Chrome extensions for journalists

Chrome is my browser of choice (though I typically have two going at a time). As such, I’ve spent time building a list of extensions that I find to be vital or just plain awesome. This list is as much for me after my work computer dies one of its many deaths as it is for you. It is also probably never going to be “complete,” so I decided to go ahead and publish it.

Chrome extensions for regular nerds

Generally speaking, I’d encourage folks to shop through the extensions built by Google and move on from there.

Diigo

My favorite of the “Read Later” types of extensions. Diigo allows you to save a few blog posts or articles to read later, saving precious tab space. You can also organize by category, if you’re into that sort of thing. I like to save things to Diigo during the day and read them on the iPad (with the Diigo iPad app) at night, drifting off to sleep with images of social media strategy dancing through my head.

RSS Subscription Extension

Subscribe to any site in Google Reader with two clicks!

Select To Get Maps

Is there an address on that courthouse page you’re looking at? Click the address for a handy Google Map to it.

Stop YouTube Autoplay

I insert a lot of movie trailers into previews, reviews and other entertainment stories on our site, but I really don’t need them all to play the second I open them — it gets loud and disrupts my HypeMachine flow. So I stop YouTube autoplay.

URL Shortener

Handy!

You’re tweeting, facebooking, commenting and doing everything else a lot — so you need short URLs. Especially handy if you’re using the main Twitter interface, which inexplicably does not have a URL shortener, is this URL shortener plugin. You’ll have a little icon next to your URL bar that will very quickly give you both a short goo.gl URL and even a QR code, should you require one!

TweetDeck

Get your Twitter on with TweetDeck right from your Chrome browser. Makes you wonder why you ever dealt with Adobe Air….

Chrome extensions for power nerds

DayHiker

An awesome calendar extension that’ll let you access your Google Calendar information without actually visiting your Google Calendar. Great for checking to see if you have a meeting before going across the street to get a burrito. (Oops.)

Google Voice

This is handy if you have a Google Voice account, but really my favorite function is clicking on a phone number on a restaurant’s website, which automatically connects my mobile phone and the restaurant. (Also useful for finding your phone, buried under all of your desk detritus.)

Mail Checker Plus

Awesome! Mail Checker Plus allows you to keep up with how many messages are waiting for you. Oh, you say every other extension already does that? Well, this one lets you deal with your messages (you know, read, reply, forward, archive, spam) right from the little drop-down menu. And if you’re like me, you’re often dealing with both a personal Gmail account and a work-related Gmail apps account — and you can deal with both from the same drop-down. Sweet.