Google Chrome Extensions - as Suggested by the Google+ Community!

What are Google Chrome Extensions? 

As Google tells us Chrome Extensions are “… small software programs that can modify and enhance the functionality of the Chrome browser.  You write them using web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.”  Full excerpt here.

 

google chrome extensions Chrome Extensions developed by Google

 

We thought it would be fun to poll our Google+ Community and see what extensions make your lives easier and put together a friendly guide.  We received TONS of responses and are thrilled to share them with you all.

In each section below, you will find a link to the extension in case you’d like to check it out and review’s from your fellow Google+ Community members.  For a teaser, we’ll let you know that the extension that was most popular out of all the responses comes from the Security/Privacy category.  Any guesses?  It is Last Pass which helps in storing all those pesky passwords!

Here are the top categories that we created based on your input:

-          Developer

-          Screen Capture

-          Security/Privacy

-          Task Manager

-          URL Shorteners

-          Data Management

-          Reading Aides

-          Ad Blockers

-          Browsing Aides

-          Writing Aides

-          Email

-          Social Networking Productivity

-          Social and Communication

-          Search

-          Creativity

-          Fun

 

Update: really useful tool https://hunter.io/mailtracker for tracking email opens on Gmail.

AeroLeads is a great lead generating tool that helps to find business emails of prospects and our competitors. You can transfer contacts to Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Mailchimp, HubSpot etc. with ease. Find out more here.


CATEGORIES

DEVELOPER TOOLS

1. PerfectPixelmaking sure our web design with matches visuals – really nice to use and saves a lot of time.
Ruth Cheesley

2. Window Resizer - Resize browser window to emulate various screen resolutions.  This extension re-sizes the browser's window in order to emulate various resolutions. It is particularly useful for web designers and developers by helping them test their layouts on different browser resolutions.
Ruth Cheesley
Niels Tybjerg

3. Web Developer - Firebug - the be all and end all of debugging tools. Its main platform is Firefox but the Chrome extension is almost as useful.
Mick Sharpe

4. Client for Google Analytics - gives basics but more importantly, seeing the icon my toolbar reminds me to pay more attention to my analytics.
Ray Hiltz

5. ChromeVox - The ChromeVox screen reader is an extension to Chrome that brings the speed, versatility, and security of Chrome to visually impaired users.
Hilary Snyder

6. Session Manager - I'm a dull boy, so have Chrome set to open at Freshdesk & In/Out attendance; if I have to quit the browser midway through a task, Session Manager allows me to save and re-open where I left off
Jason Darrell

7. PageSpeed Insights by Google  - PageSpeed Insights analyzes the performance of your web pages and provides suggestions to make them faster.
Rolling Webdesign

8. Support Notifications - If you use Zendesk, GetSatisfaction or the aforementioned +Freshdesk as part of your CRM, this extension updates you with ticket changes in real-time;
Jason Darrell

9. Zendesk Activity Stream - Display - a list of your recent Zendesk ticket activities right from your browser, alerting you when new items appear in your stream
James Reynolds

10. User Agent Switcher - for those pesky websites that only work with a certain browser type
Robert Riley

11. Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller - I have a 144hz monitor so I can't live without Chrome extension : Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller. Its makes scrolling incredibly smooth.
Sonny Harajly

12. Eye Dropper - Eye Dropper is open source extension which allows you to pick colors from web pages, color picker and your personal color history.
John Ellis

13. Colorzilla - to pull webcolors from my site when creating newsletters or images for my G+ business page that require specific colors for branding.
Krystalle Keszainn
Christian Fizia - to get color codes

14. WhatFont - The easiest way to identify fonts on web pages.
Christian Fizia

15. Web Performance Yslow - to measure load speed issues
Niels Tybjerg
Rolling Webdesign

 

 SCREEN CAPTURE TOOLS

 1.  Awesome Screen Shot - Capture the whole page or any portion, annotate screenshot, blur sensitive info, one-click upload to share.
Ruth Cheesley
Craig Fifield -Awesome Screenshot Enables me to take screen shots quickly, annotate them and save locally or directly to Drive. I have a short vid on it here: How to share a screenshot to Google+ quickly!
Ezzeldin Rafat - Awesome Screenshots, works great and handy and syncs with drive.
Niels Tybjerg

