Top 10 Most Useful Google Chrome Plugins and Addons

Here is a list of top 10 Google Chrome Plugins and Addons that help in various aspects.

1. Google Chrome Backup

This particular plugin helps you to create profile, wherein you can store your favorite bookmarks, web browser history and much more. You can restore, backup, delete or create shortcut to your Google Chrome profiles.

Download Link

2. Portable Chrome

The name itself suggests the use of this plugin. You have to unzip the small file to your USB Flash drive and then run ChromeLoader.exe. Your profile details and Chrome settings will be save in your thumb drive.

Download Link

3. XChrome

This plugin works as a theme manager for Chrome. It allows you to install any Google Chrome skin within seconds. It also permits you to know various details about the skin before you install it.

Download Link

4. AdBlock

This plugin helps to hide advertisements that are present on the webpage that you visit. It is actually a javascript that delineates the CSS rules according to the website you are viewing to put out of sight page elements that tend to illustrate the advertisements.

Download Link

5. Offline Gmail

This particular addon helps you to access your Google Mail account during situations wherein there is no internet connection available at your end. You can read emails that had been downloaded already and also compose new emails in the interface of the browser. Whenever you go online, you can send them and receive new ones automatically.

Download Link

6. Google Talk

This plugin permits you to stay connected with your family and friends in GTalk without having to login separately into your Gmail account. It actually adds a GTalk icon to the launcher which pops up whenever you open it.

Download Link

7. Last Pass

This particular addon helps you to manage all your passwords in Google Chrome browser. It also helps you to fill up forms online.

Download Link

8. Session Saver

This handy plugin helps you to manage, save and reload several web sessions in Google Chrome.

Download Link

9. Goo.gl URL Shortener

This plugin assists you in shortening any website URL with the URL shortening service of Google – Goo.gl. Once the URL is compressed, it is then copied to the clipboard automatically. Therefore, you can distribute and communicate the shortened URL to your friends in Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Blogger, MySpace, Delicious, Gmail and Google Reader easily.

Download Link

10. Google Dictionary

With the help of this addon you can learn the definition of a phrase or word. You have to just double click on a particular phrase or word to know its definition.

Download Link

One such popular item from the catalogue is the Adblock and adblock plus extensions. The two are designed extensions with the aim of making the online space much more clean in terms of lesser ads and to make the content shine out instead of being masked by advertisements.

Adblock vs Adblock Plus

• Basic User Interface: Both the chrome extensions having over 1,000,000+ users on the web today. Both being out on the chrome web store have an identical work and design interface. The two are seen to have most of the similar functions and are found to be utilizing the same ground rules.

• Background: The Adblock Plus was in fact an extension released for Firefox. But later on was included in Chrome Web Store after looking at the kind of traffic and popularity it was gaining. Adblock was an independent release by another developer on the same grounds as the Adblock Plus to the Chrome Web Store.

• Installation Process: The Adblock Plus installation is quite easy and hassle free; so is the case with Adblock, but just one shortcoming on the professional side is that a window pops up while installation prompting to donate to developer

• Speed: Adblock does seem to slow down the browser while handling multiple tabs. Where as in case of Adblock Plus, the beta testing facility is fixing most of the problems real time and the problem of speed hasn’t yet been a major shortcoming.

• Banned Ad Block: Talking business, both the extensions are seen to perform in the same level following similar architecture to block out unwanted and advertising content online.

According to the study done by FreewareGenuis, here are the demographics for Adblock vs Adblock Plus -

So to draw out the final version of the article, the idea is clear that both the extensions work with sole aim of filtering content. And with Adblock being the first up on Web store, the users are satisfied with its performance. Adblock plus being in beta release has scope of changes and improvements and in some ways like the installation and speed is superior to the other. Thus  choosing the right extension would be a close call as both work similar and have little differences, yet Adblock Plus is considered superior.

Install Adblock Plus on your Google Chrome.

Alternatively Adblock is also available here.

Chrome Operating System is an open source project initiated, being lead and monitored by Google, INC. It is intended for web applications.  Operating Systems in market were designed long back, when there was no web. Chrome OS is initiated to fill this gap.

Why Chrome OS

Chrome OS is different from regular Operating Systems in many ways.

