Skip to main content

5 Chrome Extensions For Faster Navigation


Google Sites & Chrome For DummiesA large part of our time on the computer is spent within the browser these days. And if the recent past is any indicator, this will continue to grow in the future as well with the likes of Chrome OS where all you get is a web browser to interact with your computer and the outside world.
A good thing about browsers as opposed to other desktop software is the fact that they are extensible. Firefox and Chrome are excellent examples of the same. Many Google chrome add-ons and extensions are available for customizing almost every aspect of browsing. The one aspect we are going to look into here is quick navigation.
Google’s Chrome OS Takes Devices Anywhere
Granted, you can use keyboard shortcuts for faster navigation and browsing but with so many add-ons available, there are plenty of choices to make your pick and navigate faster with a lot less work by combining the functionality offered by various extensions. Here are 5 of the better ones:Google’s Chrome OS Wounds Windows, Undermines Android and Lets Apple Advance

Keyboard Navigation

Keyboard navigation allows you to click on the links without using your mouse. The concept is not new, however keyboard navigation does a good job of implementing the idea.
The extension defines a hot key (,) which places a hint next to every link on the page that can be clicked. While the hint is displayed, key in the characters next to a link to highlight it. You can then do one of the following:
google chrome add ons and extensions
  • Hit Enter to open the highlighted link in the current tab.
  • Hit Ctrl + Enter to open the highlighted link in a new tab.
The extension is intelligent enough to know when you are entering text and need to use the (,) key in the literal sense.

Vimium

If you are adept with Vim or a Vim fan, this extension alone easily overshadows the others. While it doesn’t support all of the Vim key bindings (how can it possibly?), it does support the most common ones that can be directly applied to a browser.
You can use the ‘h’, ‘j’, ‘k’, ‘l’ keys for scrolling. A ‘gg’ to scroll to top, a ‘G’ to scroll to bottom. ‘/’ to enter search mode and the familiar ‘n’ and ‘N’ to find next and previous. In addition to many such obvious bindings, vimium also adds some of its own, like the ‘H’ goes back in history and ‘L’ takes you one step forward in history. ‘J’ and ‘K’ can be used to go one tab to the left and one to the right respectively and many more. You can actually type ‘?’ to get an overview of all the shortcuts.
google chrome add ons and extensions
In addition to all that Vimium also offers the functionality offered by Keyboard Navigation extension mentioned above. Just hit the ‘f’ or the ‘F’ key and it displays a hint next to each clickable link or input control on the page. Key in the hint and you are taken to that link or control.
You can also remap these shortcuts using Vimium preferences.

Yet Another Drag & Go

Moving a little towards the mouse now, Yet Another Drag and Go lets you do a variety of operations by a simple drag operation. You can open new links in foreground or in background, open links before or after the current tab, convert text links to URLs, select text and search in one of the different search engines or add your own. All this with just drag and drop.
google chrome add ons and extensions
You can add your own search engines via settings and configure the drag and drop zones for each of them according to your liking.

Smooth Gestures

Bringing more awesomeness to the mouse is Smooth Gestures. Mouse gestures, if you are not familiar with the concept allow you to draw on the screen with your mouse and perform different actions depending upon the shape you draw.
best chrome extensions
In addition, Smooth gestures also includes Rocker navigation, which allows you to use only mouse buttons to do things like going back and forward in history. Holding down the right mouse button and then clicking the left button would take you back in history, so would holding the right button and drawing a line towards the left.
You can customize the gestures by visiting options for Smooth Gestures.

Quick Tabs

best chrome extensions
Do you have a number of tabs open in your browser simultaneously? If yes, you know how hard can it be to find the exact tab you are looking for, specially with Chrome, where tabs are reduced to just favicons when you have a lot of them open.
The solution? Quick Tabs. Just hit Ctrl+M and Quick Tabs presents you with list of all the open tabs sorted in order in which they were recently used.
best chrome extensions
You can use the arrow keys to quickly switch to the tab you want, or better still you can actually type some of the characters of the tab you are looking for and Quick Tabs will search in the title and URL to list only the tabs that match the letters you typed. Quick Tabs also keeps track of recently closed tabs and allow you to search and restore closed tabs as well.Facebook For Dummies
Facebook Cookbook: Building Applications to Grow Your Facebook Empire
There you have it, those are our suggestions. We are sure you have plenty in mind too, so go ahead and sound off in the comments with your suggestions!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How To Hide Text In Microsoft Word 2007, Reveal It & Protect It

Sometimes what we hide is more important than what we reveal. Especially, documents with sensitive information, some things are supposed to be ‘for some eyes only’. Such scenarios are quite common, even for the more un-secretive among us. You want to show someone a letter composed in MS Word, but want to keep some of the content private; or it’s an official letter with some part of it having critical data. As important as these two are, the most common use could involve a normal printing job. Many a time we have to print different versions of a document, one copy for one set of eyes and others for other sets. Rather than creating multiple copies and therefore multiple printing jobs, what if we could just do it from the same document?  That too, without the hassle of repeated cut and paste. We can, with a simple feature in MS Word – it’s just called Hidden and let me show you how to use it to hide text in Microsoft Word 2007. It’s a simple single click process. Open the docum...
1 comment
Read more

Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin

Have you heard about Boom? Boom is a relatively new startup that’s aiming to build something pretty crazy. They’re not building an app… or a social network… or even some new gadget for the Kickstarter crowd. Boom wants to build planes. Really, really, really fast planes. Specifically, they’re trying to design and build a supersonic passenger plane that goes 2.2x the speed of sound. If all goes to plan, they’ll be able to shuttle people from New York to London in 3.5 hours, and SF to Tokyo in 4.5. Sound crazy? I wouldn’t disagree. It’s worth noting that the company is in the very early days for something as intensive, massive, and hugely expensive as designing and producing a passenger aircraft. They’re still working on their first prototype, and hope to fly it by late next year. But it’s also worth noting that the team behind the plane has some serious talent in its blood: the company’s 11 employees have collectively contributed to over 30 aircrafts — having worked on thin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Build Your Own Awesome Personal 3D Avatar with Avatara

Do you use social networks and want to build your own awesome 3D avatar? Maybe you want to send someone a cute cuddly image of yourself (kind of)? Or maybe you have your own ideas of what you would do with an Avatar… Well look no further than Avatara which I discovered from the MakeUseOf directory . You can create 3d avatars out of pre-set up templates or create your own from scratch. To start, visit Avatara’s homepage . You will see this screen: Click Get Started to umm, get started! That will take you to this screen: You see that you can build your own Avatar using an uploaded head shot like the Obama one above (just an example, guys). Or roll with one of their awesome avatars. I chose to start with a blank avatar by clicking Start with a blank avatar at the bottom of the screen. That takes you to here: I clicked on the filter at the top and told it to filter out everything but male characters and then I saw this: I rolled with Buck and continued. You need to click Select...
1 comment
Read more