Top 10 best Google Chrome extensions

One of the main things users have loved about Mozilla’s Firefox over the years are the thousands of different extensions you can download to make the browser do just about anything you can dream of.  When Google Chrome launched in 2009, many users said they loved the speed and power of the browser, but were reluctant to change over until such a time as Chrome would support their favorite extensions.

Well, your wait is over with the public release of Google Chrome 4.0 for Windows.

While those who have been using the beta version for some time already have had extensions, this is the first time it has been offered to everyone who uses Chrome.  As with any browser extension situation, we do not recommend installing so many as to make your browser slow down.

AdBlock: By far one of the most popular extensions for Firefox, it isn’t a big surprise that this add-on made the leap over to Chrome as soon as possible.  AdBlock does just as its name says and blocks you from seeing ads on sites you visit around the Web.

Chromed Bird: Chromed Bird adds a Twitter client to your Chrome browser and allows you to interact with your Twitter account by accessing your stream, @replies and direct messages. You can also compose, reply, RT, share, favorite, delete tweets and create short URLs within the extension.

FlashBlock: Similar to AdBlock, FlashBlock blocks all instances of Flash animations on a page, whether they be ads or something else.  This extension does leave you with a placeholder for the animation, and you can click on it at any time you want to to run the missing element.

Google Voice: The Google Voice extension allows you to access all of the features of your Google Voice account including access to your inbox, click-to-call features on phone numbers on Web sites, sending SMS texts and more.

Google Wave Notifier: While Google Wave is a powerful new tool for communication and collaboration, one of the most notifying aspects is that you have to log into the service to see if you have any updates to your Waves.  The Wave Notifier displays your unread number of Waves for you and gives you quick access to your account.

IE Tab: Sometimes you have to use Internet Explorer for sites that are optimized only for it, but why go through the hassle of opening a whole browser for just one page?  Turn on the IE Tab and you can render the page as if it was in Internet Explorer.

LastPass: LastPass is a password manager and form filler that helps you manage all of your site access information.  All data is stored locally so that not even LastPass has access to it.

Picnik: Picnik allows you to take screenshots  of Web pages you visit, or send images you find to the Picnik editor so that you can work on them directly in the browser.

RSS Subscription Extension: It’s unclear why Chrome is missing the standard RSS detection that other browsers have for sites you visit, but this extension will solve that little mystery for you.  The RSS button will appear in the address bar and by clicking on it you can choose which feeds to subscribe to and what reader you want to use.

Xmarks: Xmarks is a popular bookmark & password synchronization tool that allows you to sync your data across not only multiple computers, but also different browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.  It’s the perfect tool for people who have computers for home, work, laptops and more.

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