Best Google Chrome Extensions to Search Efficiently on Chrome
While I may argue thatGoogle isn’t the best search engine, I’d agree there is no escaping it. It’s convenient and the go-to search option for most of us. While you can scrape through pages, search for keywords and discover new information, there is often an efficient way to do it. The ability to enhance Google Chrome’s search capabilities through itsextensionscan really come in handy. Here is fewChrome extensions, that will save your time and help you search efficiently on Chrome. Let’s begin.
Google Results Previewer
Whenever I search, I open the first few search results in new tabs, and often, few out of those tabs turn out to be complete trash and can’t be put to any use. I wish I could just preview them right away so that I don’t have to waste time opening it. Well,Google Results Previewerlets you do just that.
It is a chrome extension that makessearching simple.All you have to do is simply install it from the“Chrome Extention”section and add it to Chrome.
After it’s active whatever your search results are, you can simply fetch a preview by justhovering overthe search result. It opens the entire website in a tab that opens upon the sidewhich closes down as soon as you hover away. It’s a very helpful extension when you don’t want to hoard tabs and open only the ones you need. It works perfectly well but you can expect a bit of delay in case your internet is slow.
Get Google Results Previewer here.
Google Keep Chrome Extension
There are so many note-taking apps but out of all,Google Keepis the most basic and lets you save important notes in an instant. You can access Google Keep through the web but the functionality ups a notch if you can do by simply selecting a text and adding it straight to Google Keep. TheGoogle Keep Chrome Extentiondoes precisely that. It lets you sign in with your Google account on the web and with the use of the extension, you canselect the desired text and saved it to Keep straightaway.
You can access it throughIncognito modeas well, but that would defeat the purpose. You can tweak the setting and disable this option.
As soon as you save it, it reflects on your phone as well. So you’ve control over the content on both the platforms.
Get Google Keep Chrome Extention here.
Imagine you’re hours into researching, searched through multiple tabs and you just can’t help notice ads, images and other content that might not be related to the actual topic. So you’re actually consuming far more content than you were actually supposed to. I triedMercuryreader as well, but itfailed to optimize many websites. Another alternative isJust Read,it converts theentire webpage into simple textforbetter contrast and readability.It’s different as it keeps the images intact, so if you have a lot of images on a page avoid using this extension. It’s best suited for long articles.
You simply install it and click on the icon to convert a webpage to readable text. Lay back and enjoy!
Get Just Read extension here.
Search the current site
Do you want to search for something within the website you’re on? Or if the website is missing the search option?
You easilysearch within the websitethroughSearch the current siteextension. It is just an icon on the top right corner in Chrome. Whenever you want to search a website simply click the option and type in the search.
It redirects you to the Google result page with the same search query. You can either do it on Google itself but this additional icon saves time and is more convenient.
Caution: If the website has built-in search option then I’d suggest you use that for better results.
Get Seach the current site here.
Search Center
Like I mentioned in the intro, it is not necessary that my preferred search engine is Google. I have multiple search engines that I want to use depending on the search item.Seach centerlets youselect the text, right-click and select an option out of the few search engine that are available.
You can simply go into options and select whether you want to open a new tab with every search or access it in the same tab.
There is also amanage engineoption where you can add or remove websites and modify the list of search engines that you prefer.
Get Search Center here.
Reopen Closed Tab Button
Iaccidentally close a lot of tabswhile moving through them. The tab spaces get too congested and anyone can mistakenly press the close tab button. Reopen closed tab button lets you undo that with a single click.
It’s a very basic extension that eliminates the need to go to the history section if you accidentally shut a tab. you may simply click on the icon to open the last “closed” tab. In case you closed multiple tabs mistakenly you can easily click it more than one time and restore the tab chronologically.
Get Reopen Closed Tab Button here.
Picture-in-Picture Extension
Picture-in-picture is an option thas became useful first when I used it on Youtube. I could easily keep a video playing and browser for more. However, in Chrome I haven’t actually thought about how useful it can be if I have the option to keep the video in the preview and access other websites. So I don’t loose on the visual content when I’m surfing something else.
Simply open a website that has a video player in my case I opened Youtube and simply clicked on the iconPIP. It just gives you apreview on the bottom right of the screen.It has two multimedia options that is toplay and pauseandopen the video in a new tab. You can alsoresize the windowin case you find the window too small or big.
If you click on the PIP icon again it’ll throw back the preview to the concerned video player. It’s very useful when you have to listen to a lecture and make notes or research while you look at a tutorial.
Get Picture-in-Picture extension here.
Closing words
Whether it is Google Keep extension or Picture in Picture, these extensions are a way you may completely enhance your Chrome experience. There are plenty more options to look out for but I feel these are the ones you’ll actually end up using. So, up your game and start using these and let me know if you like them!
Vaibhav is a broadcast journalist with a keen interest in tech. He doesn’t believe in fanboying a specific product. He writes about things he believes are actually helpful in some way to the user.
