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Chrome support for extensions is official now

Elena Santos

Elena Santos

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Though they were already included in a developer build a few weeks ago, it wasn’t until today that Google made it official: Chrome now supports extensions! Thanks to this long-awaited feature, Chrome users can now expand the capabilities of their browser with small plug-ins that add diverse functionality to the program.

Chrome supports extensions

You can find and download Chrome extensions in a special online gallery that organizes them by popularity, date and rating. Right now there are about 1,800 extensions available, many of which are exact copies of Firefox’s popular add-ons – which undoubtedly helps a lot in browser switching. Every extension has its own page, featuring a description, some screenshots, user reviews and links to the developer’s site and the documentation, if any.

Installing a Chrome extension is really easy. Simply browse the gallery to find the extension you’re interested in, click the big blue Install button, accept the confirmation message and you’re done. Unlike Firefox, you don’t even need to restart the browser.

Chrome supports extensions

If you want to check your installed extensions, open Chrome’s configuration menu (the wrench icon) and select Extensions. The browser will open a new tab with the list of installed extensions, as well as links to disable and uninstall them, and direct access to the extension’s options – if available.

Chrome supports extensions

Finally, if you’re a developer and would like to publish a Chrome extension, you can do so from the gallery itself. Click the Publish your extensions link on the left side of the gallery interface and fill in all the details. The extension will be immediately be ready for download.

Elena Santos

Elena Santos

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