2. TechSmith Snagit - Very simple easy to use screen capture tool that saves directly to Drive
Jim Sear

 

SECURITY/PRIVACY

1.  Last Pass - +LastPass, an award-winning password manager, saves your passwords and gives you secure access from every computer and mobile device.  +LastPass lets you store passwords securely (we also use two factor authentication with+YubiKey devices and share with staff & customers in a secure way. Changed the way we manage password security as a business and personally at a fundamental level (for the better)
Ruth Cheesley
Scott Eaton- Last Pass is indispensable for password management and form filling. I/E Tab for those occasions when you need to see what a page looks like in a different browser.
Linda Dee
Davide Vaccari - secure passwords are a pain!!!
Christian Fizia
Jerry Broussard  +LastPass - great because easy to use and no excuse to not have a strong password. Also, easy change passwords quickly and securely.
Marquise Richardson
Krystalle Keszainn - I use lastpass everyday. It makes logging into websites so much easier because it remembers all of my passwords. It also autofills forms for me - nice!

2. ZenMate for Google Chrome - A free VPN extension that secures your privacy and also allows people who don't reside in the U.S. to watch videos.
Denis Lehane
Robert Riley

3. Password - 1Password is a password manager that goes beyond simple password storage by integrating directly with your web browser to automatically log you into websites, enter credit card information, fill registration forms, and easily generate strong passwords.
James Reynolds

4. Ghostery - If you're concerned about trackers, you could check out the Ghosteryextension available in the Play store.

Ghostery sees & detects trackers, web bugs, pixels, and beacons placed on web pages by Facebook, Google, and over 500 other ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers — companies interested in your activity.

Ghostery gives you the opportunity to learn more about each company it identifies, including links to their privacy policy and opt-out options.

Ghostery allows you to block scripts, images, objects and framed documents from companies you don't trust
Walid Muhammad
Niels Tybjerg

5. History Eraser - Uncluttering the crap the browser collects & also privacy reasons.
Denis Lehane

6. KB SSL Enforcer - enforces ssl on any site that has it enabled
Marquise Richardson

 

TASK MANAGER

1. GQueues  - I also use +GQueues The GQueues Chrome Extension allows you to easily create tasks while browsing any web page.  If you select "From web page," the current web page's title will be used as the task description and a link to the page will be inserted into the notes.
Ruth Cheesley

2. Evernote Web Clipper - The Evernote Web Clipper is the easiest way to save, mark up and share anything you see online. From clipping pages to taking and annotating screenshots, the Evernote Web Clipper lets you capture everything, then access it from anywhere.
Yvonne Heimann – Buffer and Evernote for straight saving and posting from the browser.
Ray Hiltz Evernote Web Clipper - If you use Evernote, this is a must have. Gets to know your folder preferences and fills them in automatically. Also comes with powerful Skitch screen capture app
Ezzeldin Rafat - Evenote Clipper- a great web clipper for me, clipps articles/ simplified articles, bookmarks, and tags them and I can sort them in the evernote notebook I want right from the clipper.
Jason Darrell - clip an article, tag it "to do", open up +Evernote, search tag "to do" and you not only have a bookmark tool and to do list, but you can annotate images, add your own notes and even use each Evernote as the basis of a blog post using +Postachio, par example: http://goo.gl/YAyJpw
Jerry Broussard  because I can browse for blog ideas and quickly clip resource material for later reading.

3. Google Calendar - Easily check Google Calendar and add new events from websites you visit.
Denis Lehane

4. mStickies - mStickies is a locally stored sticky note application for Chrome.
Saun Saunders

5. Sticky Notes - Create short handwritten or text notes.
Saun Saunders

6. Asana - Great project management tool +Asana
Davide Vaccari

7.  IQTell - The most full-featured implementation of the Getting Things Done methodology that I've seen.
Jeffrey J Davis
English Atkins
 - YES!! +IQTELL should be in both the Email and Task Manager lists.  IQTELL has enabled me to wrangle all of the aspects of my digital life into one tidy app.  I LOVE it!!

