AdBlock

Firefox users should recognize this popular extension. This one’s an offshoot of AdBlock for Chrome, which itself is an offshoot of AdBlock Plus, the original Firefox extension. AdBlock does what its name implies: block ads. I installed it just to block that obnoxiously huge banner ad on YouTube’s homepage. If you’re not the type to ever click on ads anyway, then why not cut down on the visual (and sometimes audible) clutter?

Type-To-Navigate

[inline-ad align="right"]Type-To-Navigate is a mouse-hater’s dream. It lets you navigate links by simply typing the name of the link. So say I wanted to view the About page of a blog, I’d just type “about” and Type-To-Navigate will highlight the link and display an attractive popup of what I’d written (“about”). The only places where this extension doesn’t work are in text fields and when the link is attached to an image. However, it should find any text link with no problems. Another neat thing you can do with it is to press certain shortcuts while the link you’re searching for is highlighted. You can type ⌘G to find next, ⌘C to copy the URL, and ⌘I to send it to Instapaper.

Invisible Status Bar

Another neat extension from the developer of Type-To-Navigate, Invisible Status Bar gives you a Google Chrome-like status bar that pops up when hovering over links, and even tells you how big a file is when you’re hovering over a download link.

MouseGestures

This feature was originally pioneered by Opera back in 2001, and it’s kind of amazing that it’s taken this long to get it into Safari (at least officially). If you’re unaware, mouse gestures are where you hold down a button on the mouse (normally the right or middle button) and move the mouse to perform a gesture. Gestures can do things like go back a page, or reload. MouseGestures only offers four gestures right now: up, down, left, and right. Assignable actions run the gamut from going back a page to closing the active tab. Unfortunately, there are no customizable gestures like in Opera yet.

WOT (Web Of Trust)

Another popular Firefox extension, WOT offers better security when searching the web by ranking pages based on their content, with other WOT users providing the rankings. The green WOT symbol means the site is safe, and the red means it’s unsafe, with several degrees of safety in between. The only annoying thing about it is that it pops up a little indicator in the top left of the window whenever you visit a new site, but fortunately, it doesn’t popup when you visit a site you’ve already visited.

Gmail Counter

For those who don’t use anything other than Gmail’s web-based interface, this extension is rather useful. It adds a new toolbar icon that shows how many unread messages are in your inbox. Clicking on the icon also takes you to your inbox, so you can get rid of your Gmail bookmark, if you have one.

Reload Button

This one was made by the venerable, and über-critical, John Siracusa, to address his annoyance with the location of Safari’s reload button since version 4. It adds a reload button to the toolbar that’s freely movable, unlike the default reload button. There isn’t much else to say about it, unless you like Safari’s default reload button, in which case, what’s wrong with you?

You could install most of these from the Extensions Gallery, but I’ve elected to link directly to the developers websites, as Apple doesn’t have individual pages for extensions yet.

Have you been playing around with Safari extensions? What are your favorites so far?

Related GigaOM Pro Research (subscription required): What Does the Future Hold For Browsers?

The Safari Extensions Gallery is accessible from the Safari menu or via extensions.apple.com. Users can download and install extensions from the gallery with a single click, with no need for a browser restart. Extensions can be automatically updated and are managed within Safari.

Safari Extensions are built with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards. Every Safari Extension is signed with a digital certificate from Apple to prevent tampering and to verify that updates to the extension are from the original developer. Safari Extensions work in a sandbox, so they can’t access information on a user’s system or communicate with websites aside from those specified by the developer.

While the Safari Extension Gallery is launching with a range of extensions from the likes of Bing, the New York Times, Twitter and eBay, it’s nowhere near to matching the usefulness of Chrome’s extensions, let alone Firefox’s gigantic range of add-ons. Apple’s decision to include extension support in Safari is a smart one, but until developers start porting the most useful extensions to Safari, I’ll find it tough to switch from my favorite browsers.

You can download Safari 5.0.1 for both Mac and PC for free from Apple.

What Chrome or Firefox extensions would you like to see ported to Safari?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): What Does the Future Hold For Browsers?

To learn more about using Safari, check out our Safari 101 screencast on TechUniversity (subscription required).

Get Registered

Safari Extensions need to be signed to be installed, so before writing any code, head over to the Safari Developer Center to register as a Safari Developer. It’s free to join, and binds to your Apple ID from your MobileMe or iTunes account. You will have to follow the steps in the online wizard to create your own signed certificate, which you’ll use to create your extension. Once the certificate is created, just double-click to install it. Safari will automatically use this certificate when building your extensions.

Enable the Develop Menu & Extensions

Building Safari Extensions starts inside of Safari, but to get there you have to enable the Develop menu. To do so, go to Safari Preferences, select the “Advanced” tab on the end, then check the last option on the page, labeled “Show Develop menu in menu bar.”

You’ll see the new menu appear, click on it, check “Enable Extensions,” and select “Show Extension Builder.”

