FileSharing Talk - Top 10 Google Chrome Extensions

Google introduced extension support in Chrome late last year along with the launch of the extensions online gallery. One of the biggest things holding users from switching from Firefox to Chrome was and still is add-ons support. Now, more than six months after the Chrome extensions gallery was revealed, let’s check in to see how Google’s move has fared.

There are 6,153 extensions available in the online gallery. It’s hard to pin down how many Firefox add-ons are out there. The total number of add-ons created is of no use since many of them, the ones that have not been updated, won’t work with the latest versions of Firefox. Still, the number of add-ons available to the regular Firefox user is still significantly larger than the extensions available for Chrome.

Easier the compare, though, are the usage numbers. Firefox boasts more than two billion add-on downloads to date. The browser has a five-year head start, Chrome’s most popular extension is used by 1.1 million people and gets 113,000 new downloads every week. The most popular add-on for Firefox gets about 884,000 downloads every week. It has been downloaded by 89 million people. So it looks like, scale wise, Chrome still has a lot of catching up to do.

Fittingly, the most popular add-on for both web browsers is AdBlock. Though they share the name, the two add-ons are unrelated. From then on, the top add-ons, by popularity, differ for the two browsers, representative of their respective audiences. The top Firefox add-ons tend to be more mainstream, like online video downloaders, but, interestingly, also developer-oriented. At the same time, the most popular extensions for Chrome tend to be the ones created by Google itself, or catering to Google services, Gmail checkers, Google Translate, the Docs PDF viewer and so on.

The top 10 Google Chrome extension as of August 2010 (lifetime users / weekly downloads)

1. AdBlock - 1,118,921 users / 113,732 weekly		6. Google Translate - 405,140 users / 32,744 weekly
2. Google Mail Checker- 647,384 users / 48,760 weekly		7. Google Dictionary - 384,833 users / 28,227 weekly
3. IE Tab - 480,802 users / 38,635 weekly		8. Downloads - 362,960 users / 39,776 weekly
4. Docs PDF Viewer - 442,490 users / 37,919 weekly		9. Cooliris - 347,442 users / 38,209 weekly
5. FastestChrome - 427,152 users / 33,622 weekly		10. Google Mail Checker Plus - 299,426 users / 24,195 weekly

Source: Softpedia

5 Comments

tesco - 08-10-2010, 10:18 PM
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I didn't realize there were so many chrome extensions now.
Maybe it's time to try switching...

Cabalo - 08-10-2010, 10:26 PM
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You should at least test it. It's lightning fast and minimalist, which is something I like.

eyekey - 08-11-2010, 12:10 AM
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I think I will give it a shot...maybe. It's hard... I'm a loyal f'er

Funkin' - 08-11-2010, 07:26 AM
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Ever switching Linux distros Chromium is the default installed browser for its lightness. I've always been an avid Opera user, but I am loving Chromium. Like Cabalo said, it definitely is lightning fast(even on my 6yr old 512MB computer) and minimalist.

I'm not a big extension user since I know how the more you add the more browser tends to get bogged down. So I only have adblock installed. But it's nice to see that they are stepping it up in the extensions department. Hopefully more people now will give this great browser a shot. I think it's my new default.