Google Chrome Add-Ons

I switched over from Firefox to Chrome many moons ago (I’d give you the exact date, but who remembers?) Firefox just became too much of a resource hog and I got tired of waiting for minutes for it to load and then hope that it won’t crash on me. Yes, it has become that unreliable on my computer – don’t ask me why.

Chrome is not only faster and more stable, it also offers a de-cluttered surfing space. All in all, it has become my browser of choice.

The problem was with add-ons, or rather, the lack thereof. Firefox has a gazillion plug-ins you can download and add, enhancing user experience in a multitude of ways. Like many webmasters, I relied on its SEO plug-ins. As Firefox became more resource-intensive, I gradually deactivated the plug-ins, but some of them were just too necessary to completely let go of.

I ended up using Chrome for most of my browsing, still switching to Firefox when I had to do SEO work. I limited my Firefox plug-ins to Quirk Search Status – a customizable nifty little tool that highlights nofollow links and also shows you everything from backlinks , indexed pages, pagerank, alexa and all that SEO jazz.

Well, no more. I got fed up with having to wait for the Fox to load. It was time for Chrome to get its own extensions and no more waiting for the official release either. I switched to the Dev edition of Chrome and now I got me a wriggly (yet so far stable!) multi-armed shiny metal browser!

If you want to get your own Chrome extensions, there are a bunch of hoops to jump through. You see, the extensions or add-ons only work with the Developers version of Chrome, so you have to switch over to that, activate the extensions and only then start adding them.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting Google Chrome with extensions -

1. If you’re already using Chrome: Make a backup of your Chrome user information by navigating to Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default in your windows XP installation. Don’t freak out if you can’t see it all. Some of these folders are hidden, so you need to go to Tools > Folder Options > View and change the view option to “View all files including hidden”.
2. Download the Dev channel version of Chrome here: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?extra=devchannel and replace your current version with it.
3. You’re not done yet. You need to manually – and I mean, manually – activate the extensions feature. Go to your desktop and locate the Chrome icon. Right-click on that icon and select properties.
   
   In the target field it should say:
   “C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.WORK\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”
   Add one space and this text:
   –enable-extensions –load-extension=”c:\myextension”
   So, now your target field reads:
   “C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.WORK\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” –enable-extensions –load-extension=”c:\myextension”
   Apply and re-lauch Chrome.
4. Now comes the fun part. After re-starting Chrome you should see a little message at the bottom that tells you you now have the new extensions feature enabled. Adding an extension is a breeze – just click and add!

I found a good source for Chrome extenstions here: chromeextensions.org . Not a huge selection if you’re used to The Firefox mega collections, but it was good enough for me. I can now see pagerank in a glance using Kuber’s Pagerank checker and I can quickly spot nofollow links using the Chrome nofollow checker.
And so… it’ s bye bye Firefox!

Tagged as: chrome, extensions, firefox, plug-ins