Ah, Chrome. You came along with your sexy array of Chrome Extensions and saved us from the hell of Internet Explorer. Anyone else develop an eye twitch when meeting someone who is *happily* using Internet Explorer by choice? I’m a terrible browser snob. Chrome Extensions are the perfect way to add a little superpower to your browsing experience. And with most of the tools and services we use now being cloud-based, they can save time, stress and even money. So, which ones are worth adding without slowing your system? Here are some of my favourites Chrome Extensions to be more productive.
- Pocket: Tend to get distracted by articles and videos when you should be hitting deadlines? Hit the Pocket extension when you’re browsing and it will save it for you to read later on, offline if you wish. I also use this all the time for collecting links for my weekly newsletter, especially as you can add tags.
- LastPass: If you work online, you probably have a bunch of logins for various social networks, portals, tools etc. With passwords getting trickier to remember (at least 8 characters, upper and lowercase letters, numbers, characters
and a DNA sample), LastPass is a saviour. It’ll remember your passwords (encoded, obv), and suggest new, tricky ones if you want to up your security. Once installed and logged in, it will autocomplete all your passwords, and you can also share these logins with an assistant, without giving them the actual password. You can even install it on iPhone, iPad and Android devices. - Wisestamp: Oh hey there sexy email signature! Wisestamp lets you create attractive, interactive signatures to add into your e-mails at the click of a button, with features like importing your latest blog post link or tweets.
- MixMax: I mentioned MixMax in my post of my favourite Gmail Hacks. It’s essentially caffeine for your Gmail, giving you lots of new options like tracking, dozens of embed options, scheduling and even mail merging.
- Extensity: Want to toggle your extensions on and off easily? If you find some extensions can clash when doing something specific, this is really handy to quickly turn multiple extensions off. I also tend to use this if my computer is running slow (usually when on Skype or live streaming) to cut down the noise.
- OneTab: Opened eleventy seven tabs and can’t even see what they’re for anymore? Open one more and install OneTab. This baby collapses all your tabs into one list tab, so you can just reopen the ones that interest you. Or, more likely, not bothering re-opening any of them. It also saves your last few collapsed tabs sessions, so you can re-open something from yesterday or last week easily.
- Buffer: Buffer has long been my favourite social media tool, and being able to quickly share a link to your queue really helps boost that productivity
- Awesome Screenshot: One of my more recent favourites, this tool allows you to screen grab or screen record, so if you want to send someone a quick tutorial of what you’re doing, you can with this tool!
- Quidco: Cashback sites are such an easy way to reduce your outgoings and save money. Essentially, every time you land on a site that offers a cash back discount or special offer, Quidco will pop up and ask if you want it to be applied.
- EDIT: Due to some rumours that Grammarly can claim copyright for anything it corrects, I’m going to suggest an alternative – After The Deadline. Grammarly: Grammarly casts a critical eye over your writing, and alerts you to any spelling and grammar errors.
- Rapportive: Rapportive is a networker’s dream extension. Install it, and it will source all sorts of information on the person who has contacted you, including their social media profiles. It’s a great way to do a little research from your inbox in seconds.
- Colorzilla: Want to find out what colours people are using on their sites (or check your own)? This tool picks up on the colours of a page and lets you know the code.
