Supercharge Chrome (and Edge)
YOU’LL NEED THIS
GOOGLE CHROME https://www.google.com/intl/
en_us/chrome
CHROME IS THE MOST POPULAR web browser in the world, and there are good reasons for that: it’s not only underpinned by one of the biggest names on the net, it’s supported by an active community of extension developers. A huge library of extensions massively increases the range of tasks that Chrome can accomplish, making it as much a productivity platform as it is a window on the web. Here’s our pick of eight essential extensions that can save you time and enhance your web experience, whether you’re a casual browser, a power user, or an online professional. You don’t even have to be using Chrome to make use of them—you can also install Chrome extensions in Microsoft Edge to get the exact same benefits (see https://support. microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/add-turn-off-or-remove-extensions-in-microsoftedge-9c0ec68c-2fbc-2f2c-9ff0-bdc76f46b026). –NIK RAWLINSON
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EXTENSION MANAGER https://chrome.google.com/ webstore/detail/extensionmanager/gjldcdngmdknpinoemndlidpcabkggco
There are hundreds of thousands of Chrome extensions in existence. While the browser might have no trouble dealing with dozens of extensions, it can quickly get confusing when you need to navigate them yourself. That’s why the first extension you install should be an extension manager. Extension Manager lets you browse your installed extensions in a list or grid, import, and export extension lists, and customize the layout of the manager, with control over icon size, columns, and light and dark UI options.
» Where Extension Manager really comes into its own is its ability to switch between extension sets, depending on what you’re doing. Just open the manager’s settings and click Group in the sidebar to start setting up extension groups [ Image A]; you might have one for home and another for work, or you could create task-focused groups for writing, video calls, online shopping, and so on. Each group gets its own tab on the dashboard; click through the tabs, then click on the icons for each extension that should be included in that group. Once you’ve set up your groups, you can instantly switch between them using the drop-down in the Manager panel. You can also create rules that automatically enable or disable extensions when you visit a specified domain.
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SPEEDTEST BY OOKLA https://chrome.google.com/ webstore/detail/speedtest-by-ookla/ pgjjikdiikihdfpoppgaidccahalehjh
Is the web running slow? If it’s a consistent problem, you should take it up with your ISP, but not before you’ve gathered some evidence. When our broadband starts to lag, we head for Ookla Speedtest ( speedtest.net), which has so far performed around 50 billion tests across more than 15,000 servers [ Image B]. Its Chrome extension lets you launch a test directly from the toolbar, making it effortless to check your broadband performance whenever you need to.
» The stripped-down interface will be immediately familiar if you’ve ever used the speedtest.net site. Simply click the single button to perform ping, upload, and download tests without leaving the site you’re already browsing.
» The plugin also has a second function which is very useful for anyone running their own website: it can calculate how long the site you’re currently viewing took to load. Search engines use load times as a gauge when ranking results, so reducing them as far as possible is very worthwhile. Ideally, you want your page to load in less than two seconds, or three at a push; anything longer than this needs attention. Being able to quickly check at different times of day and through different browsers will give you some real-world data to work with. To use this feature, open the extension’s options, and make sure the box beside Enable Web Speed is ticked.
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SCRIBE: AI DOCUMENTATION,
SOPS & SCREENSHOTS https://chrome. google.com/webstore/detail/ scribe-ai-documentation-s/ okfkdaglfjjjfefdcppliegebpoegaii Screenshots are a powerful tool for sharing all types of information and instructions, but taking and organizing multiple grabs can be slow and fiddly. Enter Scribe. Once you’ve installed it and signed up for an account, it watches what you’re doing and takes a
screenshot of every action, including clicks, button presses, and text field entries. When you click a link, button, or field, it’s highlighted, and the screenshot is intelligently cropped to put the active element at the centre of the frame without unnecessary distractions. Better yet, each screenshot is briefly annotated.
» Thus, if you want to show someone a process of clicking in a search box containing the hint ‘search term’, typing ‘GPU’, then clicking ‘Go’, you simply need to perform those actions yourself and you’ll see three steps added to the script [ Image C]. The first will be a cropped image of the search box, labeled ‘Click the ‘search term’ field’; the second will be the annotation ‘Type GPU’ without a grab; and the third will be another cropped grab of the search box with the ‘Go’ button highlighted. The final annotation will be “Click Go”. You can then click the ‘stop’ button to review your steps—at this point you can optionally edit the annotations before exporting the result as a PDF or embedding it in a web page.
» The free Basic plan is designed for browser-based tasks, but there are two other paid tiers that add support for step-bystep capture of other applications, and can export workflows in HTML or Markdown formats.
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FLOWCRYPT: ENCRYPT GMAIL WITH PGP https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/flowcryptencrypt-gmail-w/bnjglocicdkmhmoohhfkfkbbkejdhdgc A VPN can secure the connection from your PC to a remote server, but its protections only extend so far. When you send someone an email, it’s ultimately transmitted as plain text from their mail server to their PC, smartphone, or tablet.
» If you want a truly secure communications channel, PGP encryption can help—and FlowCrypt provides an easy way to use it within Gmail. Once you’ve installed the extension, launch it from the toolbar and sign in to the Gmail-hosted account you want to use. You’ll need to grant it permission to see your emails [ Image D], then create a passphrase that only you know. This is used to generate the public and private key pair that’ll be used to encrypt and decrypt messages. Once you’re done, log in to Gmail as usual, and you’ll see that the regular Compose button has been supplemented by a Secure Compose button. When you click this, you’ll get the option to encrypt, sign, or both encrypt and sign your new message before sending. If you’ve opted to encrypt the message and included an attachment, that will also be encrypted.