Unlike ordinary Operating Systems, Chrome OS look is much simpler. It is faster to boot and easier to connect to web. Boot time for Regular Operating Systems is nearly one minute. Chrome OS boots within ten seconds. It is meant for people who love to live on the web.

One more major feature is Security. Chrome OS is built around Linux kernel. Along with that, Auto update feature is added to the OS. So, there is no need to do manual update of security software and no irritating alert messages. The OS takes care of all these things.

How to Install Chrome OS

Chrome OS setup involves installing virtual Box and Google Chrome OS Beta. Virtual Box for Linux environment can be downloaded from the link https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads. Please take care and download the appropriate version for your OS. Download Chrome OS from the location http://getchrome.eu/download.php. Download chrome file and burn it to a drive. The installer is a simple wizard. The following screenshots will guide to complete the setup of Virtual Box. Once Virtual Box setup is done, we have to install Chrome OS.

Once you get a welcome screens as shown above, Click next and name the virtual machine for your system. Select Operating System as Linux and the respective version. Name virtual machine as your wish and usually it is named as Chrome OS.

Click “Next”, navigate to next screen and assign memory for the Virtual Box. Create a hard disk for Virtual Box. Here hard disk refers to boot disk. Select image file of Chrome OS.

Add the image file as shown in the following screenshots.

Click “Next” button and you will get a summary screen of your setup environment as shown in the following screenshot.

If everything is according to expectations, click finish. Now, you will get a start screen and you have to login to Chrome OS using your Google account credentials. The login screen is like shown below.

Once you login, you can experience the UI of Chrome OS. The experience is very much similar to Google Chrome browser.

Don’t prefer downloading Virtual Box or Chrome OS installer packages through torrents. Today, many sites are supplying these installer packages and many hacks were detected.

Secondly, you can boot Chrome OS even from a USB, but your machine should support USB as a boot device.

Now you are done and you can switch on your system and connect to the web in seconds!!!

Google Chrome Installation Guide

1) Visit http://www.google.com/chrome.

2) Select the software language from the drop-down menu which is located just above the download button.

3) Click the “Download Google Chrome” button . The Chrome will be downloaded afterwards.

4) After you have downloaded the Chrome, review the terms and conditions and click the accept and install button to proceed.

5) You will get a “Welcome to Google Chrome” message on your computer screen( just like the one shown below) once you have downloaded the installer file.

6) Now you will have to choose  a default search engine for the Chrome.

Now you are ready to use Chrome. When Google Chrome starts for the first time you will get an option to import all your favorites and bookmarks from other browsers of the system like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc which are existing in your system before you installed Google Chrome. This is the best time to get all your previously saved customization including bookmarks which you might have done for a long time.

See this – Google  Toolbar for Chrome 

Can I Use Mouse Gestures as an Input Method in Chrome?

Yes you can. There are several methods to enable mouse gestures as an interface in Chrome. Browsers like Opera have mouse gestures programmed that enable you to navigate from one webpage to the other in a jiffy. Google has been planning to make mouse gestures a native feature of the browser in the near future, which will be a good feature considering the number of users who have requested for the same at the Google Chrome help forum.

Enable mouse gestures on Google Chrome

The best and the possibly the only way you can get a full functional hand gesture feature on Chrome right now is through installing a Chrome extension.  There are many extensions available that enables different mouse gestures. We have used one of those extensions for you to download and check the experience of using mouse gestures. You could probably download others, if it suits you and play around with your gestures.

Follow these step by step instructions to enable mouse gestures on your Google Chrome:

1. Go to the Smooth Gestures extension page by clicking here
2. Click in Add to Chrome
3. Click Install
4. Read the different mouse gestures option that will be displayed in a new tab of your browser

Portable version of Google Chrome browser is now available. This is for people who would love to carry software on their USB drive wherever they go. Portable Google Chrome browser has all the salient features as that of the normal main browser but does not require installation. You just have to unzip the files to a folder and start using it. It’s that simple.

Benefits of Google Chrome Portable

• It is light weight in nature
• Loads websites faster
• Streams videos much more faster
• Quick to start
• Runs web applications more faster
• Simple and sleek design for ease of use
• Style and themes to decorate the browser
• Crash control
• Instant bookmarks and importing settings
• Incognito mode
• Very safe to browse

All the user settings such as cookies and web history are saved on the same folder whereby program settings go into the “Chrome” folder and user settings go into the “Profile” folder.

