Extensions on the way for Mac Chrome
Now that Google has finally gotten the lead out on Chrome for OS X, they seem to be moving at flank speed, with extensions due to appear quickly, at least as compared to how long the browser took.
Hard on the heels of the release of a beta version of their Chrome browser for the Mac, Google has started the process of fitting the OS X version out with extensions, which is the sweet spot of browser usability for most people. Extensions for the Windows and Linux crowds were released just a few days ago, as well, and now Google has announced its plan and timetable for including extensions in Mac Chrome. A PCWorld article quotes TechCrunch as saying that extensions will be in the developers version of Chrome for the Mac by the end of the week, and will make it into the beta in early 2010.
Chrome extensions work just like the ones in Mozilla’s Firefox. You download them, at which time they are plugged into your browser, adding some specific sort of functionality to your copy of Chrome. There are already hundreds of extensions available for Chrome, though far fewer than for Firefox. As examples of what’s available, you can get a Gmail notifier, ad blocker, Google Wave notifier, ChromeMilk (Remember the Milk widget), and Chromed Bird (the Chrome equivalent of Echofon, aka TwitterFox) and much more.
As an alternative, you could grab the open source version, Chromium, although it still has some shortfalls, such as it has no complete in-browser bookmark manager. It is also a little buggy compared to the beta version for the Mac, as are all pre-beta releases of any software. As always, there are risks for being on the bleeding edge of any technical product. So, although the faint at heart need not apply, if it’s the excitement of extensions for Chrome that you want, then Google has a path for that.
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