We spend a lot of time using our browsers at work, but many of us aren’t using them to their full potential. Extensions are small plugins that enhance browser functionality, and they can do all kinds of productivity-enhancing things, from remembering passwords to helping you with your grammar and spelling.
Here are five incredibly useful extensions that can potentially help you get even more done in a day. Note: These are all Chrome-compatible extensions, so they will work with any Chromium-based browser.
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LastPass
We all use so many different internet services these days, and each one requires a password. And to be secure passwords need to be ridiculously complex, making them nearly impossible to remember without writing them down. Instead of doing the lazy thing and simply using one password for everything, we highly recommend using LastPass, a really cool extension that stores and manages all of your passwords. It even generates unique ones on demand, and you can set how long and complicated you want them to be. With LastPass installed, the only password you’ll ever need to remember is your Master password.
Find it here.
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Remote Desktop
Did you know you can remotely control another PC or Mac using just your browser? That’s what Chrome’s Remote Desktop extension allows. All you need to do is have it installed on two or more computers that you control – operating system doesn’t matter so long as they have Chrome installed – and you can access and manage those computers right from inside Chrome. Connections are fully secure, too, and using Remote Desktop couldn’t be easier. No fancy software is needed, and Remote Desktop can save you tons of time and effort if you regularly need to access computers in other offices.
Get it here.
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Grammarly
Let’s face it, not all of us are born writers. Years of being on the internet have given far too many of us the idea that proper spelling is optional. In a professional context, it really isn’t, so to help people make sure their grammar, spelling, and punctuation are top-tier, we have a plugin called Grammarly. It’s a service dedicated to analysing the things we write and flagging issues or straight-up making corrections when we get things wrong. This is invaluable in a business context, where clear communication in emails, chats, and WhatsApps/texts is so important.
Grab Grammarly here.
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GoFullPage
We have, in another life, found it necessary to capture pages on websites for things like delivering Proof of Execution of marketing campaigns for clients. But on occasion, those pages have been extremely long with plenty of content on them, making it difficult to capture them in full. The GoFullPage Chrome extension solves that problem by capturing for you, even on very long pages. Simply install it, go to the website you want to capture a full-length image of and click on the extension – it does the rest. You can download the resulting image as a PNG or PDF.
Install it from here.
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Wappalyzer
Ever wondered what kind of web technologies a competitor is using for their website? Wappalyzer can get you that answer. It calls itself a “technology profiler”, and it’s able to detect what Content Management System a website is using, what their chosen ecommerce platform is, what Javascript libraries they are using, and much more. This makes Wappalyzer a very useful research tool for businesses looking for insight into which technologies are most popular, and which ones they should be looking into for their own online platforms.
Get Wappalyzer here.