One of the things that is keeping the Google browser from attracting a larger audience is missing extension support. While it is without doubt possible to work with a web browser that does not support extensions it is not quite as comfortable – and sometimes secure – as it could be. The majority of experienced Internet users love extensions and this influential group seems to use the Firefox web browser more than any other browser. Since they are familiar with Firefox they tend to recommend it to friends and colleagues all the time.
The Google Chrome developers have promised to add extension support to the Google browser for some time. Lee over at the Download Squad noticed that the current developer build of the Google Browser as well as the nightly builds of Chromium contained basic extension support. It seems to be in a very early stage as the support has to be activated with the launch parameter –enable-extensions.
The three example extensions that are currently available will not blow away the minds of the spoiled Firefox user base but give interested users a first glimpse of things to come. The first extension displays the unread message count in Gmail, the second a quick link to subscribe to a web feed in Google Reader and the third the status of the Chromium Build Bot.
Installation of extensions is more comfortable than in Firefox as no restart of the web browser is required to use them. Uninstallation on the other hand requires some Windows Explorer skills as the only way to uninstall is to delete a cryptic folder in the Google Chrome user data directory.
It is definitely a first step in the right direction and likely something that many users have been waiting for.
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2 Responses to “One Step Closer To Extension Support In Google Browser”
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Looking forward to a time when we can compare memory usage and startup time with similar number of extensions installed in both. The only firefox negative in my opinion.