Upon first arrival, it’s easy to notice the lists of most popular and featured extensions. Each of them offers something different to the end-user, so let’s take a quick look at the first Top 5 Chrome Extensions and see what is included!

Google Mail Checker

Google’s own email notifier finds itself as the most used Chrome Extension, probably because people have been able to download it for the last nine months instead of the last nine hours like its competitors. Whatever the reason for it sitting atop the league table, it is a useful and simple addon which anyone with a Gmail account must have.

Google Translate

Another ‘in house’ product, Google Translate adds a button to the browser which allows the user to translate the page that they are on into a number of different languages (based on Google’s translation service). It is useful for people who wish to translate whole pages of information, and when the service improves more and more it will be very valuable for international users.

RSS subscription Extension

Another of the originals, the RSS subscription extension simply adds a small orange button into the omnibar which then allows you to subscribe to the site’s RSS feed easily.

AdThwart

One of the newer Chrome extensions, AdThwart blocks adverts on websites. It looks like a slick package (we will be doing a more in-depth review later), but one thing to note is that it uses a listing to find adverts (so with some work it should work automatically and not require you to note where the ads are yourself).

Xmarks for Chrome Beta

Xmarks is one of the most popular Firefox extensions which has now found its way onto Chrome. It is a cross-browser service which allows access to your bookmarks from any browser. It doesn’t take long to set up, and once there it allows fast synchronization between any browser with the extension installed. Look for this one to climb the charts quickly!

That’s all for now, as the Developer’s gallery has just opened, expect for big changes in these lists in the coming few days. We’ll keep you up to date with any changes here on Chrome Extensions!

The first impression of the gallery is that it is certainly easy to navigate, with lists of ‘Today’s Top Picks’ (which seem to be editorial choices by the Google team), a list of the Most Popular extensions (by number of users) and then ‘Featured plugins’. Interestingly there are no ‘category’ pages, but there is of course access to Google’s search box if you can’t find what you’re looking for.

The extensions are very easy to download and install (nothing has changed with the process, but there is no sign-in needed for your Google account), and you can comment on each of the extensions and also rate them on a scale of 1-5 stars. These ratings contribute towards the ‘top rated’ list, and so it’s important to each extension that they build a loyal fanbase quickly.

Most of the ‘Google favourite’ extensions are currently placed in the top five in popularity, however many more unheard of extensions are now being featured on the site and are quickly making their way up the charts. It’ll be very interesting to find whether any newcomers to the addons and plugins market are born with this new page in the Chrome browser evolution.

The Chrome extension gallery is currently, like many products related to the big G, in ‘beta’, so expect to see small tweaks and changes over the next few weeks! You can go to the Google Chrome browser extension gallery by clicking here -> https://chrome.google.com/extensions

What can we, as users of Chrome, expect from this launch? What impact will it have on the browser scene? Well we can be sure of at least three things:

Google Chrome extensions gallery

1) Ease of use
Google has tried in the past to make ease of use and practicality one of the key features of all of its products. This will be the same for Google Chrome extensions. For those who have already given a test drive to these addons and plugins, you will know how easy it is to install them (one click), that you don’t need to restart your browser and that the speed of startup and running doesn’t seem to be affected. This should continue by having a one-stop-shop for free browser plugins.

2) Careful explanations
In the Developer application process, Google tried to make sure that Developers presented clearly what their addon was and what functionality it would bring to the user. They also mentioned having Youtube videos from the Devs, explaining their products. Whether they have had enough time to put these together or not, the results should be interesting to see.

3) Hardly any change for end user
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Even if the Developer’s gallery is opened and is stuffed full of amazing extensions and free download, most people will not know or care about it, as the build of Chrome which is currently in the ‘normal’ user’s possession does not possess the ability to run the extensions. We can not expect that Google will be pushing the date forward of their next build (which may or may not include native support for the extensions), so we should assume that they will still only be the plaything of the most tech-savvy beta testers.

The wait is almost over – by next week we will see what Google’s strategy is, and how they plan to implement it. We are sure that at the Add-on-Con 09 event there will be a large number of announcements regarding the subject, as well as perhaps some of Google’s own Chrome extensions that they’ve been developing of late. We wait with baited breath!

You can see an example of it in action here:

As it is in its first iteration, it is quite basic, however it seems to have a wide range of vocabulary stored already, and accessibility for China is an extremely important step towards Google’s world domination. It will also be really helpful for various other sites, such as PartyPoker (partypoker.com 中文), as it should bring in a whole range of new clients. This is an interesting plugin as it may pave the way for input methods to be removed from the operating system, and as Google plan to release its Chrome OS late next year, they will need to have a number of options available for non-English writers and speakers to access their languages.

Google itself have a standalone product for inputting Chinese via pinyin, however that is tethered to the Windows operating system. This sort of option could be an excellent way for them to move away from the Microsoft dominated product.

The plugin itself should be properly tried and tested, but for now it is exceptionally promising!

Sogou Cloud Chinese Pinyin

Homepage: https://code.google.com/p/sogou-pinyin-chrome-extension

Download: http://sogou-pinyin-chrome-extension.googlecode.com/files/sogou-pinyin-extension-0.0.1.crx [Mirror]

After installation there is very little to configure with this smart little plugin – you simply browse to a page with a PDF link and you can see when you mouse-over a link that it is now set to open in Google Docs.

