Tuesday, March 11, 2014

10 Must Have Google Chrome Extensions

While attending EdCamp Awesome a few weeks ago, I participated in a conversation about Chrome Extensions facilitated by Chris Evans.  Chrome Extensions are little add ons to your Chrome Browser (which if you're not using Chrome yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!)  Here are 10 that I learned about and have fallen in love with!

You can start by clicking HERE to go to the Google Chrome Web "Store".

1.  TechSmith Snagit 





I absolutely love TechSmith and their products.  Snagit has been a favorite of mine the more I play with it.  The great thing about adding the TechSmith Snagit Extension (and also the app) is that I can now take a screen shot of any page that I'm on and it will automatically put it into my Google Drive!

2.  Sound Gecko





Sound Gecko is a great add on to have if you're busy!  Whenever you're reading an article and don't have time to finish it you can use the SoundGecko extension and it will take the entire article and create a recording of it so that you can LISTEN to the article whenever you want!  Great for catching up on blog posts while on a long road trip!

3.  Send From Gmail





Have you ever been on a website, and when you click a link to contact someone it starts to open up Outlook or Mail or whatever that computer's default mail system is?  Well when you have the Send From Gmail extension installed it will always pull up your Gmail account when clicking on those links!

4.  TLDR





TLDR stands for "Too Long Didn't Read".  It's designed for those really great articles and blogs that we are too long that we just don't have time to read all of it.  TLDR will take those articles/blogs and summarize it for you!  Awesome, right?

5.  Boomerang for Gmail





I hate when I get an email, and it has a due date for something that is over a week or two away.  Why? Because I forget to respond on time!  Well Boomerang for Gmail solves that issue!  With Boomerang I can tell it to "resend" the email to me at the date I choose so that I have a gentle little fresh reminder to answer or respond!

6.  ShortenMe





I love URL shoretners (bit.ly, ow.ly, goo.gl) This extension is awesome!  With the click of a button this extension will shorten the URL for whatever site I'm on, but will also at the same time create a QR code for the newly shortened link!  LOVE IT!


7.  Google +1 Button






I use Google+.  Not as much as some, but I think it's still a great tool I'm learning about.  What I haven't done a great job of is sharing things with Google+ as often as I do with Facebook or Twitter.  Now it's super easy.  With this extension installed all I have to do is click on the G +1 button and it automatically shares it with my circles!

8.  Hangouts





I'm all about making my life easier!  Now with the Hangouts extension I can start a google hangout from any webpage!  I don't have to go find the Google Hangouts page.  This extension will also notify me if I'm being invited to hangout!

9.  Extensity





Once you start to add extensions they can be a little overwhelming.  Well that's where Extensity comes into play!  Extensity will organize all your extensions and easily allow you to enable or disable them!

10.  Pin It Button





Many of you are probably Pinterest users.  Now with the Pin It Button you can easily pin sites to your pinterest account!  Talk about a time saver and easy way to organize.

There are so many other great extensions such as Google Voice, Evernote Web Clipper, Incredible Start Page, Hola, and Awesome Screenshot!  I try to make my life as easy as possible!

Got some other favorites??  Please share them below in the comments!

4 comments:

  1. Awesome screenshot has full web page capture.
    Evernote extension I couldn't live without.
    Cite lighter is a research tool for annotating the web and creating bibliographic data as you go.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Some of my favorites - Turn Out the Lights (dims the background parts of YouTube and other videos I'm showing so no suggested videos or comments appear to students), Ad Block Plus, love not seeing those wrinkle cream ads on Facebook, Chrome Speak - highlight and it will read text from the web to students (like Macs do natively ;-). Last one for older students Desmos Graphing Calculator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Don't forget http://rebump.cc - gets all your emails answered by bumping them back to the inbox.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Here are some of my favorites: Diigo Annotate & Capture the Web, Buffer especially for tweeting, Grammarly Lite, Ginger, URL shorteners such as bitly, Pinterest & Pocket (though prefer Diigo), and Clip to Evernote. Use Diigo and Buffer the most.

    ReplyDelete