 

URL SHORTNERS

1. Goo.gl URL Shortener - goo.gl url shortener is an extension which allows you to shorten the current website URL with the Google URL Shortener service http://goo.gl/
Rodrigo Tello
Ezzeldin Rafat - Goo.gl URL shortner, I love the QR code feature. I would love to see Google+ converts links automatically to my goo.gl shortner dashboard.
John Ellis

2. ShortenMe -  Instantly shorten links with goo.gl, copy them to your clipboard, and generate QR codes.
Jason Darrell

3. bitly -  Add the bit.ly extension. ALL posts should use bit.ly, with click thrus measured. Best method for getting a heart beat on what your readers respond to.
Chris Lau

 

DATA MANAGEMENT 

1. Synology Download StationI like it because no matter what content or link, I can right click and download the file directly to my Synology NAS. So if I, for example need to download a large image file of a linux distro, I don't have to keep my PC on and it's stored in a safe place until I want to use it.
Sibyll Hampton

2. Download Master - With this extension you can download all images, videos, pdf, doc and any other file linked on the web page you are visiting.
Saun Saunders

3. Send to Google Drive - Save any web page direct to Google Drive
John Ellis

 

READING AIDES

1. Sprint Reader -  new to me today but I like what I've seen so far and it does let you read text with ease (And at a faster rate)
Mick Sharpe

2. Pocket - for simply to at a article or a video for later to see on my tablet or any other things that I can use Pocket.
Rene Croes
LaJuan Hughes - I like +Pocket save for later.
Niels Tybjerg

3. RSS Feed Reader: - +InoReader the most Google Reader-like RSS out there, which you can configure to the max, even with Android, and yes, even with the free version. If you open it during your browsing session, it also has desktop alerts for new feed items;
Jason Darrell

4. Google Translate - This extension translates entire webpages into a language of your choice with one click.
Saun Saunders

5. ImTranslator: Google Translate - Includes translations for pop-up bubbles and webpages.
Saun Saunders

6. Readability - Basically strips the conent out of a page and display's it without all the formatting and white space around the site, great for reading long articles and things.
Ed Benson

 

AD BLOCKERS

1. AdBlock Plus - The best ad blocking extension
Denis Lehane
Rene Croes
Shaun Orwell
George Cohn - Adblock Plus reduces the amount of advert clutter.
Bret Pearson

2. Facebook AdBlock -Tired of Facebook ads? No problem ! Just install this AdBlock extension and all your problems are gone.  This Facebook AdBlock will remove the ads from your Facebook page, to leave you with clean Facebook pages.
Rodrigo Tello
Rene Croes

 

BROWSING AIDES

1. FlashBlock -  prevents most videos from starting by themselves, so you can choose when they run
George Cohn

2. Extensions Manager (aka Switcher) - this lets you turn extensions and apps on and off depending upon what task you're working on without having to go through to the extensions page;
Jason Darrel

3. Dualless - Split-Screen for those without Dual Monitors - have your set of research pages open in one half of the screen (configurable widths) and have Writebox open in the other to write your fresh content right there in the browser;
Jason Darrell

4. Xmarks - +Xmarks Working on 5 different computers in 3 different places I can always find the last bookmark I've added
Davide Vaccari 

5. Awesome New Tab PageIt’s a very customizable launcher page that even has widgets as well as links.
Ed Benson

6. Tabs Outliner - has the unique ability to close and preserve “in place” any tab or window, without removing them
Taylor Anthony

7. OneTab - basically works like a mass bookmark tool. When I get lots of tabs open and want to remember where they all are without bookmarking individually, so I can come back later, this is my tool. It also keeps my browser running smoothly because I don't have so many tabs open. When I want to get to them, they are easy to access in the "One Tab".
Krystalle Keszainn

8. Presentation Remote for Google Drive - In combination with De Mobo on my Android phone, it makes navigating presentations and viewing speaker notes a breeze.
Alan Stainer

9. Turn Off the Lights - +Turn Off the Lights is the only and unique Chrome (Browser) extension that highlight the video player (HTML5  Flash) and dark the rest.
Stefan Van Damme

