It’s amazing out how much market share the Google Chrome browser has snagged given that it has only been on the market for a few years. With the addition of the Google Chrome Web Store, users have a new way to find tools and extensions to make Chrome more enjoyable and useful.
Here are 6 Google Chrome productivity extensions that will help you get things done.
There is a vocal set of geeks out there becoming more and more tired of Google’s endless encroachment of their Google experience with Google+. Luckily, there is a nice extension that can help rid the notifications, Google Bar, popups, and much more.
You can use Minimalist for Everything to control the look and feel of your Gmail page as well as Google Reader. The biggest thing for me was to completely hide the Google Bar. That gets rid of Google+ notifications which is really handy when you are dealing with your inbox and trying to get things done.
There are many times during the day that you are working on some mission critical task when all of the sudden, out of habit, you meander to your browser and start searching for, well, anything. Sometimes you find great things to read during this process. Rather than read them now you can use Send To Kindle to send these websites and articles to your Kindle account for later consumption.
After installing the extension, you simply go to your Kindle account, approve the email that Send To Kindle provides you, and then add your special Kindle email address to the Send To Kindle extension. Then just start sending away. Remember, if you are using the Kindle with 3G there could be costs associated with sending articles (WiFi users, you are free and clear!).
If you decide to nix sending long articles to your Kindle with Send To Kindle, then you should at least be able to visually skim the headlines. To do that you can use Scrollbar of Contents.
This extension allows you to toggle all of the headings of the page that you are on and view them next to your scrollbar in proportion to where they are on the page. You can then click on which heading you want to jump to. This is a handy way to skim a page without having to scroll the entire way down; instead, you can just see all the headings at once as well as where they are on the page.
There isn’t a better way to put yourself at risk than to use the same email address and password combination for all of you sites. One of the main reasons that people don’t make unique and strong passwords is because they are a pain-in-the-neck to keep track of. That’s where LastPass’s Chrome extension comes in.
LastPass’s extension allows you to have access to all of your stored passwords so that when you are working on the web all you have to remember is one master password to get to them. LastPass is secure and makes handling all your passwords a breeze.
StayFocused is an extension that helps you block yourself from accessing sites to keep yourself focused on the task at hand. You can set the maximum time per day that you can visit the sites that you have set to be blocked, the active days and hours that you want the extension to work in, and blocked and allowed sites.
There is even a “nuclear option” to block the entire web for a set amount of time. Time to get things done.
Session Buddy is a good way to store and launch different websites all at once. Basically you can save the current window that with all of your different tabs into a session, give it a name, and have the ability to launch it later. This is a great way to save time if you have different “modes” or “areas of focus” when it comes to browsing and working online.
For instance, I now have a session with Google Analytics, Asana, Lifehack’s backend, our project management site, Gmail, and Google Docs. This gives me a one click way to get all the tools ready that I need for our weekly editor meetings.
The combination of these 6 Google Chrome productivity extensions can save you a ton of time while you are working on the web. What other extensions for Chrome have helped you get things done?
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