The page has three core elements. First the sidebar menu linking to application categories and extensions and themes for the Chrome web browser, then the main area with big thumbnail images and little information about each application, theme or extension and then the search to find specific items in the store.

Some categories use a different display. The family category for instance uses small icons instead of thumbnails so that more applications fit on a single page.

Each application or extension listed is displayed with its name and either a rating or the number of users. It feels rather strange that some applications show ratings while others show the user count instead. When you move the mouse cursor over a thumbnail you will see a short description and a button to add it directly to the Chrome browser.

A click on an application opens the application’s page in an overlay on the same page. the page includes an overview, both ratings and user counts, details, reviews and thumbnails.

Reviews have been moved to their own tab in the overlay so that it takes additional clicks to access those when compared to the previous layout of the Chrome web store.

The listing pages load additional apps and extensions automatically when the user scrolls down, eliminating the need to switch pages manually.

Extensions and themes are the only two categories with sub-listings. It does not seem to be possible anymore to sort the extensions or apps by popularity, last update or other metrics which limits the usability of the listing tremendously. It is for instance no longer possible to identify new extensions in the store.

The new Chrome Web Store layout and design looks as if it was optimized for touch based devices. You find big thumbnail images in most categories that are easy to tap on. Desktop users will miss sorting options as well as options to change the display of the listings.

Have you been to the new Chrome Web Store yet? If so, what do you think of it? (thanks Vineeth)

Sometimes when I search on a website I try to select a search term that includes inflections. Say I’m looking for the terms replace or replacing on the website. For that I would have to enter replac in the search form so that both terms are found on the page. Another example is the search term use which would reveal not only all instances of use on the page but also used, user and using.

With the Chrome extension, you can enter one term and find all occurrences of all matching terms highlighted on the page.

You bring up the advanced search form after installation by either pressing F2 once of the f-key twice in rapid succession.

The extension highlights all occurrences on the page. If you add more than one search term you will notice that each is colored differently. That’s interesting as it allows you to run multiple searches at once on a page.

The program found all occurrences of use and printing on the page. It will furthermore highlight the total result count in the search form. You can use the up and down arrow buttons to scroll to the next or previous occurrence of a search result on the active web page.

The inflection detection works both ways. You can enter use to find using or user, or enter using to find user or use as well on the page.

Advanced Search on Page is a handy Chrome extension for users who want to find related phrases on a website during searches. The free Chrome extension can be installed at the official Chrome Web Store.

There’s a web app for that is a new Google Chrome extension that may help in the discovery of new Chrome apps. While it does not provide access to web store sorting options, it suggests extensions and web apps based on past visits and current visits.

The extension displays a list of suggested web apps based on the history directly after installation.

A click on a link opens a matching extension in the Chrome store. It is not clear how the resulting web app is selected. The extension seems to pick the first search result automatically. This may or may not match the user’s expectations.

Chrome users can open the page at anytime with a click on Wrench > Tools > Extensions and the Options link under the There’s a web app for that listing on the page.

Suggestions based on the past browsing history are fine, but what about suggestions for the active site in the browser? There’s a web app for that supports this as well. It automatically scans for extensions that match the active page. A blue plus icon next to the bookmark star in the address bar indicates that an extension has been found for the page.

A click on the icon loads the discovered extension in a new tab in the browser.

There’s a web app for that is a handy extension for Chrome users who want automatic extension suggestions for sites they visit. It could use some polishing and direct explanations on the suggestion screen though.

Chrome users can download and install There is a web app for that from the Chrome web store. (via)

It is self evident that extension developers are developing and pushing out extensions for the new service in rapid pace. One of those extensions is Replies and more for Google+ for the Google Chrome browser. It is not an official Google extension, but adds much needed features to Google+.

The extension title hints at one of the features: Easier replies to comment or message authors. A reply to author link is added next to the share, comment and +1 links at the bottom of an author’s post. All comments show a reply option as well on mouse over.

This basically adds the author or comment writer directly to the message field. This saves time and reduces the chance of errors.

Improving Google+ replies is just one of the features of the Chrome extension. It highjacks the favicon of the site to display the unread message count directly in the browser, handy if you keep Google+ open but not active all the time.

The two keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-Enter and Shift-Enter can now be used to submit a comment or post. Previously you had to click on the Post comment or Share button to do that.

