Google Chrome Extensions: What Are They, and Why Should We Use Them?

As the internet, technology and mobile apps keep improving, so does Google. If you have Google Chrome, look no further than this article to discover extensions to help your use of Google Chrome become more efficient, useful and worth going on the PC/laptop for. You will soon learn about extensions you never knew you needed before, but once you have them, you won’t be able to live without them! Chrome extensions are small software programs designed to enhance and modify the functionalities of Google Chrome. They can improve your day-to-day life with motivational quotes, assist your organisation and planning and even collate all the top viral stories on the net to one page for you without you having to flutter an eyelash!

Taco

A productivity centre which connects to over 40 web tools to collate all your incoming tasks and notifications. You can then organise your task lists in order of priority, time frame, importance, etc. as well as being able to tick off the tasks you have completed.

Strict Workflow

The perfect revision tool! This is an extension which stops you from getting distracted by various websites, especially social media upon request. Within this app, you enter a list of your favourite social media and entertainment sites and set up a timer. Your timer will count down from 25 minutes when started. You cannot access any entertainment sites at all during this time, and you cannot pause/stop the timer once it has started. You get a 5-minute entertainment break at the end then it repeats as many times as you have set it to do so.

Mighty Text

This extension makes texting your friends even easier by pairing your phone with your laptop. If your phone is on charge on the other side of the room from you and your laptop, you don’t have to stop that conversation with your friend or even divert to Facebook chat! Now, you can sync your phone’s SMS, MMS and notifications to your laptop to make it even easier to continue those conversations.

Viral Bot

Have you ever wished you didn’t have to scroll and click through loads of different viral media sites (UniLad, BuzzFeed, Pretty52) to find the top stories from the net? With Viral Bot, look no further! This extension collates the top stories from all your favourite viral media sites and puts them all on one page: your new tab page! These can range from funny stories, sports stories, celebrity rumours and much more. You can even choose your category to see the top stories in your favourite genre.

The Camelizer

Perfect for online shoppers, this extension takes the product price history from your previous purchases from Amazon, Best Buy and Newegg. It collates the data and shows it in an easy-to-interpret graph to show you the difference in price at the various places you choose to shop at, and which is the best to buy from. You can also choose to receive price drop alerts via Twitter or email.

Panic Button

While simple, this extension could save a lot of people from getting caught doing secret things, like planning your girlfriend a surprise birthday party, or buying your mum a secret gift. Panic button allows you to quickly hide all your incriminating tabs with one quick click, and restore them again just as easily. Hidden and saved tabs can also be password protected to ensure even more privacy when browsing online.

Sophie Eminson

While this is just a snapshot of what people can do with technology, it is a pretty fantastic snapshot, don’t you think?! If you know of any amazing Chrome Extensions, let us know, we would love to hear from you: @clothesmaiden