13 Useful Google Chrome Extensions for Web Developers
Google Chrome, like Firefox, has the ability to increase its functionality and capabilities through the use of extensions. If you’re a web developer, Google Chrome comes with a nice set of developer tools built in that will make your life easier. But there are also a number of extensions that will give you even more tools at your disposal. The great thing about extensions is that they allow you to perform tasks that would normally require you to switch over to another application. Being able to perform certain tasks without leaving your browser can be a big time saver.
Here are 13 Google Chrome extensions that you should find very useful.
Color Picker
Color Oicker lets you quickly get the Hex and RGB values of any color! Also adjust Hue, Saturation, and Balance.
Firebug Lite
Firebug Lite is a tool for web developers, that allows you to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
Domain Availability Checker
This extension checks the availability of a domain name. What’s the point of going to another page when you can check it from your toolbar.
Aviary Screen Capture
Aviary Screen Capture allows you to ake a screenshot of any webpage and edit it directly in your browser with Aviary.com applications. Plus it has convenient access to the Aviary website and tools.
Lorem Ipsum Generator
Lorem Ipsum Generator gives you an easy and convenient way to generate dummy text for your design mock-ups.
IE Tab
Use Internet Explorer to display web pages in a Chrome tab. Some sites can only be displayed using IE, and with this extension you can now see those sites without leaving Chrome. Great for web developers who want to test the IE rendering engine, users who use sites with ActiveX controls, and users who want to use the explorer view for local files (i.e. file:// URLs).
MeasureIt!
MeasureIt! gives you the ability to draw out a ruler that will help you get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
PlainClothes
This extension styles — or rather “unstyles” — the web. Just imagine: text is black, backgrounds are white, unread links are blue, visited links are purple, all links are underlined. Or any other colors you like. And all text is rendered in your default fonts (as defined in “Options” > “Under the Hood” > “Change font and language settings”). Everywhere. Automatically.
Eye Dropper
Eye Dropper and Color Picker extension which allows you to pick color from any webpage or from advanced color picker.
Speed Tracer
Speed Tracer is a tool to help you identify and fix performance problems in your web applications. It visualizes metrics that are taken from low level instrumentation points inside of the browser and analyzes them as your application runs. Speed Tracer is available as a Chrome extension and works on all platforms where extensions are currently supported (Windows and Linux).
Pendule
Pendule extends the already built-in developer tools of Chrome.
Resolution Test
Resolution Test changes the size of the browser window for developers to preview their websites in different screen resolutions. It includes a list of commonly used resolutions as well as a custom option for you to input your own.
Snippy
Snippy allows you to grab snippets of web pages and save them for future use. It captures rich contents and preserves formatting, so you can capture paragraphs, images, links and more.
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Feb 23, 2010
Awersome collection! Thank you. But firebyg lite don`t work on my win7 7100 & chrome dev branch
Feb 23, 2010
Can’t believe you guys didn’t include Pendule. https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gbkffbkamcejhkcaocmkdeiiccpmjfdi
Check it out, it’s awesome.
Feb 23, 2010
Nice round up. I stopped using Chrome because of its lack of dev tools. May take a second look after reading this post.
Thanks.
Feb 23, 2010
This article is great. Thanks for it.
Feb 23, 2010
Great list. Thanks!
Feb 23, 2010
This is really useful as I stopped using Chrome because it didn’t have the dev tools I could get from Firefox. Things like firebug make web design that little bit easier when trying to sort out a problem. I like the idea of the ie renderer. Definitely will have to give it another try with these add-ons.
Feb 23, 2010
It’s Speed Tracer, not Speed Tracker. And also you have “Speed Tracker” in the list twice, the 2nd time instead of Pendule. Feeling tired today?
Feb 23, 2010
You guys seem to have missed the built-in WebKit development tools that Chrome (and Safari) has always had. It’s easily on-par with Firebug and I can’t understand why extensions like “Speed Tracer” exist, because that’s already in there too.
Feb 23, 2010
Awesome post, these seem really useful
I love google chrome
Feb 23, 2010
Very useful post! Thank you!
Feb 23, 2010
This is exactly what I was looking for. Chrome is really a nice browser and those tools make it even more useful.
Feb 23, 2010
Wow, I’ve been using Firefox as my dev browser because of the great tools like Firebug. I didn’t know Chrome had any options like this. Great list!
Feb 23, 2010
Fantastic work…Chrome is very useful to all browse user. Fine posting.
Feb 23, 2010
Chrome is now finally coming to the spot light, what a great browser!
Feb 23, 2010
Sweet, when I finish the my current book on GTK-PHP will be sure to pick this up and have a go.
Feb 23, 2010
the IE renderer doesn’t work for mac users, FYI. i got really excited when i first heard about it too..
and it looks like you should link this firebug lite, the latest upgrade:
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bmagokdooijbeehmkpknfglimnifench
Feb 23, 2010
id love to switch over to chrome .. hopefully when they tweak firebug just a bit more to match the abilities of firefox firebug i think i’ll be able to completely switch
Feb 23, 2010
Nice collection of extension.
Resolution Test,IE Tab and Lorem Ipsum Generator are awesome.
Feb 23, 2010
Very useful! Thanks!
Feb 23, 2010
Hello,
Always looking for tools to help diagnose customer issues and make my work a little easier, appreciate the write up.
Thanks,
Rob Turner
Snr CSR for Islandnet.com – 1993 and still hosting strong!!
Feb 23, 2010
I’ve found that even with a mass of plugins, Chrome is still faster and less buggy than FireFox…and I’m still on the Mac Beta version.
Feb 23, 2010
I wasn’t aware of some of these, the Lorem Ipsum generator and MeasureIt appear to be huge time savers.
Feb 23, 2010
Chrome is unfinished product and it will remain in beta for next 7 years.
Feb 24, 2010
If Firebug worked with chrome fluently, I’ll stop using Firefox immediately, because firefox eats my 1gig memory intel atom desktop really fast, just opening with 7tab already eat 200mb, and tops to 400-500mb with two rows of tabs.
Feb 25, 2010
Try to get rid of firefox completely, then make a fresh install with your final plugins at the moment. there might be a lot of junk code because of uninstalled firefox plugins.
Feb 24, 2010
really helping stuff for web developers.
Feb 24, 2010
This is fantastic! I’m making the switch to Chrome immediately. I had to put up with Firefox for all the web dev tools and suffer from slow-itis. Hopefully, Chrome will still operate fast and smooth with all these plugins.
Mar 26, 2010
Just a heads up, and maybe a needed update to the list. Chris Pederick has updated his Firefox Web Developer extension and has released a Chrome version.
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bfbameneiokkgbdmiekhjnmfkcnldhhm
It’s still early, but it looks promising.
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Jun 28, 2010
good collection… chrome don’t has firebug like extension ..
with firebug lite we cannot make DOM manapulations and other vital operations for debugging…