» FlowCrypt is free to install and use for domains with fewer than 100 users. There are some additional advanced features that are only available in the paid edition, but most personal users and small businesses will find all they need in the gratis implementation. You’ll find a comparison table listing the full feature set of either tier at https://flowcrypt. com/docs/business/enterprise.html.
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UBLOCK ORIGIN https://chrome.google.com/ webstore/detail/ublock-origin/ cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm
Another way to save resources is to block extraneous content. uBlock Origin, which is free and open source, does just this—there are official versions for Firefox and Edge, as well as Chrome [ Image E]. uBlock Origin blocks embedded web content based on publicly available lists, which typically have specific focuses such as removing social media buttons and widgets, cookie banners, GDPR overlays, and other unwanted notices. You can choose which lists you want to use, and you can also configure the extension yourself to block popups, scripts or large media on specific domains.
» Conversely, you can mark individual sites as trusted, in which case no filtering will be applied. This can be helpful if you don’t want to block resources on internal domains, or a site you rely on doesn’t work properly when resources are put out of reach.
» To provide reassurance that uBlock Origin is on the up-and-up, all code—plus any ongoing changes— is available for inspection through GitHub, and if you want to support the project, developer Raymond Hill asks benefactors to donate to list maintainers rather than himself.
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SHARE TO MASTODON https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/share-tomastodon/bibnjflclpdmbbcncejifemmbggkcjde Microblogging service Mastodon is one of the biggest social sites in the Fediverse, and its popularity is growing, hitting more than 10 million users earlier this year. It’s still a long way off being a serious challenger to Facebook or Twitter—sorry, ‘X’—but plenty of individuals and businesses are seeing the benefit of its open model.
» This extension makes it easier to maintain a rich presence on Mastodon. Once you’ve set up your home instance, a single click on the extension will create a new post containing a link to the page you’re currently browsing [ Image F]. If you want to be more specific, you can highlight part of a page and right-click to use that content as the basis of your post.
» If you’ve configured several instances and logins in the extension’s settings, you can select between them before posting, which makes it easy to direct content to specific feeds if you’re writing for several different audiences.
» Regular Mastodon user should also check out the Mastodon Air theme extension ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/ detail/mastodon-air/amnafipdbahbnkhmaiiokceohldofhda): it gives the standard Mastodon layout a gentle brush-up, with control over background, text, and accent colours, as well as the ability to hide trends and About links.
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TOGGL TRACK: PRODUCTIVITY & TIME TRACKER https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/toggl-trackproductivity/oejgccbfbmkkpaidnkphaiaecficdnfn
If you work from home—on professional or personal projects— an automated activity tracker makes it easy to track how you’re spending your screen time. Toggl is a free browser-based solution for five or fewer users, which is ideal for home workers and solopreneurs.
» To use it you’ll just need to set up an account at toggl. com, which you can do from within the extension. Answer a few questions about who you are and how you plan to use it, and you’re good to go. Once you start tracking, it will watch what you’re doing in the browser and keep a log. You can optionally add a manual note to each session to describe the job involved.
As well as passively monitoring your activity, Toggl offers a built-in Pomodoro timer to help keep you motivated, and there are various options for starting timings automatically, stopping at a specified time each day, or posting notifications when the timer is running but the PC is idle [ Image G].
» Toggl integrates with an impressive range of third-party web apps, including business essentials like Xero, Zendesk, Trello,
Slack, and Salesforce, and while it’s easiest to enable them all up front, you can manually deactivate any that you don’t want to include in your log.
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TEXT BLAZE: TEMPLATES AND SNIPPETS https://chromewebstore. google.com/detail/text-blazetemplates-and/idgadaccgipmpann jkmfddolnnhmeklj
Most jobs involve a certain amount of writing the same sentences or paragraphs many times over—be they boilerplate text, caveats for a standard offer, or your contact details. Text Blaze saves you time and tedium by storing these standard phrases as snippets, which you can insert into any text field by typing a shortcut with a slash. For example, you might create one with your standard email signoff as ‘/bye’, and another with your contact details under ‘/me’.
» It’s up to you what you choose as your shortcuts— they only have to make sense to you. Once you’ve set them up, typing a shortcut and pressing Return instantly pastes in the associated text. It works across all websites, and if you want to use a shortcut in a text box, you can right-click the text space and select it from the context menu [ Image H].
» Snippets aren’t limited plain text either. You can use a wide range of formatting tools, and even insert dynamic elements like the contents of the clipboard, today’s time and date. Text Blaze can even calculate future dates, so if you were writing a covering note to be used every time you attach an invoice to an email, you could add a variable to specify the payment deadline as 30 days from the present date.
» The free basic plan lets you create up to 20 snippets with a maximum of 2,500 characters per snippet. Upgrading to Pro costs around $36 per year and lets you store 1,000 snippets with a maximum of 25,000 characters each, and unlocks a range of advanced features like date choosers and drop-down menus. The top-tier Business plan (around $84 per year) allows up to 4,000 snippets of 50,000 characters, with snippet change histories and usage statistics.