Improve Your Google Chrome: Handy Apps & Extensions

In due time, one of the reasons of Firefox’s popularity was the large number of add-ons, after installation of which your browser turned into a real Swiss army knife. Google like no other knows that it’s impossible to become a market leader without a large number of extensions for the browser. Google Chrome Community does not stand on the same place – Chrome web store is being constantly updated with new apps and extensions for solving a variety of tasks. Unfortunately, among hundreds of extensions, there are many similar in functionality and in general a lot of trash, so it is rather difficult for the average user to choose the best and most necessary add-ons for themselves. In this collection we have chosen the best and most popular apps and extensions that received positive feedback from the Chrome Community and were successfully used by thousands of people around the world. Experienced Chrome users may find here some new and useful extensions for themselves and may be after looking through our collection users of other browsers would like to switch on Google Chrome.

Image Editors

Pixlr Editor

Pixlr editor is the most popular advanced photo editor online! Some of the tools included are, red eye reduction, spot heal tool, drawing tools, clone tools, sharpen and blur tools and many more. Some of the filters include, mimic HDR, glamor glow, tilt-shift, Gaussian blur, vignette, noise and lots of more. The Adjustments include some advanced concepts like Levels, Curves, Cross process, Desaturate, Auto levels, Hue/Saturation and Brightness/Contrast. The editor is capable of open PSD files and paste from your clipboard!

Install

Aviary Image Editor

An incredibly useful and fun web-based image editor that can be utilized by anyone looking to retouch and manipulate a photo. From basic image editing to manipulating complex effects, Aviary’s Advanced Image Editor delivers essential key features available in powerful desktop clients right through your browser.

Install

Psykopaint

Psykopaint is an amazing photo painting app where you pick one of the 6 brushes provided and start painting while the colors are selected automatically for you.

Install

Sketchpad

MugTug Sketchpad brings your favorite digital painting tools to the browser with a tool set including paintbrush, texture stamp, and spiral brush. Each tool has a broad range of settings, including: flow, opacity, diameter jitter and more. When combined with texture, color and gradient swatches, the possibilities are endless. All tools in Sketchpad can be used in two different blending modes, paint and light, doubling your color and texture combinations and giving you limitless possibilities for self-expression. Combinations of light, paint, stamps, and the spiral brush open up an exciting and fun world to. Create stunning textures in your work.

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Timesaving Tools for Productive Work

Quick Note

The quickest way to take notes in Chrome, as quick and slick as the best desktop note-app. Quick Note is especially designed for lightweight note-taking. You can use it as a simple notepad, scratchpad, clipboard, or to record todo lists

Install

Google Mail Checker

Displays the number of unread messages in your Google Mail inbox. You can also click the button to open your inbox.

Install

Google Reader Notifier

Displays the Google Reader unread count. Clicking the icon shows a preview of your reading list in a popup (or it can open Reader in a new tab, see the options page for configuration).

Install

RSS Subscription Extension

This extension auto-detects RSS feeds on the page you are reading and upon finding one will display an RSS icon in the Omnibox, allowing you to click on it to preview the feed content and subscribe.

Install

Send from Gmail

This extension will open a Compose window in Gmail when you click any email address on a webpage. It also provides a button that will create a Gmail message when clicked, using the page title as the subject and selected page text and link address as the message. For setting the domain name of your “Google Apps for your domain” account, click Options.

Install

Chrome Toolbox

A quick access tool that allows you to put your favorite browser commands in one drop down menu, save unsubmitted form data, magnify images, view videos in standalone windows, and define shortcuts to open all links in any bookmark folder.

Install

Screen Capture

Capture visible content of a tab, a region of a web page, or the whole page as a PNG image. Support horizontal and vertical scroll when capturing whole page, with an all new autosave capability.

Install

TooManyTabs

Ever tried having 20 tabs or more open in Chrome? You can’t even see the favicon of the tabs, not to mention the tab titles! If that happens to you, TooManyTabs is a must-have extension that manages your tabs, reduces your tab overflow, and saves your sanity!

Install

Google Dictionary

View definitions easily as you browse the web.

Install

Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotate

Capture the whole page or any portion, annotate it with rectangles, circles, arrows, lines and text, blur sensitive info, one-click upload to share. Support PNG and shortcuts.

Install

LastPass

LastPass is a free online password manager and Form Filler that makes your web browsing easier and more secure.
Install

Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer

Automatically previews pdfs, powerpoint presentations, and other documents in Google Docs Viewer.

Install

Calculator

Powerful calculator and converter for Chrome. The easiest way to calculate. Works offline.

Install

Sexy Undo Close Tab

Accidentally closed your last tab? Tired of losing tabs in Incognito? Don’t worry, everything is possible with this sexy extension!

Install

Xmarks Bookmark Sync

Xmarks is the #1 bookmarking add-on. Xmarks synchronizes across multiple computers, and across web browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. After you install the add-on, click on the Xmarks icon to start backing up and synchronizing your bookmarks.

Install

Web2PDFConverter

Convert any webpage to PDF including most SSL based sites, using http://www.Web2PdfConvert.com.

Install

Useful Extensions for Different Purposes

IE Tab

Use Internet Explorer to display web pages in a Chrome tab. Some sites can only be displayed using IE, and with this extension you can now see those sites without leaving Chrome. Great for web developers who want to test the IE rendering engine, users who use sites with ActiveX controls, and users who want to use the explorer view for local files (i.e. file:// URLs).

Install

WhatFont

What is the easiest way to find out the fonts used in a webpage? Firebug and Webkit Inspector are easy enough to use for developers. However, for others, this should not be necessary. With this extension, you could inspect web fonts by just hovering on them. It is that simple and elegant. It also detects the services used for serving the web fonts. Supports Typekit and Google Font API.

Install

Lorem Ipsum Generator

Chrome Extension that generates random “Lorem Ipsum” text. It uses a minimalist and well looking design. Many other extensions of this type – in other browsers – simply complicate this task, using really extensive code, XHR, etc. The main purpose of this one, is to use the less amount of code (and also memory) and help the developer/user to get the job done.

Install

EasyClock

Easy to use world clock. Find time for global meetings easily. Do time zone conversions among cities intuitively.

Install

goo.gl URL Shortener

Shorten url with goo.gl, the Google URL shortener, and share with many different service!

Install

AddThis – Share & Bookmark

AddThis allows you to instantly share, bookmark, print, or even translate pages with one easy-to-use tool. Start with the most popular services, or customize AddThis with your favorite ways to share – just select “Options” to personalize your list of services. We’ve optimized AddThis to be as fast as it is easy, so you can share whenever you like without slowing down Chrome.

Install