The best Chrome extensions of 2016
Now that 2016 has come to a close, it’s the perfect time to review some of the most useful or coolest Chrome extensions released — or became much more widespread — in 2016.
The list below will help you improve your Google Chrome browser experience.
Warning: They’ll make it easier to do daily tasks or and use the internet more efficiently.
Available for Google Chrome as well as other browsers and several operating systems, Pushbullet syncs your browser with your smartphone and tablet. Chat with your friends, send links and even compose text messages on your computer, then send them to a mobile gadget. Or vice versa.
There’s also a feature that displays push notifications from your mobile devices on your computer’s screen. That way, if you’re working on your laptop and hear your phone buzz, you’ll instantly know why without having to go check the device.
Frugal shoppers, Honey is just the tool you’ve been looking for. Rather than making you scour the internet for coupon codes yourself when buying something online, this Chrome extension seeks them out for you and automatically applies them to what’s in your shopping cart.
Also, when shopping on Amazon and looking for products through the Marketplace, Honey finds the lowest-priced products from the sellers listed. You could earn up to 100 percent cash back on products you were buying anyway.
Whether you’re using Gmail to respond to a colleague’s email or putting the finishing touches on your WordPress blog, the Grammarly for Chrome extension could ensure what you write online is free from grammar and spelling errors. As you type things, the extension flags possible problems.
Resolving them is simple. Just hover your mouse pointer over the flagged content to review the suggested changes. It’s also possible to look over all the potential problems in the text at once, and you can look at them all in a pop-up window. No matter how you prefer to proofread your writing, Grammarly for Chrome makes it simple, and the extension works with most popular websites.
Already depended upon by millions of people, the Save To Pocket Chrome extension allows you to compile links and webpages into the accompanying Pocket app so you can view them later. There’s also a tagging feature that makes it easy to categorize your content.
For example, if you’re on the bus during your daily commute and come across a website you think would help with a paper you’re writing for school, simply tag it with a word such as “Class Work.” You might also find a recipe you can’t wait to try. Tag it accordingly. With tags, you don’t have to spend too much time sorting the cool sites you found throughout a day.
The extension also finds content you might want to read. Every time you open a new tab in Chrome, it presents a few trending stories. Plus, after saving a website or link to Pocket, you’ll see suggested sites related to it.
* It’s worth noting that BestTechie founder, Jeff Weisbein, will be releasing an app called Shout in early 2017 that will offer the benefits of Pocket and more. Get more details at the Shout app site.
You probably already know how it’s smart to use several passwords for accessing websites online to reduce your risk of getting hacked. That good advice can be hard to follow if your memory isn’t the best, and you spend more time resetting forgotten passwords than accessing content. The LastPass free password manager is a free Chrome extension that can help.
All you have to do is remember a single master password. The extension recalls other passwords associated with you if they’re saved in your LastPass vault. Add passwords to the vault in several ways, including importing them from other password managers and saving sites to the vault as you log into them.
The platform also recently made their mobile password manager free to all users, so you can use LastPass on your smartphone, too.
Get installing!
This list offers you some quick and effective ways to spruce up your Chrome browser this year. Most plugins can be downloaded in seconds, and they may shave several minutes off your online tasks. What will you do with all your newfound time?
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