Ten “Must-Have” Google Chrome Extensions

After waiting for more than a year, Mac OS X and Linux users last week finally had a version of Google’s Chrome Web browser to take advantage of. At the same time, Google also unveiled a new “Extensions” feature, which is just as it sounds, and is not much different than what you’re likely already familiar with from other browsers. This feature, like the release of the browser for those operating systems, was just as long-awaited, and it kicked things off in style.

Despite the fact that Extensions is a brand-new feature, developers had been hard at work for the past few months in order to hit the release date, and as a result, over 300 extensions are available for installation. The folks at Download Squad wasted no time in testing out a bunch of them, and have come up with the ten “must-have” extensions for anyone who uses Google Chrome as their main browser.

One of their recommendations is “Web of Trust”, which is also available for other browsers. I haven’t ever touched this one before, but after seeing what it does, I’m almost tempted. It’s essentially a grading system for websites, and if you run the toolbar, you can vouch for its trustworthiness, privacy, reliability and child safety. I think it’s meant more for e-tailers and the like, but it’s a good way to see if the site you just wound up on is trusted overall or not. Fortunately, we were graded well. See? I told you we could be trusted!

Another interesting extension is “Shareaholic”, and I’m sure just by the name, you can tell what it does. See something on the Web you want to share? Click the icon in the browser, then the service you want to post it to, and voila, it’s pretty much just that easy. “LastPass” is another useful extension, and it aims to be the definitive password manager, and gets huge kudos from the site. Of course, you’d imagine that Chrome would come with something like this from the get-go, but that’s what makes the browser so great… it’s not bloated, which is probably why it’s so freakin’ fast.

LastPass is the password manager — no other tool or add-on even comes close to LastPass in its functionality or usability. You can import password databases from almost every other similar service, and the developers say that it picks up more password fields (AJAX forms for example) than any other password-scanning tool. LastPass has other neat bits too, like the ability to store secure notes and generate secure passwords. This is one of those vital extensions that every security-aware user should download.