20 must have Google Chrome extensions

Chrome is really fast. It’s slick and easy to use, it’s great for creating website applications (if you don’t know what I mean, try the “Create application shortcuts” under the “Control” tab) and now it also supports extensions! If you’ve been using Firefox for a long time now, it will probably not be an easy move for you to just go and use Chrome as a default browser, as most of the add-ons you got accustomed to aren’t available for Chrome just yet. But fear not my friends, as there are actually quite a few extensions available already and with a quick search in Google Chrome Extension gallery, you’ll probably find what you’re looking for or at least something similar…

Here’s my list of 20 must-have Google Chrome extensions:

1. Autocomplete = on – simply changes ‘autocomplete=off’ to ‘autocomplete=on’ in web pages, so your passwords will be remembered, even on those websites that really don’t like to save your passwords.

2. AutoPager Chrome – this extension automatically loads the next page of a site when you reach the end of the current page for infinite scrolling of content. This is really great when browsing blogs, reading articles or just searching in Google.

3. Bookmark Tree – this basically provides a button in the toolbar that shows a bookmark tree of, well, your bookmarks, and opens them in new tab. Can be easily configured and it is executed beautify.

4. BugMeNot Lite – this extension adds an icon in the address bar (or omnibar) whenever a login form is present in a page. Then all you have to do is just press the icon and you get a drop-down list of login details to help you login to that site without registration.

5. ChromeMUSE – Multi-URL Shortener/Expander – this is a great extension for Bit.ly and Tinyurl users – by clicking the icon this extension adds to the omnibar, you will get a shorted URL which will also be copied automatically to your clipboard. It also expands any shorted URL on any website, so you know where you’re going to land before clicking any link. A great extension!

6. Better Facebook Fixer – I use this extension for only one thing – preview photos and profile pictures when you mouse-over them, but there are really tons of options to play around with this extension. A must for every Facebook user.

7. GoGoogleImage! – when I’m searching for images on Google, I usually just want the picture and not the page it originated from and this extension does just that – Relinks Google Image results to their direct URLs. Easy and useful.

8. Google Images Large Images – and while we’re on the subject of Google Images… This extension shows the actual image size when you mouse-over them in the search results. So you don’t have to open every image you find interesting in a new page, just mouse-over it and check if you like it.

9. IE Tab Classic – if you still find yourself in need for Internet Explorer every now and then, just click the button (located in the omnibar) and the page you’re currently browsing will open in the same window by with the IE engine.

10. IMDB Enlarge – this is actually a Greasmonkey script that works perfectly on Chrome. This extension is for IMDB users and basically Shows the full size version of images in IMDB galleries when you mouse-over them. I really love this extension :)

11. Inline YouTube – this extension finds YouTube links in the page you’re browsing and adds a little “play” button next to it, which allows you to click it and play the YouTube video right from the page you’re currently browsing. Saves a lot of time!

12. New Tabs Always Last – not everybody will find this useful, but basically what this extension does is open new tabs at the end instead of next to the tab you’re currently on. That’s how I was using Firefox and I really missed this option in Chrome, so this extension was a life saver for me.

13. Search Preview – this extension adds small screenshots (thumbnails) of websites in search pages. Works for almost every website you can imagine, although I myself tried it only on Google.

14. Session Manager – with this extension you can save your current browser state and reload it whenever necessary. So if you have 15 tabs open and you suddenly need to close your browser for some reason, just save the session and open it later on. This can really be handy sometimes.

15. Show Blank Page – if you don’t like Chrome default new tab look and you just want a clean blank page to start off with – install this extension that just shows a blank page when you create a new tab.

16. Smooth Gestures – if you’ve been using mouse gestures in Firefox, you’re probably going to need this extension – it needs a little configuring but it works perfectly and does the job it’s set up to do. If you don’t know what I’m talking about – forget it, you probably don’t need it anyway :)

17. Stop Autoplay for YouTube – have you ever opened multiple YouTube links and they all started playing parallel? This extension just stops the YouTube default “Autoplay” mode and you have to click “Play” in the video in order for it to start. Try this one, even if you don’t know what I’m talking about!

18. Twitter Search Results on Google – I’m really surprised there aren’t many people using this extension. Even if you’re not a Twitter user, you should try this because sometimes these results will be just what you’re looking for. It’s basically the real-time search rolled into Google search. Great results and definitely worth a try.

19. TwitterBar – this is for all Twitter users out there. An extension that allows you to tweet directly from the page you’re currently browsing. Just click the extension button and the current page’s title and URL are automatically entered into the textbox for easy posting of links (this can be changed through the settings).

20. Type-ahead-find – this extension fills a big need in Chrome – searching inside pages as you type (I’m actually surprised Google missed this one). Browse to a page and start typing something and the extension will automatically find it and highlight it. If anyone at Chrome is listening, please add something like this to your next version :)

That was my list and I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I’m still missing one important extension that I wasn’t able to find – Download Helper (downloads media files from video and audio websites) – so if anyone sees something like that, please let me know in the comments below. Thanks!