The Share link has been improved as well. A small down arrow has been added next to it. If you click it you get options to share the message on Twitter or Facebook, or send it to someone via email.

The final feature is that the Google+ headerbar scrolls now with the page. That’s handy considering that the Share form is located there as well as the new messages count.

Chrome users can install the Replies and more for Google+ extension directly from the Chrome web store.

Lets take a look first at how extensions and web apps can be installed. The majority of extensions is available at the Google Chrome extensions gallery. Web apps on the other hand are available at the Chrome web store.

But there is more to it than just a different location on the Internet. Web apps, according to Google are “applications you can run inside your browser with a dedicated user interface and, typically, rich user interaction”. Web apps therefor are nothing more than interactive websites at this point in time. Google’s intention is to formalize “the web app concept in a way that will be familiar to anyone who’s used apps on a smartphone”.

A web app basically is a link to an interactive application on the Internet.

Extensions on the other hand often extend the functionality of the Chrome browser and websites viewed with the browser. They are not limited to providing their functionality on a specific website either.

Compared to apps, extensions cut across websites and web apps; they are usually in effect across all websites (though some are site-specific). Apps don’t combine with other apps in this way; they run standalone, like any regular website.

There is another difference between web apps and extensions. Users who want to install web apps need a Google account to do so. Extensions on the other hand can be installed without an account.

Additional information about web apps and extensions are available at the Apps vs. Extensions article at Google Code.

Having to use the scrollbar to fine tune the scrolling is time consuming. It is still possible to use the keys on the keyboard to scroll, but those cannot be used for precise scrolling.

That’s where the Chrome extension Scrollbar Anywhere aids the user. It was inspired by Firefox’s Scrollbar Anywhere.

The default functionality is mapped to the right mouse button, but can be modified to be mapped to the left or middle button with extra keys on the keyboard. The extra keys available are Shift, Cltr, Alt or the Meta / Windows / Tux keys.

That way, Chrome users can define specifically how they want to trigger the scrolling. It is probably best to use a combination of mouse button and keys to avoid conflicts with menus or other actions in the browser.

Other options available in the extension’s configuration include setting the top speed at which the page glides after releasing the trigger and the friction which defines how quickly the page stops when gliding. It is furthermore possible to disable dragging when clicking on text, which is useful for Chrome users who only set the scrolling to a single mouse button without additional key.

Scrollbar Anywhere is available for download at the Google Chrome extensions gallery.

Fast Youtube Search is a web browser extension for Google Chrome that allows a user to perform a search on Youtube directly in the Chrome browser.

The extension places an icon in the Chrome address bar after installation that, when clicked, displays a small form that can be used to enter the search phrase.

Fast Youtube Search supports search suggestions which are displayed beneath the term that is entered by the user. Tapping the return key, using the left mouse button to select an entry or clicking with the mouse on the search icon on the right will open a page on Youtube with the search results of the term entered. The Youtube page will always be opened in a new tab in the browser.

The extension basically reduces the steps that need to be performed to search on Youtube. Google Chrome currently does not support keyword searches which are an alternative to installing an extension to search Youtube. Firefox or Opera users can for instance define a keyword for Youtube to perform the search right away. And Youtube search can also be added to browsers that include a search module.

Fast Youtube Search can be downloaded from the Chrome extensions gallery.

As Chris points out in the comments there is another way to achieve basically the same effect without installation the extension.

- right click omnibox and click ‘edit search engines’
- name it youtube, give it keyword y, and put http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&page={startPage?}&utm_source=opensear
as the url.

Once done it is possible to search Youtube by typing in “y search term” in the address bar (without the “”).

Update: The original Chrome extension is no longer available, but there is an alternative available on the Chrome Web Store. YouTube Live Search can be downloaded from the official store.

If you go to the Chrome extension gallery you notice for instance right now that six of the ten extensions on the first page of the recent filter are not in English.

There is no option to display only English extensions or extensions in another specific language. The second missing filter is a category filter. A user looking for security extensions or social networking add-ons has currently only the option to either look through all the extensions to find one that is related to that category or to perform a search hoping that the keyword will list all the relevant extensions that are available.

Both options are not that reliable or at least very time consuming. The Chrome gallery needs categories and language filters, something that the developer’s should borrow from the way Mozilla offers those on their pages.