It does store password when you use it in any computer, but in a way that the passwords are encrypted to that particular computer. They cannot be retrieved when you move away from that computer.

Portable Google Chrome web browser does not have certificate manager and uses only Windows certificate manager and so the certificates installed via Google Chrome will be stored to the current computer you are working with and will not go with you in the USB drive. So be careful to not use any private certificates using Google Chrome on any computer other than your own personal computer.

Google Chrome Portable Download

You can download the portable Google Chrome Browser from the following link - Download Link.

What is a Browser Theme?

A browser theme is a skin that can be used to change the appearance of the browser.

Google Chrome Themes

Chrome is a browser developed by Google. Chrome has become popular within a short time and many users have taken to using the browser. The extensions and themes have made Chrome a fast browser with good functionality. In Google Chrome, the Web Store is the place to go, to download themes and extensions. You can compare the theme that you installed with the other themes in the web store and find out which is more popular than the other. Millions of themes have been uploaded with millions of downloads. Themes have turned out to be more attractive to users than extensions because of it basic functionality of making the user experience better.

Themes serve a broader purpose than the extensions; extensions are built for a specific purpose. A theme, on the other hand serves the taste of the user. Themes are also protected against browser software updates and don’t become incompatible. Chrome web store categorizes the themes into various sub-sections based on the theme meta-data. The theme page also has the top 10 theme list that contains the most popular theme based on the number of downloads or other user mentioned parameters.

How to Install a Google Chrome Theme?

You can install a Chrome theme by following these instructions:

1. Go to the Google Chrome Web Store
2. Click on Themes in the left side panel
3. Search for the theme that you want to install or browse through themes
4. Select and click on a particular theme
5. Click on Add to Chrome button to install the theme
6. Restart your browser
7. You have successfully installed a new theme on your browser

Top Google Chrome Themes 

Very few themes in the top ten are brand based; most of them add value to Chrome interface. Let us look at the top Chrome themes at the moment. Click on the theme names below to get the theme.

Porsche Theme

This theme is a popular theme based on the Porsche Sports car. Very popular among car enthusiasts and has good background picture that goes with the other parts of the theme perfectly.

Download link.

James White Theme

This is a theme created by popular visual artist James White and is very popular among users.

Download link.

Anna Sui Theme

This theme has rock n’ roll elements with a stinge of old school nostalgia associates with it.

Download link.

Chuck Anderson Theme

This theme created by artist Chuck Anderson is popular for its clean look.

Download link.

Dolce & Gabbana Theme

This theme is based on the fashion brand D&C.

Download link.

Splendid Theme

This theme design started as a tee shirt design ended up as a Google Chrome theme. Very pleasant and popular among users

Download link.

Rampage Theme

This theme has a glam look to it and has been downloaded in thousands

Download link.

Cath Kidston Theme

Based on the popular UK lifestyle brand, this theme has been downloaded by many people and is very popular

Download link.

Koji NISHIDA Theme

Designed by the popular artist and designer of the same name, downloaded by thousands

Download link.

Kate Spade Theme

A colorful theme that is very popular amongst the users

Download link.

Unfortunately this software is not available for Chrome and as per the feedback from the development team they don’t have plans to develop it in near future (for Chrome). But the good part is that there is certain software that can be used in place of dTa in Chrome and are equally good.

JDownloader

JDownloader is Java-based utility, which can be used as download manage, accelerator and link grabbing service. Similar to dTa in feature set and performance, this software can be downloaded from here. You can select as per platform i.e. Windows, Linux, and Mac etc. Here we have taken example of Window™ platform since its widely used.

• Select WebInstaller or offline Installer, download file and open (or run).

• Since this is java based, the installer will search for Java™ Runtime Environment. If the same is not installed, it will prompt for installation.

• Click Download or Locate (if present locally).

• Click Finish to complete install.
• Please note that in some cases, this default auto down loader does not install Java Runtime Environment (JRE) successfully. In such an instance, please install Java directly from the website. After successful JRE installation, you may need to re launch the JDownloader.
• On proper installation and run, the following window shall display.

• Please make note that on first JDownloader launch, it may check for updates and if required, updates may be downloaded and installed.

