Over the past year I’ve really worked at giving a variety of web browsers a fair 
shake at becoming my go to browser for every day use. I’ve used the major players such as IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and even gave RockMelt a spin (see here for my review of that platform). While I have found myself predominately using Chrome for a variety of reasons such as speed, performance, UI and quite frankly I love the extension platform. I’m not alone as usage of Chrome has climbed past 20% market share. However, as with most programs, there can be occasional problems that can be incredibly frustrating. An example of this is the Err_Cache_Miss error in Google Chrome. Thankfully, Collectiveray has a guide on how to fix it.
With my increased usage, I’ve come across a variety of social media themed extensions that I have tried out, and the following 5 are the ones I find the most useful and worthy of my screen real estate.
HootSuite Hootlet – Obviously more useful if you are using HootSuite, but useful nonetheless, the Hootlet extension allows you to quickly and easily share web links to your social media channels. If you are using HootSuite, it’s especially great as the links use their web shortener which provide you analytics so you have access to your sharing data.
WebRank SEO – I love this extension as it gives me quick access to website info such as Pagerank, Alexa, as well as pages indexed by engine and backlinks. It’s a great way to get a snapshot of your sites and where they are, as well as competing sites.
LinkedIn For Chrome – LinkedIn can easily be forgotten when it comes to social channels and sharing content, but this extension helps keep it front and center and easy to share to ensure you’re not missing out on this audience.
Xmarks & Lastpass – I group these together since Lastpass actually acquired Xmarks last year. Both invaluable productivity tools as Xmarks allows you to keep your bookmarks in sync across multiple browsers and computers, while Lastpass gives you secure cloud storage of your passwords and frequently filled in form info.
Awesome Screenshot – What a cool little tool! Makes it quick and easy to grab screenshots and annotate them as needed, then send off or save. Another great productivity tool built right in.
What are some of your favorite Chrome Extensions?
Thanks for this post. I did not know about the Linked In extension. I will be utilizing it now.
Hi Makobi. Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad I could help you find a useful new tool!
I like Awesome Screenshot too, but my favorite right now is the Text Macro add on for Chrome: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/signature/ Makes my life as a community manager so much easier. I’m also a big Instapaper fan and I admit to the occasional use of web page sticky notes 😉
Other favs: Color picker, Firebug Lite, Share This, Personal Blacklist and Today’s Links (like Firefox’s Morning Coffee).
I’ll definitely have to check those out. Thanks for sharing and stopping by!
I highly recommend the Klout plugin for Twitter. It’s a great way to have easy access to what topics a person is into, score, etc.
Yep, another great tool I use actually. Thanks for the add!
Ok, it’s not quite a productivity app but it makes Google Plus easier to read… does that count? https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dkcppcocablbakkaboahjmljpodddkcp?hl=en-US#
Am off to try the LinkedIn extension now 🙂
Cool find! Although I bet Google will update this on their own eventually, but in the meantime, I’ll be checking it out. Thanks for sharing!
Cool find! Although I bet Google will update this on their own eventually, but in the meantime, I’ll be checking it out. Thanks for sharing!
Love your article. LOVE CHROME. I use the ones you mention and will add a couple more of my favs.
Evernote – I clip URLs all the time to save for things I’m interested in. Comes up in a Google search.
Shareaholic – easiest way for me to quickly email a page to someone
Google Calendar extension – fast and easy to get to the calendar.
Thanks for sharing!
Gina
Thanks for the kind words Gina! I’ll have to check out Evernote and Google Calendar. Thanks for the tips!
Hey Jason, have you tried out Rapportive? (I think it’s pretty darn good, but I’m also pretty biased as co-founder and CEO :P)
Also, +1 Evernote!
Hi Jason,
Great post here. Will definitely go and check out Awesome Screenshot. Do you know, will screenshots with it be saved via a link or simply an archive in the cloud? (Using one that has no extension, but a keyboard shortcut, your suggestion seems a bit better I think)
Also, love to use the Hootlet. However, Buffer’s browser extension makes sharing even easier I found, as by “Buffering” articles they are automatically scheduled for you. So I can Buffer lots in a short space of time and never flood my stream.