Favorite Chrome Add Ons

ADBLOCK CHROME EXTENSION - enough of those annoying ads popping up everywhere, darting around the screen so you can’t catch them to send them on their way. Just what we needed to keep us sane, block ‘em.

COOLIRIS - if you’re a bit of a “snapper” you’re going to absolutely love this. You know how long it can take to browse through your images, waiting for the page to load, scrolling up and down and then never being able to find your favorite which was about 3 pages and 2 scrolls back, well, all of that is a thing of the past, the Cooliris is an infinite 3-D wall – it’s brilliant, your pictures just go on forever and ever and ever. Not just your pictures either, you can search for videos and images in tons of places – YouTube, Google, Picasa, Facebook, Flickr. You can also scroll through millions of movies and TV channels – oh no, don’t tell your boss you’ve got it, you’ll never get any work done at all!

GOOGLE TRANSLATE - this chrome add on does exactly what it says on the tin. Now, I know it’s not everyday, but how many times have you clicked on a website which has just the right information for you, to find it’s in Japanese, or German, or that language which uses little squares all over the screen? (twice today for me already), well, this quickly and easily translates (most) languages to English. Very useful in all sorts of ways!

IE TAB - now then, one potential problem with Google Chrome is that some web pages will only work with Internet Explorer, we all know that, but this is where IE Tab is extra clever and useful, because, are you listening carefully, the Chrome IE Tab Extension means that you can have the best of both worlds, you can run IE within a tab on Chrome so that everything can be displayed without leaving Chrome – so you’re using Chrome, but you’re in IE, with Chrome – confused?

LASTPASS FOR CHROME - do you get fed up of filling out the same old details on millions of different sites? I know I do, but this Lastpass for Chrome is a free online Form Filler and Password Manager so you can not only keep track of all of your passwords on social networking and other websites, but it helps to keep them safe and secure too. In the true Google Chrome way you can import the ones you’ve already set up from Roboform, PassPack, Firefox etc, so you don’t have to start the whole process over again. There you are, it’s easy and secure, and any particularly sensitive information is encrypted locally so that if there’s anyone sniffing around they won’t be able to get access.

RANDOMMAGIC - if you’re like me (don’t tell anybody, I’m always working really hard) and your mind starts to wander sometimes as you’re sitting at your computer, and then you find that you have really important decisions to make, “shall I walk home or take the bus” – looks like rain but I need the exercise, or “shall I have chicken or bacon in my sandwich” then this is perfect for you. If you’re faced with a tricky situation and you find that you just can’t make up your mind, let RandomMagic make your mind up for you! You can flip a coin, roll a die or generate a random number – wonder if it works on lottery tickets? If it does, remember, you heard it here first and I’ll be waiting for my share.

SHAREAHOLIC – if you’re one of the millions of people worldwide who can’t last for 10 minutes without twittering, tweeting and checking on your Facebook page, then this is definitely for you. I’m always a bit dubious about any word which ends in “aholic” because it sounds addictive, and this certainly lives up to its name. It supports every one of the popular social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Linkedln, Reddit) and can also integrate with Yahoo and GMail. Oh, like one big happy family.

WEB OF TRUST (WOT) – is just brilliant at keeping you safe on the net. If you accidentally happen upon a risky website which is known to try to scam or spam users, then the Web of Trust will immediately warn you of impending doom! One good feature is that these sites aren’t automatically blocked, but WOT gives you a kind of traffic light warning system so that you can make up your own mind – clever huh?

XMARKS BOOKMARK SYNC - “Mr Google” knows that millions of users already have other browsers like Firefox, IE and Safari, so why not get together? This brilliant bookmarking tool gives you a backup for your bookmarks and you can sync them across browsers and computers. Of course, you are in complete control about which you sync and which you don’t, so you can keep your private bookmarks private (your secrets are quite safe) while syncing lots of other stuff to the computer at work – brilliant.