Next step – Chrome Plug-in install

Now the second (and important) part of installation process is the addition of JDownloader extension in Chrome. This particular extension can be installed from this link.

• Click on Add to Chrome, to install extension. On successful installation of the extension, JDownloader icon will appear besides address bar in Chrome.

How to download

Now open any web page that you want to download (embedded files, links, etc.) and press the JDownloader icon. Please refer to the example page below:

Press Allow it! And open JDownloader. Click Start downloads in list (or Alt+P) to download them all.

Also note that sometimes it may be possible that auto link transfer may not happen (due to Chrome version mismatch, platform dependencies or otherwise). In that case user need to copy the page link and paste into Add URL(s) – Parse URL(s) – Continue to make it work. JDownloader will parse the link and display the files to be downloaded.

Speedbit – Download Accelerator Plus (DAP)

It’s the most popular download manager available over the web. Feature wise its quite rich since its also one of the oldest one. The latest available version is v9.7.

Salient features are:

• Automatic Mirroring Speed Boost – Search for the fastest download sources
• Pause & Resume – Continue broken or paused downloads
• Video Preview – Watch previews of videos as they download
• ZIP Preview – Preview and extract Zip files as they download
• Support is available in over 42 languages

Download Link

Internet Download Manager (IDM)

This one is also quite robust download Manager available from company called Tonec Inc. This award winning software can be downloaded for 30 days free trial. The latest version available is v6.06.

Major features are:

• YouTube grabber – record and download FLV videos from popular sites like YouTube, Google Video etc
• Automatic Antivirus checking
• Speed Acceleration – accelerate downloads by up to 5 times

Download Link

Free Download Manager (FDM)

FDM is the only open source download application available on the public domain. Highly awarded software as mentioned on the website, is also a neat choice.

The features, which are worth mention:

• GNU General Public License
• Flash video download
• Remote Control  – Create new downloads or view the list of active and completed downloads remotely, via the Internet.
• HTML Spider –to download a web page or even whole site

Download Link

Download Accelerator Manager (DAM)

Again a good plugin for chrome, this is small software to download (only 1.1 mb). Latest version available is v4.4.1. Feature wise limited, but good for all the basic necessity.

• Download with the fastest possible speed, using a smart download logic accelerator
• Download videos from YouTube etc. (learn how to download YouTube videos)
• Accelerate, schedule, resume, recover, and manage downloads

Download Link

DownloadStudio (DS)

Though not a highly recommended software, its an application developed by Conceiva. Well-matched with Chrome, the relevant features are:

• Streaming Audio/Video Downloader
• RSS Feed, Blog and Podcast Downloader
• File Browser, Viewer and Organizer

Download Link

View the HTML-code

To view the source code for Chrome is essentially the same as for Firefox. One major difference is that the Chrome source code opens in a new tab instead of new windows. Another key difference is that in the window with the source code line numbers are displayed for the entire document.

View Code item

Webkit Engine, on which Apple’s Safari, Google Chrome, and some other browsers works, comes with in-built inspector websites. To use it, right-click on any page and click on View Code item. As DOM Inspector for Firefox, it will display the tree tag HTML. Any branch of tags can be expanded to look at nested tags or collapse if it is not interesting. If you select a tag, or, on the web page, the code elements which you are considering an appropriate item is highlighted. This is very interesting and efficient extension that allows you to quickly and easily conduct a detailed analysis of Web pages.

Extensions for Google Chrome, that you can install:

Web Developer

Web Developer for Chrome, it’s ported extension for Firefox. Because it took over most of the features from Firefox. However, instead of using the toolbar, Chrome supports the expansion of the overall strategy of minimalism. On the panel there is only one button expansion, when clicked, a window appears with the functions and commands.

Speed Tracer (by Google)

Speed ​​Tracer analyzes and collects information on the site in real time, helping to determine what parts of the site must be optimized to increase performance. It displays the data in digital format in the form of graphs and charts. Extension analyzes Javascript, CSS, layout, event handling DOM, the timer is triggered, network bandwidth resources, graphics and more.

Pendule

Pendule an alternate extension for web developer, which contains a number of different tools for CSS, Javascript, forms, images, and accessibility evaluation.

Other options

There are many other extensions for Google Chrome, as well as for other browsers that will help make your web development and troubleshooting sites more efficient, productive and peaceful.