It is difficult to find fault with this extension. As it doesn’t actually follow the links it finds on the pages, on slightly annoying factor is that sometimes the PDF link doesn’t work – this is due to some download managers taking the URL of a file that they want to monitor and adding it to the URL, like this:

http://www.website.com/downloadmanager.php?document.pdf

To the gPDF extension, this looks like a PDF file, but actually it is not, and so it will not open in Google Docs.

Apart from this small thing, however, the software is sound and seamless. It’s clear that developers are quickly making plugins and addons for Chrome to bring it up to some ‘industry standards’.

You can download the file directly below, or visit the developer’s website to find out some more information about the extension.

gPDF Chrome extension

Direct download – http://blog.arpitnext.com/get-gpdf/gPDF.crx

Homepage – http://blog.arpitnext.com/gpdf

It is difficult to describe the function of the Smooth Scroll Chrome extension without seeing it in action, and it’s also hard to say what its real utility is (other than making your browser a little bit more ’smooth’!). It has a lot of different options available to experiment with, including Frames per Second, pulse algorithm settings and experimental keyboard support – so have some fun!

After installation, when you smooth scroll (for example on a tablet) you can really notice the difference in terms of a less jerky performance, but otherwise it’s slightly difficult to recognize. One small issue which has not been added is the ’scroll wheel’ on the mouse is not affected by the smooth scrolling ability, so you’ll still find yourself jerking around if you use the mouse.

It is, whatever its faults, another good experimental plugin and it is another project which is showing everyone the future of extensions is bright! Check out the developer’s website today and download the .crx file!

Smooth Scroll Chrome extension

Download – http://chromium.exxe.ath.cx/smoothscroll

Developer’s page – http://chromium.exxe.ath.cx/smoothscroll

If you’ve found any other good scrolling plugins or addons for Chrome, let us know in the comments and we’ll get them reviewed quickly!

In terms of advertisement blocking, this is a little more ‘brute force’ than the Adblock+ Chrome extension we looked at previously, however it is just as effective. Whenever you open a webpage with a flash animation or silverlight video, they will automaticaly be neutered until you click on the ‘play’ button which will be inserted into the box.

Here is the BBC News website before:

And after activating the BlockFlash Plus code.

You can see that it is totally disabled, which leads for a much more enjoyable user experience when surfing the net.

As stated previously, this is a little more ‘brute force’ than the other advertising blocker, and so there are no configuration options or settings to play with. That said, if you’re looking for a basic way to pause Flash and Silverlight until you want to play them – this could be just the ticket for you.

BlockFlash Plus Chrome extension

Direct Download – http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/56912.user.js

Homepage – http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/56912

Do you know of any other Google Chrome extensions which are similar to this? Have you had any experiences with this addon that you want to share? Let us know your feedback in the comments!

The essense of URL shortening is based in need for space. Twitter was the first web service that totally embraced the idea that less could be more, and URL shorteners like bit.ly and is.gd sprung up to provide users with links which were tiny, and so could fit into their 140 character limit.

After installing ChromeMUSE you have a little link icon in your broswer. After this point, whenever you click on it it will create a short URL for the webpage that you are looking at at that moment.

There are a few settings that you can play around with, including changing the service which provides your short links. This is useful for those people who live places where some of these services are blocked (Bit.ly is blocked in China, for example).

You can also turn on URL lengthening, which means that when you mouse over any link which is shortened using on of the installed services (and all the major players are there) it will show you the long address in a tooltip. Very handy.

Overall, this is an excellent plugin for Chrome for those who use social networking to any degree. It’s clean, simple, intuitive and it – just works. Download from the developer’s site below:

ChromeMUSE Chrome extension

Direct Download – http://sites.google.com/site/nighthoundchrome/chromemuse/chromemuse-1.0.crx?attredirects=0 [File mirror]

Homepage – http://sites.google.com/site/nighthoundchrome/chromemuse

Many of the addons that we have begun to see for the Chrome browser are about taking ’steps’ out of the process of data retrieval for users. With Mappy, we can see that Google recognizes many people go to a website, find an address, open a new tab, go to Google Maps, paste in the address and then access the information they need.

With Mappy, when you go to a website which contains an address, the little red symbol pops up in your Omnibar (address bar) and when you click on it – voila – the map appears for you to view.

One drawback of the plugin is that you can not interact with the snapshot after it appears on your screen – there is no dragging or double clicking to open the map in a new tab, you can look at the location and another click will close the window. Perhaps this is meant to keep it simple, but it seems that an opportunity was missed to create a true ‘killer’ app here.

For all of its faults, Mappy is another fantastic example of what Chrome extensions will be abler to do in the future, and we should recognize it as such. Download it below and try it out in your browser now.

Mappy Chrome extension

Direct download – Mappy download link

Homepage – http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/samples.html

Their Google mail (Gmail) checker extension was also one of these ‘first wave’ of sample plugins. It installed instantly, and inserted a small red button in the top right of the Chrome browser which had the familiar Gmail logo on it, along with a number on top which denoted how many emails were waiting in the user’s inbox.

As most people who use the Chrome browser (and the upcoming Operating System) use Gmail, it’s a very sensible addon to download and install.

It is a simple addon, but it shows how developers can hook in to Google’s own APIs and pass information to their software. It also had a nice animation which would play (a spinning envelope) to show that a new mail had arrived. It’s not rocket science, but it is an extremely useful extension nonetheless!

Google mail checker extension

Direct download – Google mail checker extension

Homepage – http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/samples.html