Several third party Chrome extension websites, such as Chrome Extensions, use categories to list the extensions.

This is usually something that can also be achieved with searches in the search engines but the extension makes the process comfortable thanks to its integration in the web browser. The extension will place an icon in the header toolbar of the Google Chrome web browser which will display a small overlay window upon activation that suggests four websites that Google has determined to be similar to the active one.

A click on the button at the Google main website for instance suggests Yahoo, Bing, MSN and Wikipedia. It is sometimes the case that some of the suggestions are not as similar as they could be. Google could for instance improve the suggestion for their homepage by removing MSN and Wikipedia and adding two search engines instead.

It would also be nice if there would be an option to display more than four suggestions for similar pages. Google Similar Pages is an extension for the Google Chrome 4 web browser. It is available at the official Google Chrome extension website where it can be installed directly.

This has changed today with the release of the official Google Chrome Extensions website which tries to become for Google Chrome what the Mozilla website is for Firefox add-ons. Google Chrome Extensions is listed as a beta service at the moment like many Google services that have been released to the public for the first time.

The website lists popular and featured Google Chrome extension on the frontpage with options to load the full list of extensions sorted by rating, date, popularity or featured listing. A search is also provide to find extensions as quickly as possible. The extension gallery is missing categories and tags to find specific extensions. This could become a problem once the Google Chrome Extensions website reaches thousands of extensions.

The individual extension pages contain a description, screenshots, user comments and an install button to install the extension directly in the Google Chrome web browser. Take a look at the Google Mail Checker extension for an example.

The most recent listing lists 415 extensions that are currently hosted at the Chrome Extensions repository. It is unclear if all extensions known to man are already hosted at the website but it seems unlikely. One interesting feature is that the number of users of a specific extension is shown on the website. It is again unclear if this number is simply the download count of each individual extension or the actual in-use count of all Chrome users. The former seems to be the logical choice.

The Google Chrome Extensions website is a step in the right direction. It provides a central location for all Google Chrome extension needs. The usability problems (missing categories) are likely to be addressed soon to offer visitors a better browsing experience. Interested users can access the website here.

The chance is however relatively good that some developers have already created extensions for popular web services. This article will look at five Google Chrome extensions for popular Google web services including Gmail and Google Reader.

Gmail Checker

Gmail Checker is a simple extension that displays a button in the Google Chrome menu bar. This button displays the number of unread email messages in the Gmail account which makes the extension useful as the user will be notified about new Gmail messages without having to visit the Gmail website first. [link]

Google Reader Checker

This is from the same developer who developed the Gmail Checker extension for the Chrome web browser. It is therefor not surprising that it works exactly like that extension. It will display a new button in the Chrome menubar that shows the count of the unread news items in Google Reader. [link]

Google Tasks

The Google Tasks add-on integrates Google Tasks into the web browser by allowing the user to access the tasks directly from within the web browser without having to open the Google Tasks website. [link]

gPDF

This extension allows the user to open pdf documents directly in Google Docs. There are two advantages of this method. First, no pdf reader needs to be installed on the computer system to read pdf documents and second, it will reduce the chance that the document exploits security vulnerabilities in the installed desktop pdf reader. [link]

Google Wave Checker

A basic extension that will display the unread Google Wave messages in the Google Chrome statusbar. [link]

Verdict:

Extensions are finally beginning to appear in greater numbers for the Google Chrome web browser but are hardly a match for the incredible amount of extensions for the Firefox web browser. It is likely that this is not going to change in the near future. The first step to make extensions more popular to both developers and end users would be to add extension capabilities to the public version of the Google browser.

The extension can only be installed in Google Chrome if extensions are enabled. This is done by launching the Google browser with the startup parameter –enable-extensions. A click on the download link on the Session Saver announcement page will then install the extension in the web browser.

A small icon is then added to the status bar of the Google Chrome browser. A click on that icon will open the Session Saver main window which can be used to save or load sessions. Previous browsing sessions (if they have been saved by the user) are displayed in a pulldown menu. They are identified by a unique name that is given to them at the time they were saved by the user.

Sessions can also be explored by clicking on the Show URLs button which will display a window with details on all stored sessions and their urls. Interested Google Chrome users can download the Session Saver extension from the Chrome Plugins website.