When Google first launched Google Chrome, I installed it and give it a test drive. I was fairly impressed. It had a super clean interface and was really fast. Pages rendered noticeably faster than Firefox.
Back then, even though I wanted to take the Chrome plunge, I couldn’t. It didn’t have all, or even half, of the apps I needed for web development and maintaining the content on Wopular.
When I bought a new laptop (the ASUS Zenbook) recently, I decided to give it another chance. I installed Chrome and tried my best to find apps that were equivalent to my Firefox Add-ons. I thought it would be a painful process. To my surprise, it was all very simple and intuitive.
The Chrome Web Store has a nicely categorized list of apps. Installing them is just a click of the button. I installed the following apps:
Ruul - A simple ruler app for measuring images on the screen in pixels. It’s pretty, but not nearly as easy to use as MeasureIt on Firefox. Still, it’s sufficient.
Web Developer - I don’t use this as much as I used to, but it’s good to have just in case.
Awesome Screenshot - Aptly named. It is awesome! Probably better than anything on Firefox. It’s my favorite Chrome app for taking screencaps. Features include cropping and annotation.
Read This Page Later - Usable, but not nearly as good as the Firefox version. There’s no option to save all tabs. It’s one at a time.
Firebug Lite - Usable, but again, not nearly as featured rich as the Firefox version. It kinda lags too.
Alexa - I like Firefox’s implementation better: it’s located at the bottom corner of the browser and is always on. On Chrome, you have to click on it to get the ranking.
PHP Ninja - I should use this more often instead of searching Google all the time. It’s a searchable reference manual for PHP. Very handy.
Pendule - I have used this at all, but it looks like it might be handy one of these days. It seems like a simpler version of Web Developer.
IE Tab - Similar to the Firefox version. I don’t use this much anymore. I should since Internet Explorer is still the dominant browser in the U.S.
Vertical Tabs - I don’t use this much either. You have to click it to turn it on instead of permanently on and displayed on either the left, top, or right part of the browser. I much prefer Firefox’s Tree Style Tab Add-on.
ColorPicker - Similar to Colorzilla.
Reload All Tabs - This feature is built-in to Firefox.
YSlow - Again, I prefer the Firefox implementation where it’s always on.
SEO for Chrome - Just thought I should have it. It has all kinds search and ranking stats.
The two Add-ons on Firefox that’s keeping me from completely switching are Firebug and Tree Style Tabs. The equivalents on Chrome - Firebug Lite and Vertical Tabs - are just as good yet.
I find that because I use Awesome Screenshot so often now, I always have the two browsers open simultaneously. Even after installing all of these apps on Chrome, it’s still pretty speedy.