Create a New Extension

In the Extension Builder, click on the plus sign in the bottom left hand corner, then select “New Extension.” Choose a place to put the source code for your extension; I always put my code in a “Code” folder under my home directory. Give it a meaningful name, like “Hello World.” In the new form, fill out the “Extension Info” section, and change the Bundle Identifier under “Extension Details” to com.theappleblog.helloworld. Under “Extension Website Access” set “Access Level” to All, and check “Include Secure Pages.”

Open the Project Folder

This is where it gets a little confusing. It seems like Apple would like you to be able to build the entire extension in Safari, but they only give you half the tools to do it. The next option on the list is “Extension Global Page,” in a drop down menu, but there is no option to create one. Once the extension project folder is created (it’ll be in that folder you selected when you created your new extension), you need to open it up and add a couple of files to it. Since we are building a toolbar extension, you will need two files: an image in PNG format, and an HTML file which will hold our JavaScript. You can download both the HTML and the PNG file to use here. Add those two files to the project folder, and switch back to the Extension Builder. Now, when you click on the drop down menu under Extension Global Page, you should see the option for “global.html”, go ahead and select that.

Next, in the “Extension Chrome” section, click the “New Toolbar Item” button. That should drop down a new form with seven options. Fill out the form like this example:

Write Some Code

Open the global.html file in your favorite text editor. In this file is all of the logic for the extension. When our icon on the Safari toolbar is pressed, it will send an event named “sayHello”. Safari will parse our global.html file and see if that event is defined. Since we are checking for that event with the line if (event.command === “sayHello”), our JavaScript will trigger whenever that button is pressed. It’s important that the command defined in the Extension Builder matches the event.command we are looking for in global.html. When the event is matched, Safari will run any JavaScript inside the if statement which, in our case, is a simple alert box.

If you are familiar with JavaScript, you’ll be able to tell right away what you can do here. If not, just know that you can replace the line alert(“Hello World”); with whatever valid JavaScript you’d like.

With the Toolbar Items menu is filled out, you should be ready to build the extension. Click on the “Build Package” button in the top right corner of the Extension Builder. Save the extension to your desktop, then double-click on it to install it in Safari. You should notice a new button on the toolbar sporting the nifty TAB logo. Click on it, and you should see an alert window pop up saying hello.

Debug Workflow

If you don’t already have the global.html file open, go ahead and open it in your favorite text editor again. Change the text of the alert to say “Hello Jon,” or whatever you would like. Save the file without closing the text editor, then switch back to the Extension Builder and click “Reload.” Now switch to Safari and hit your button again, it should now display the new text in the alert window.

Build Something Awesome

This article has barely scratched the surface of what Safari Extensions can do. For more in-depth information, read through the Developers Guide on the Apple web site. I can’t wait to see what awesome extensions creative developers come up with.

To learn more about using Safari, check out our Safari 101 screencast on TechUniversity (subscription required).

Web & Utilities

AdBlock

The AdBlock extension is a great way to remove unwanted content from your browsing experience. Download the extension and load your web pages without as many intrusive ads. There’s even beta options to remove Google ads and YouTube ads.

BuiltWith Analysis

The BuiltWith Analysis extension provides an insider look into a website with one click. You can see what JavaScript libraries a site uses, who provides analytics as well as other nitty-gritty details that are totally public, but often obscured in tons of HTML source code.

Invisible Status Bar

Google’s Chrome browser does away with the status bar at the bottom of your window and only shows it when you hover over a link. The Invisible Status Bar extension does the same thing for Safari!

Live CSS Editing

The Live CSS Editing extension provides a quick way to load up a page and test modifications to the CSS in real time.

Bit.ly Shortener

The Safari Bit.ly Shortener extension makes it easy to shorten a URL with Bit.ly. Simply load the URL in your browser and then click the button!

PageSaver

The Svay.com PageSaver extension will, in one click, save the visible portion of a web page as an image and automatically download it into your Downloads folder.

ScribeFire

ScribeFire is an extension for using a centralized place for posting to all of your blogs, supporting a variety of typical blog features including formatting, categories and tags. ScribeFire’s Safari Extension brings support for this right into Safari.

Snapper

Similar to PageSaver, Snapper also saves the currently viewable portion of a website as a PNG and automatically downloads it for you.

Type to Navigate

The Type to Navigate extension is pretty darn cool. If you’re browsing a page and there’s a link you want to follow, just start typing any word that’s contained within it. It’ll highlight the link and then you just press Return to load it. If it’s not the right link, press Command + G to move to the next one.

E-Commerce

Amazon.com Search Bar

If you frequent Amazon.com, you’ll want the Amazon.com Search Bar extension. It’ll add a new Amazon.com bar to Safari giving you one-click access to your shopping cart, wish list, the latest deals and a quick way to search Amazon.com.

InvisibleHand

The InvisibleHand extension will subtly let you know when it finds a cheaper price to a product elsewhere on the Internet. The list of supported retailers is fairly decent for the U.S., UK and Germany, but more are being added frequently.

Social

FaceBlock

The FaceBlock extension blocks all of the annoying ads on Facebook. I always feel a little sadness for the advertisers that are paying for impressions that I never have to see. Oh well.

safari140

This gem of an extension allows you to post directly to Twitter from within Safari. Links are automatically shortened by is.gd.

