Extending the Chrome: 9 Extensions Worth Knowing
Just before Christmas Google Chrome for Mac & Windows got an update - (the Windows one sadly the more exciting however recent rumblings suggest Mac soon to follow) in the form of Extensions and Shared Bookmarking. A note firstly on Shared Bookmarking - a clear step at carving another chunk out of the Apple Safari / Mobile Me proposition - allows Chrome and Chromium users to share their bookmarks made in browser across multiple machines using their Google account. A nice little addition however as soon as you dive into the extensions you soon realise this is minor (if not redundant) news - a the first of my 9 Worth Knowing sorts that out far more effectively.
This is nothing new, you login to Delicious, it remembers your details, gives you a button next to the address bar. Click it and it will bring up the standard Delicious tagging option. Like I say - nothing new, but interesting as Delicious far outstrips Chrome for organising and syncing bookmarks across multiple machines (and Mobile Me for that matter), therefore making my previous point redundant. Sorry for the wasted time spent reading that.
Another neat little notifier, providing a little icon to let you know how many messages/waves (still haven't made my mind up what to call them) are unread in your GWave account. However seeing that no one seems to know what to do with Google Wave, there is a bigger issue at play here.
Sidewiki has made headlines, not least with a number of my clients, worrying that consumers will start slander campaigns in the footnotes of Sidewiki all across their websites - a fair concern, but an unlikely reality I feel. However for those who are worried about the sanctity of their sites, the Sidewiki extension is a good option for keeping track of what is going on, along with picking up handy titbits about services (I recommend checking out the SideWiki comments about Twitter & Facebook - interesting stuff).
This is my second fave at the moment, not only am I a bit of a Yank-O-File - but an avid fan of the US' NPR network (All Things Considered / Planet Money and This American Life to be precise). This little extension gives you single click access to the best audio and text content from NPR, with in-built streaming of audio and the ability to customise tabs by category. Very well done.
Much the same as the Google Wave Notifier above, this extension is great if you are a GMail user like myself, and gives handy updates for those who prefer to use the web interface rather than running yet another IMAP or POP account out of OutLook or Mail.