10 Great Google Chrome Extensions

With Google releasing a stable version of Chrome that supports extensions, it's a great time to install some of these enhancements for the Web browser. Google says there are now 1500 extensions to choose from, which you can find can find and install here. To get you started, here are 10 of my favorites:

RSS Subscription Extension: This extension displays an icon whenever you're on a page that can be subsribed to in an RSS feed reader.

SmoothScroll: Craving that glide you get with Apple's multi-touch interfaces? SmoothScroll delivers, with options for scroll speed and frames per second. It works great with multi-touch track pads.

Google Translation Bar: Next time some gadget blog links to an obscure Japanese Web site, you can check it out yourself without visiting Google Translate directly.

IE Tab: Not all Web sites care that Chrome is your favorite browser, and they'll only run in Internet Explorer. For these occasions, IE Tab emulates Internet Explorer within Chrome. Tip: The extension lacks a “Back” button, but you can navigate by right-clicking.

Instant Image Editor: Pixlr is my favorite cloud image editor -- it's a lot like Photoshop, but for free -- and Instant Image Editor opens online photos up in Pixlr by holding “Alt” and right-clicking.

Bit.ly: Click the Bit.ly button, and a window appears, containing a shortened link of the page you're on. I'm removing the Web site proper from my bookmarks.

Google Mail Checker Plus: I prefer Plus over the basic Gmail checker because it lets you preview and manage new messages directly from the current browser window. No need to switch windows just to toss some spam in the trash.

Shareaholic: See a Web page you like? Shareaholic lets you blast it out over several social networking sites and aggregators, including Facebook, Twitter and Digg.

Google Weather: And I'll be deleting Accuweather from my bookmarks as well. This extension brings up a four-day forecast in predefined locations with one click, and it provides links to Web sites if you want to go more in depth.

Nothing: “This extension does nothing,” developer Salmonella writes. Works as advertised. Good for a chuckle, and nothing more.