The Chrome extensions I use

Justin Blanton -

I’ve long been a huge fan of Chrome/Chromium and have been asked more than a few times for a list of the extensions I use, and so I thought I’d whip up a quick post to list and discuss them (where necessary). (The italicized text after the name of each extension is the copy provided by the respective developer.) Note that this list does not include the bookmarklets I use; I’ll discuss those in a separate post.

Though it probably is obvious, there likely is some overlap between certain of the privacy extensions, and I’m OK with that. Relatedly, I also whitelist cookies on Chrome (an awesome browser feature). Basically, this means that I have to give a site explicit permission before it can set cookies. It’s great, though not without its annoyances; for example, sometimes some snooping is required to get certain websites working. (It’d be nice if Chrome let us enable cookies for a particular site, and then automatically deleted those cookies as soon as the tab in which they were created was closed. If you’re aware of an extension that will do this, please let me know.)

  • Send to KindlePush web articles to your Kindle. I use this extension a lot; if, for whatever reason, it fails, I fall back on Instapaper’s Send to Kindle bookmarklet (which, I’m guessing, most people don’t even know about).
  • InstachromeSave your URLs to Instapaper. I use this instead of the bookmarklet(s) because it automatically closes the tab after the link has been saved, something I’ve written about (and fixed) before. I hope that future versions allow us to target specific folders.
  • PosthocAdds pages to the Read it Later online service. This is a must-have for me because I use both Instapaper and Read It Later, and like Instachrome, this too closes the tab after the link is saved.
  • Tabs CounterA visual candy – always know the number of opened tabs. This is the kind of stat I love knowing at all times. I kind of wish it would display the tab count for the current window and the combined tab count for all of the open windows; currently, it shows the tab count of just the current window.
  • AdBlockThe most popular Chrome extension, with over 2 million users! Blocks ads all over the web.
  • Chrome Cookies ButtonProvides quick icon access to manage your Chrome cookies.
  • ChromeblockStop secret tracking of your web browsing. (UPDATE: This extension is no longer available for download; I’m not sure why.)
  • 1Password BetaPassword and identity manager for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.
  • DisconnectStop third parties and search engines from tracking the webpages you go to and searches you do.
  • GhosteryProtect your privacy. See who’s tracking your web browsing with Ghostery.
  • YSlowMake your pages faster with Yahoo!’s page performance tool.
  • Google Analytics Opt-out Add-onTells the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) not to send information to Google Analytics.
  • Page One – Banish Multipage ArticlesAlways display the single-page version of articles at popular news sites.
  • SelectOut Tracking Opt-OutBe in control of who tracks you online.
  • SheepishProtect your privacy. See who’s tracking you. Are you sheepish? (UPDATE: This extension is no longer available for download.)