Google has launched the official gallery of Chrome extensions late Tuesday, putting one of the key missing pieces of the browsing puzzle into place. If you’re on a developer Chrome version, you can now take advantage of built-in extensibility to customize the browser with dozens of third-party extensions. Google claims Chrome extensions are as easy to create as webpages. Users can install and uninstall them quickly without restart, and they sport a great polished look that fits in with Chrome’s minimalist aesthetic, the search company said.
Note that extensions aren’t quite ready in beta, let alone stable Chrome versions. Nevertheless, it’s clear this will be a headline feature in the next Chrome update. Google’s product manager Brian Rakowski wrote in a blog post that extensions won’t tax the browser’s performance and jeopardize users’ security due to a clever design:
Extensions on Google Chrome accomplishes all these goals: they are as easy to create as web pages, easy to install, and each extension runs in its own process to avoid crashing or significantly slowing down the browser.
If you want to try out extensions in Chrome, make sure you are running a developer version when visiting Chrome extensions gallery. To manage installed extensions, choose “Extensions” from Chrome’s wrench menu. There were over 300 extensions available in the gallery at press time. Developers can learn more about writing extensions for Chrome on the Chromium blog. Extensions aren’t available in the first official Chrome for Mac beta that launched late Tuesday. Modders and customization freaks should also check an unofficial source of Chrome extensions at ChromeExtensions.org.
google launched Chrome in September 2008 as a new lightweight browser focused on speed and simplicity, lacking bells and whistles that bloat rival products. As the pace of the development accelerated, the search firm hinted that users would eventually be able to customize Chrome with third-party extensions. Early September, extensions launched as an experimental feature of a developer Chrome version. Google provided a few sample extensions – like the Gmail Checker, Subscribe in Feed Reader, and BuildBot Monitor – and posted support documents that help developers write extensions.
