Chrome Extensions for the Firefox User
Posted on April 30, 2010 at 6:34 am
If you have used Firefox for a few years, you have undoubtedly collected a list of extensions that you use frequently. A lot of Firefox users are hesitant to try Google’s Chrome, because they are not convinced that there are Chrome extensions to correspond to all of their Firefox extensions.
This is a valid concern, but Chrome extensions are coming out rapidly, and a lot of them were created expressly as answers to Firefox extensions. If you want to take Chrome for a drive, try these extensions, which will help ease your transition.
Echofon vs Chromed Bird
Echofon is an excellent browser-based Twitter extension. It takes up very little space, has most of the functionality you would expect in a lightweight Twitter client, and is extremely usable.
As of now there are no plans to bring it to Chrome, so if you need a lightweight browser-based Twitter client, try Chromed Bird. it is not as attractive as Echofon, but it has all of the same functionality and a bit more. It sits in the button bar on Chrome (upper right corner), and gets the job done.
Smart Bookmarks Bar vs Iconized Bookmarks Popup
Smart Bookmarks Bar is a very small but highly useful Firefox extension. It saves a lot of screen real estate by only displaying the favicons of the bookmarks in your Bookmarks Toolbar.
You can tweak the settings to show the labels, or you can turn them off, and you can also set it to show the label when you mouse over the favicon. A lot of people have requested that this extension be ported to Chrome, but the last Firefox update was in early 2009, so it is unlikely that a direct port will occur.
Iconized Bookmarks Popup for Chrome, though not the same, serves a very similar purpose. it puts all of your Bookmarks Bar icons in a handy popup that you trigger by clicking a toolbar button.
You can configure the spacing between the icons, so it is easier to click on them, and when you mouse over each icon, the label information appears. It takes up a lot less space than the Smart Bookmarks Bar, but it does add an additional mouse click.
Better GReader and Better Gmail vs Chrome Plus
Better GReader and Better Gmail are Firefox extensions that enhance your Google Reader and Gmail experience. They make the sites more usable, and allow you to tweak settings, like turning off the Spam Count, allowing you to read feeds with your mouse, and hiding Gmail’s Chat box.
Both of these extensions are an amalgamation of code tweaks from several developers merged into two extensions for your convenience. Chrome Plus is an attempt at combining many of the features of Better GReader and Better Gmail into one Extension.
The author also plans to add support for Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, and YouTube. If anything, this extension saves you the hassle of having to install and keep track of settings in several extensions.
» Filed Under Google Software/Tips
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The other thing that stop me form using chrome is the master password.
There is no master password option in chrome. I save all my passwords for individual websites and have a master password to protect them.
This is missing, otherwise I love to use it.
Venkat