I changed from Firefox to Chrome about two or three weeks ago and so far I love it.  Chrome transfered over all of my bookmarks and passwords and everything has been going good.  Until I started missing my Firefox add-ons.  Writers need add-ons and extensions.  Well, maybe not every writer but lots of writers.  I do.   They are one of the things I depend on to help me be more efficient.

So, I went on a search for Chrome extensions to replace the ones I used on Firefox and so far I’m very pleased with the results.  Check out what I found:

1. Too Many Tabs – if you’re using Chrome you’ve likely noticed that if you have a load of tabs open they all start to meld together.  You can’t see what they are and even the favicons are not really identifiable.  Well, Too Many Tabs adds a little symbol at the top of your screen and when you click on it you can see all the tabs you have in folders with a screen cap of what they look like.  Presto – easy to find the page that you were looking for.
2. Google Tasks – I love Gmail and one of the things I use it for is the tasks.  I have multiple lists of tasks going at the same time.  But I don’t always want to have Gmail open in my browser.  With Google Tasks I can click on the symbol at the top of my screen and my tasks are always at easy access.
3. Chrome Pad – need to jot down some notes but don’t want to open a notepad.  This extension puts a symbol on your browser so you can jot down quick notes and have them at the ready when you need them.
4. Stay Focused – this is one of my favorites.  You know how it is tempting to check your email every five minutes?  Or you just can’t resist peeking at your Facebook or Twitter?  Well, this is for those of you that have little will power.  When you want to get some work done block specific sites for specific amounts of time.  Or only allow yourself to view them 10 minutes out of every hour.  Very cool.  You can do lots of other limitations as well like only allowing yourself half an hour a day to tweet or only allowing yourself to view the celebrity site that distracts you at certain times of the day or even certain days of the week.  There are lots of ways to manage your time.  And if you change your mind?  You can challenge the block but you have to do a task first!
5. Chrome SEO – this is for the keyword writers.  Find great long-tail keywords based on a word.  Or find out the stats for a specific site.  Many things you can do with this.
6. Incredible Start Page – I like having a homepage that I can personalize but most homepages take a long time to load and have advertising on them.  This homepage allows you to add your favorite bookmarks, shows you the last sites you closed and allows you to access all of your bookmarks.  It’s fun and you can see it in the picture.
7. Site Block – this is another site that allows you to block specific sites for a period of time.  If you don’t like fancy bells and whistles you’ll like this one.  Very simple and easy to use.

And a BONUS that isn’t an extension but is a very nifty tool for finding out where you are spending your time:

Chrometa – tracks all the sites you visit, all the documents you open, and other things as well and lets you group them.  See how much time you spend doing research for Internet Brands or whatever site you’re doing work for.  Find out how much time you are not making money.  Loads of things you can do with this and they offer a very neat tutorial delivered daily to your email.