google Chrome experience:
HTTPS everywhere
This is an awesome extension that will encrypt your web connection to thousands of web sites while you browse. It’s absolutely essential if you regularly browse the web from non-secure locations like hotels, airports, WiFi hotspots, etc. It’s also fine to use all the time as it helps prevent identity theft by protecting your online privacy. However, as this extension uses HTTPS to connect to sites, you might run into some problems where some sites break and don’t load properly. A way out is that you can enable the extension only while you are using an insecure network.
Drag and drop search
This extension is all about making your search experience even better. In Google Chrome, when you select some text and right-click, you see an option to perform a search on that text. The Drag and Drop Search extension extends that by allowing you to drop the text into search zones, each of which can be customised by you. For instance, you can have zone for Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, etc. You can also use the extension to shorten links in an easy and seamless manner.
Attachments.me for Gmail
In case you have stored the file on the desktop, attaching files to Gmail is quite easy. However, if the file is resting in the cloud, things get somewhat difficult. This extension is all about making it simpler for you to access files on your Google Drive, Dropbox, or Box accounts and attach them to a message, without even leaving the Gmail interface.
KeyRocket
KeyRocket is an awesome extension. It can recommend keyboard shortcuts to you while you are working in Gmail. Let’s say you type an email and click send. KeyRocket will notify you that you could have pressed a keyboard shortcut instead to send them email. Basically this is a great way to learn shortcuts for Gmail.
Google dictionary
Even if you are well versed in the English language, you can still come up with words whose meaning you don’t know. ‘Google Dictionary’ is a great extension that lets you to quickly look up a word and hear how it is pronounced. It works with quite a few different languages, so you will find the plugin useful even if your language of choice is language like Spanish, Russian, French, German, etc.
AdBlock Plus
The only reason that you get lot of free stuff on the Internet, like Search, etc, is because of the ads. The Internet companies make their money from the ads, and you are able to have all kinds of services for free. So it might not be such a good idea to turn of the ads, as it is the ads that are funding the freebies that you access. However, in case you wish to block all the ads, you can use this extension. It is, in fact, one of the most popular extensions for Chrome and once you install it, the ads will instantly vanish.
Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer
Once you have installed this extension, all you need to do is click a link to any PowerPoint presentation (a PPT file or the like) or a PDF file, and you will be shunted directly to Google Docs/Drive to view the file. You won’t even have to download it and open it in actual PowerPoint or Adobe Reader, or re-upload it to Google Drive first.
Gmail offline
This highly popular extension allows you to read and respond to emails even when you are without an Internet connection. It essentially saves emails locally on your computer for a short period of time, and will send off all your responses as soon as you acquire an Internet connection.
