8 useful Chrome extensions to boost daily productivity

This article was first published on the LIZHI.SHOP blog (lizhi.io, now offline) on July 29, 2018, and is republished here with appropriate adjustments.

Why is the Chrome browser so popular? In addition to its powerful performance, its many useful extensions also play a big role.

Here, LIZHI.SHOP recommends 8 useful Chrome browser extensions, covering scenarios such as tabs, reading, screenshots, keyboard shortcuts, and dictionaries, to help you improve daily work efficiency.

To discover more reliable software and tools with clear sources, you can also visit LIZHI.SHOP.

Tabs: Infinity

It supports adding many frequently used websites and integrates to-do items, notes, weather, Gmail notifications, and other features. It is a useful Chrome new tab extension.

Ad blocking: Adblock Plus

It blocks annoying ads on various websites, helping avoid distractions and reducing waiting time when watching videos.

Keyboard control: Vimium

By defining keyboard shortcut configurations, it replaces most mouse operations. Once you are proficient with various keyboard shortcuts, you can save a lot of time spent switching back and forth between the mouse and keyboard.

Web reading: SimpRead

It removes distracting elements from web pages so you can immediately enter reading mode. It can also convert optimized web page content into PDF, PNG, Markdown, and other formats, making it suitable for scenarios that require focused reading or organizing materials.

Web saving: Evernote Web Clipper

Save web pages to Evernote in different forms, supporting full web page, URL, and screenshot saving. Its ad-hiding method can also remove useless information from pages.

Web screenshots: Annotation & Screen Recording

Capture partial or entire web page screenshots, and edit, annotate, and blur sensitive information. It is suitable for everyday web screenshots and content organization.

Web sticky notes: Note Anywhere

Add sticky notes to any web page to record important inspiration. Even if the browser restarts, the notes will not be lost.

English learning: Hanlin English-Chinese Bilingual Dictionary

You can look up detailed definitions and example sentences of words through dictionaries such as Bing and Youdao. It can also translate entire paragraphs into Chinese and keep a lookup history for later review.

Finally, because all extensions run at the same time, the browser will slow down. So do you still need an “extension to manage extensions”?

No need—the Infinity new tab page can do it. Just add the “Apps and Extensions” item to enable, disable, or uninstall other extensions. This is much more convenient than doing it in Chrome settings.

For users who have installed many extensions, this is also a more intuitive way to manage extensions.

What other useful Chrome browser extensions have you used? Feel free to share them with us in the comments.