Five Essential Extensions for Chrome
It took awhile, but I've finally had it with Firefox; the slow-loading and stalled downloads finally got to me. Reluctantly, I decided to give Google Chrome a try. A few of my geek friends were raving about it, so I decided to bid Firefox and Mozilla sweet farewell after all these years. I downloaded and installed Chrome, and I'm glad I did. It's faster, smoother, and far more intuitive than Firefox. Google Chrome is designed for today's fast-paced social media environment. It took me less than 20 minutes to customize Chrome to my liking. Here are five of my favorite, must-have extensions. 
- Speed Dial--this is Chrome's version of Firefox's Fast Dial. It's much easier to configure, and has a better choice of layouts. Speed Dial shows thumbnails of bookmarked websites as well as the title of the site. The thumbnails make finding a favorite site much faster than plain text alone.
- Google Dictionary Lookup--no waiting for a dictionary site to load. A click of the button that is installed in the address bar brings up a box. Simply type a word in the search box and press enter. The word is defined without ever leaving the page you're on.
- Chromed Bird--my favorite Chrome extension. When I made the switch from Firefox, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a replacement for Friendbar for Firefox. I was wrong. Chromed Bird is a far better application than Friendbar. It's easier to use, configure, and control. If it weren't for this extension, I probably would have stayed with Firefox.
- goo.gl URL Shortener--handy little gadget for shortening URLs. It lets you select which services you want to use and configure other options.
- Facebook for Google Chrome--a must-have extension for Facebook users. Again, it's far better than the Facebook add-on in Friendbar. The Chrome extension allows you to switch between Facebook views and post messages without leaving the page you are on. Very nice.
So, this is my farewell to Firefox. It's not me, guys. It's you. I'm on to a bigger and better Internet experience with Google Chrome.
