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Using Plugins to Extend Google Chrome

A few days ago, Google released the third beta version of its Google Chrome browser, and one of the improvements in it is enhanced support for plugins. Chrome still does not have the universe of useful extensions that Firefox has, which is why I continue to favor Firefox, but I still use Chrome, and there are more and more useful plugins appearing for it. Here, in addition to our recent post on tips and resources for Chrome, are good ways to extend what you get out of Chrome with plugins.

Chrome Plugins is an excellent site for finding lots of JavaScript bookmarklets and information on plugins that can help you get more out of Chrome. Today, the site has a useful post up with a whole lot of links you can drag to your Bookmarks in Chrome for searching selected text. These will allow you to do instant searches on Yahoo, MSN, and many other sites.

There is also a good forum at Chrome Plugins where developers of plugins and themes for the browser congregate and share information. You'll find many tools from developers here. Community members review how useful the tools are.

To get a look at what plugins you're running in Chrome, just type about:plugins into Chrome's address bar and hit Enter. You'll find a list of Chrome plugins here for adding useful tools.

Would you like to view two web pages in one tab in Chrome? DownloadSquad has a good item up today with a link you can drag into your Chrome Bookmarks for viewing two web pages in one tab--a split-screen view. This works similarly to how the Split Browser extension works in Firefox.

Many people who run Firefox are big fans of the AdBlock Plus extension, which keeps you from having to look at pesky pop-ups. You can find out how to run Adblock Plus in Chrome here.

I'm hoping that we start to see the kinds of robust extensions for Chrome that are available for Firefox. In the meantime, if you're using Chrome, definitely investigate plugins. 

• firefox
• google
• Chrome

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