 

WRITING AIDES

1. Writebox - "Distraction-free text editor" - configurable writing palette that syncs seamlessly with +Dropbox or +Google Drive. Retrievable in-browser memory too, great if you 'forget' to sync - like QFN for+Mozilla Firefox, but not quite with as many json apps.
Jason Darrell

2. Google Dictionary - View definitions easily as you browse the web.
Saun Saunders

3. QwikNote - A simple in-browser, offline text editor. Quickly cut, paste, edit, save, print and email text. Has simple HTML code editor/viewer.
Saun Saunders

4. Spell Checker for Chrome - Spell Checker extension for Chrome. It's easy to use and fast. This extension supports 12 languages for spell check.
Saun Saunders

5. Voice Recognition - I tried this Chrome dictation app out the other day, Voice Recognition. It's not as good as some of the premium offerings like Dragon Dictate, but it doesn't do a bad job, and it's free.
Paul Simbeck-Hampson

 

EMAIL

1. Yesware Email Tracking - See who opens your emails and clicks on your links, with email tracking analytics and templates for Gmail.
James Reynolds

2. WiseStamp - The best email signature manager for Gmail, icons / links to all your Social Media profiles.
Jeffrey J Davis

3. mxHero Toolbox -  I use to use Yesware for email, but I found two extensions that work a little better.  MXhero is one.
Karim Phillips

 

SOCIAL NETWORKING PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

1. Post Editor for Google+ - It's a Chrome Extension for formatting Google+ posts. It adds WYSIWYG-ish controls to the Google+ post box so the formatting markup can be automatically added. It's primary audience would be new users or infrequent users who don't remember to put an asterisk before and after what you want to be bold.
Paul Spoerry

2. Sprout Social - +Sprout Social The Sprout Social extension allows you to easily share content you find while surfing the web, with options to draft a message, schedule for later, or publish instantly. Enjoy the ability to cross-post to multiple networks and find optimal send times to reach your audience and increase engagement.  The Chrome extension requires a Sprout Social account and is included with all plans.  For more information about Sprout Social, visit http://sproutsocial.com.
Ruth Cheesley

3. Buffer - Buffer is a better way to publish your updates on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more. It also tracks results and analyzes everything you share for you
Yvonne Heimann – Buffer and Evernote for straight saving and posting from the browser.
Wayne Mansfield

4. Silver Bird - Silverbird lets me peep at my tweets without the boss knowing what I'm doing.  It also has tabs that remember searches which makes for faster spying!
Julia Davies

5. Pin it - great for enriching my boards from my chrome
Ezzeldin Rafat
Niels Tybjerg

6. Hide Highlighted Posts - (my personal favorite) prevents posts from people you haven't circled from appearing in your stream just because somebody else +1ed them.
George Cohn

7. Shareaholic for Google Chrome - The easiest way to share & bookmark great content from anywhere on the web with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & 200+ other services.
Linda Dee

8. Do Share - Doshare because I do a lot of my G+ posts ahead of time and I like the option to schedule them, edit them at a later time, and not worry about accidentally losing the post.
Alexandra Riecke-Gonzales

9. HootSuite Hootlet - +HootSuite great tool to help posting on different platforms
Davide Vaccari

 

SOCIAL AND COMMUNICATION

1. Rbutr - Use rbutr to Follow inter-website disagreements and keep yourself more fully informed.  rbutr connects rebuttals to the pages they rebut.  Visit a rebutted page and you will be told "There are rebuttals to this page." You can then open up the rebutting article(s).
Rodrigo Tello

2. CircleCount.com - to find out more about people on G+ on the fly
Yvonne Heimann
Julia Davies  “Circlecount is just all round useful”
Lisa Heffernan +CircleCount for the reason we discussed the other day, the only way to find circles that have included you and offer your thanks.
Alexandra Riecke-Gonzales CircleCount because it can give me a much more extensive quick look into someone than the Google+ hovercard!
Davide Vaccari - to see if what I did has a meaning, after all!! They are the top!!! For Me!
Krystalle Keszainn tells me lots more about people on G+ than G+ does.

