Google’s Chrome browser is becoming more and more of a go-to choice for many web users. One of the challenges for web designers and developers though has been the lack of developer/designer tools and extensions.
But that’s quickly changing.
The “Web Development” section of Chrome’s Extensions is now pretty large and it’s getting better nearly every week.
I’m this close to making the jump… Have you yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Martin Hathaway says
My workstation include two monitors, so I use two browsers side-by-side – namely Firefox and Chrome. Between the two of them, they have all the extensions and tools that I need.
Matthew Snider says
I must say I have tried Opera yet again, and I have tried IE7 and 8. I have also tried Chrome in many differing beta phases and still cannot get past the lack of the following.
IF any of you know an alternative in the land of Chrome, let me know.
Adblock – one that works
Gmail notifier
Firebug
Xmarks – pretty sure they are doing one for Chrome now also
I think that really is all I can’t live without at this time. I am sure I would like a few others things but I also know that Chrome, just like FF< has a great community and is ever growing.
Will P says
Adblock Plus is on the extension site. Be sure to get the button extension for it as well.
Google makes a first party Gmail notifier for Chrome with out of browser (a la Growl) notifications coming soon.
A lot of the features of Firebug are built into Chrome in the Developer tools. cmd-opt-j on the Mac.
Chrome has the ability to sync your bookmarks to Docs. But yes, Xmarks is available for the big 4.
Cheers
Matthew Snider says
Thanks Will!
jaledwith says
I did not know about the built-in Firebug functionality. That was my last big reason for not using Chrome as my default browser.
Adam Lehman says
I’m using chrome. love it.
It’s fast and clean and simple. Also, the plugins – so far – seem to be a bit more neat and tidy than firefox.
Trevor Olesiak says
I am using Chrome at work, but really only because of the Google Voice extension. I can respond to texts very quickly and easily without having to bust out my phone. I love the speed as well. Anything web dev related though, I do still tend to use FF.
Kyle Reed says
Yup, made the switch 2 weeks ago. Really really like it a lot.
Still trying to find some good extensions.
What is everyone using extension wise?
Matthew Snider says
I must say, after using it, gmail is very slow in loading anything. And for me, there is nothing calling me to it from Firefox. With the help of Will, I have all I would need but it just doesn’t show me anything that FF can’t do. And the speed difference is very minimal if at all.
Also your font on this page in Chrome aside from Firefox, it looks weird!
Eric says
I made the switch as well 3 or so weeks ago, i love the speed at which it opens and it’s fast rendering engine. If firebug is 10/10 in terms of ease of use and power i would give the chome native developer tools a 7.5 out of 10 the are not quite as easy to use but are still really good. Install xmarks to sync your bookmarks and try it out for a while.
Also i LOVE the ability to remove and re-doc tabs 😀
installed extensions:
Copy w/o formatting
firebug lite for chrome
gmail – add row highlihts (greasemonkey)
gmail – hide invites (greasemonkey)
Google Tasks
Speed Tracer
Web Developer
Webpage Screen shot
xmarks
Unlike my frist love firefox (which i have used since it was called phoenix) it doesn’t seem to slow down when you install extensions.
Justin Piercy says
Chrome = Sweet. The Vimium extension profiled somewhere on the 8 bit network a while ago is geeklicious:)