Official and Unofficial Google Chrome Extensions
If you like Google Chrome’s speed, but miss the extensibility of Firefox, you’re in luck. The Chrome team announced the developer program around Chrome Extensions this week, and unveiled part of the site that will eventually serve as the official mothership for Chrome add-ons. If you can’t wait until then, we’ve got a round-up of resources for unofficial scripts and extension that should keep you occupied until the wraps come off.
Google Chrome has been giving Firefox a run for its money in performance and stability, but Firefox still has a commanding lead in terms of features — especially when you factor in the massive ecosystem of Firefox add-ons. Google is looking to narrow that lead in the near future with the announcement of its extension gallery. The site is only open to developers to upload extensions at the moment, but you can find plenty of unofficial sites and extensions already.
What Google announced last week is the official extension gallery and a bunch of documentation on how to create your very own extension.
You might notice that the instructions on creating a Chrome instruction seem a lot simpler than creating a Firefox extension. Chrome sticks to technologies that Web developers know, and don’t require learning XUL.
The Unofficial Chrome Ecosystem
Even though Google hasn’t officially unveiled extensions, it hasn’t stopped developers from creating their own. You can find links and information about unofficial extensions on Chrome Plugins and a directory of extensions on Chrome Extensions. What will happen with these sites once Google rolls out its official directory is unclear, but for now they’re the best place to find extensions.
Google is building in its own sync for Chrome, but if you haven’t moved to Chrome full time, Xmarks is a much better solution. It’s in alpha right now, and mostly works, though I’ve seen quite a few Xmarks errors about syncing while using Chrome.
Greasemonkey Scripts
Another source of add-ons for Chrome is UserScripts.org. Some, but not all, of the scripts will work with Chrome as well as Firefox and Greasemonkey, without the need to install an additional add-on to make them work.
I tried several different scripts, with varying degrees of success. The YouTube Download script seemed to work right out of the box. I also tried the Flashblock extension and it seemed to work just fine as well.