3. Hangouts - because although I spend a lot of time with G+ open in a tab, I don't want to always have to have G+ open.
Wendell Seace
Rene Croes I forgot to mention this one. I love this extension. I don't need to have Google+ or gmail open to chat, can use this one. Love it.
Krystalle Keszainn When someone contacts me I don't have to go find which tab the call is ringing in - it's right there in my hangout extension.

4. Circloscope - +Circloscope - essential for analyzing and managing your circles.
Mick Sharpe

5. Signals By Hub spot - awesome for tracking read mail and leads.
Ezzeldin Rafat

6. Google Mail Checker - Displays the number of unread messages in your Google Mail inbox. You can also click the button to open your inbox.
Saun Saunders

7. Share Extensions - This is a great #Chrome extension for sharing extensions with others.
Paul Simbeck-Hampson

8. MightyText - +MightyText is my favorite. Send & Receive SMS Text Messages from Chrome on your computer or tablet.
Scott Dawson
Jim Sear Send receive Archive SMS  from your phone on computer
Joseph Ellman allows me to text without leaving my keyboard. I use it on my laptop and tablet.

9. Google +1 Button - For me the Google +1 Button extension is good, so you can actually +1 and share sites that haven't had the foresight to add a button themselves.
Alan Stainer

10. Google+ Notifications - Very useful to keep up to date with things on Google+ when you aren't actually viewing the site
Alan Stainer

11. Mailvelope - let's you send PGP encrypted emails to your contacts so people cannot read them
Marquise Richardson

12. Push bullet - it's connect with my phone. When I received a new hangouts messages, or whatsapp, or any other, I get a pop up (notification) on my computer.
Rene Croes

13. Nonplus - A very simple extension for muting hashtags, great when there is an event going on that you do not care about!
Ed Benson

 

SEARCH TOOLS

1. MozBar - MOZbar and Pagerankstatus, to get website information right when I'm in the site. best way to see if and SEO expert is really an expert ;)
Yvonne Heimann
James Reynolds

2. PageRank Status - see above
Yvonne Heimann

3. Search by Image (by Google) - This extension allows you to initiate a Google search using any image on the web.
Saun Saunders

4. WOT - WOT helps you find trustworthy websites based on millions of users’ experiences and is one of Chrome’s most popular add-ons.
Rolling Webdesign

5. Quick SEO - Fast & light weight SEO tool to analyze PageRank, Backlinks, Alexa Rank and other SEO metrics.
Rolling Webdesign

6. SEOquake - SEOquake is a SEO extension (toolbar) for Google Chrome, it shows PageRank, Alexa and tons of SEO parameters, also works in SERP
James Reynolds
Christian Fizia

7. Wordtracker Scout - Uncover the true language of your market, in seconds.  See what the strongest keywords are in competitors webpage
Jim Sear

8. Google Voice Search
Christian Fizia - (I actually use it)

 

CREATIVE TOOLS

1. Camera - Simple camera/webcam app to take pictures available for download. So far the app is limited with a few photo filters.
Saun Saunders

2. GIF scrubber - is like a movie player for animated GIFS. Play it fast, slow, backwards, or use the scrubber to go back and forth!
Saun Saunders

3. WeVideo Next - WeVideo Next is a showcase for video creation tools using HTML5. Works with both online and offline content.
Saun Saunders

4. Page Ruler - measure something on screen
John Ellis

 

FUN

1. Google Cast - lets you send your screen to Chromecast.
George Cohn
Christian Fizia

2. Google Chrome to Phone - I use this a lot when i need some info to take in another room without having to carry my laptop, and also for sending links to people.
Ed Benson

3. Grooveshark - because you can get music... free
Joe DiFeo

4. Magic Actions for YouTube - Great app for youtube available in the Play Store.  I like to watch all videos in HD and it's settings allow this. There's some really great features in the extension including the ability to stop a video at any point and take a great screenshot image.
Walid Muhammad

5. Scientific Calculator - A powerful scientific calculator extension for Google Chrome.
Saun Saunders

There we have it! Loads of fun, practical and life enhancing Chrome Extensions for you, all in one place.