Share with Facebook

The Share with Facebook extension gives you one-click access to share your current URL with your Facebook account.

Webbla

If you use Webbla for managing your bookmarks, take a look at the Webbla browser extension, which allows you to quickly add or modify them.

YouTube Full Screen

This extension is a great way to enable full-screen support of YouTube videos if you’re using YouTube’s HTML5 player instead of its Flash player.

Productivity

Background Tabs

The Background Tabs extension will allow you to open a new tab in the background by simply pressing the V key.

Gmail Checker

The Gmail Checker extension will give you an icon and badge in your Safari toolbar to show unread messages on your Gmail account. Keep an eye on their website for updates because the next version will support Google Apps users.

GoMBoX

The GoMBoX extension transforms your Google Images experience by showcasing results in a Lightbox overlay, allowing you to see larger versions without having to leave your search results page.

Instapaper

If you love Instapaper, check out Instafari, a simple one-click way to save an article to your Instapaper account.

InstaPaper Greystyled and Article Tools

The Greystyled and Article Tools extensions provide you with a cleaner style for your Instapaper.com account. Once the extension is installed, just visit instapaper.com to see the changes.

Google Reader – Simplified

If you’re a fan of Google Reader and the GreaseMonkey scripts that give it a simplified look, check out Lucidica, an extension that’s based off Helvetireader.

Safari Reload Button

If you’ve ever wanted to move the reload button for Safari out of the URL window and into its own button, the Safari Reload Button extension does just that.

Search Preview

With the Search Preview extension, you can preview the web pages that show up in your search results. This extension works with Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Toodlethings

If you use Toodledo for your task management, the Toodlethings extension re-styles the web interface with clean buttons and easier to read fonts.

For more great extensions, check out the Safari Extensions blog and keep an eye on Apple.com for its showcase that’s scheduled to premiere later this summer.

Have you written your own extension or found others? Share them in the comments below!

Now there’s a solution for the Mac: Rapportive. It takes over the advertisements area in Gmail, and provides basic information about your email correspondents: occupation, Twitter/Flickr/LinkedIn links, age, location and custom notes. Yes, it supports Google Apps accounts, and the preview version of Mailplane now has an option to view Rapportive data. The experience definitely feels like a beta, with occasional inaccurate or missing information, but it’s great having so much additional context inside my email.

The problem? Rapportive so far only works in Google Chrome and Firefox as an extension. Safari is missing out since it doesn’t support simple extension development. Now that Chrome has overtaken Safari in market share, Apple needs to step up its game in terms of features. Both Safari and Mail.app need extension support to integrate all of these new social products. I am aware that some important extensions like Evernote and 1Password exist for Safari, but there is no official Apple documentation or support on how to build extensions. This needs to change. Unfortunately for Apple, Google and Mozilla already have thousands of extensions available.

Google Wave Notifier provides quick access to your Google Wave account and displays the number of unread waves you have.

LastPass is a password manager that remembers your usernames and passwords, and lets you add notes about each account, too. It also imports databases from many of the password manager apps available today.

GMail Checker displays the number of new emails in your GMail account.

RSS Subscription Extension is one of the most handy extensions you’ll see — you’re able to subscribe to any site you’re reading with a single click.

Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer displays previews of any PDF files, PPT presentations and many other types of documents in Google Docs Viewer.

Facebook provides quick access to your facebook account in a dropdown window from the toolbar.

Amazon Universal Wishlist is one of my favorites because it allows you to add just about anything you want from any store to your wishlist on Amazon.

Google Voice Notifier displays new voicemails in your Google Voice account.

Google Tasks is a quick way to display your Google Tasks.

Google Similar Pages displays similar pages to the one you’re visiting once you click its browser button.

What are your favorite Google Chrome extensions? What extensions would you like to see for Chrome?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Personal tools lead to practical business
• Disruptapalooza 2011: how Amazon’s Kindle is changing the portable media game
• Millennials in the enterprise, part 1: strategies for supporting the new digital workforce

While Chrome can’t yet match Firefox’s massive extension ecosystem, more useful extensions are becoming available for Google’s browser every day. Here are my must-have extensions for the new Google Chrome user:

Brizzly. Since I am trying to better integrate Twitter and Facebook into my professional communications in 2010, the Brizzly extension, which is a Twitter and Facebook reading/updating tool, ranks as a must-have in my book.

Shareaholic for Google Chrome. This extension lets you share web pages through major social media sites and other services, like Gmail and Evernote.

Google Apps Shortcuts. This shortcut provides easy access to all of your Google Apps, including Google Wave and Google Voice. You can even begin creating new email, documents, spreadsheets and presentations using this extension.

Evernote Web Clipper. We’ve written about Evernote in the past, and the Evernote extension provides the same web clipping functionality you already enjoy in Mozilla Firefox and in Internet Explorer. I use the web clipper whenever I want to capture research from the web.

Xmarks Bookmarks Sync. One of the biggest draws of Firefox for me was the capability to sync bookmarks across my home office PCs. Now with the Xmarks Bookmarks Sync extension you can have the same feature using Chrome.

Aviary Screen Capture. I take a lot of screen captures, and like the fact that Aviary Screen capture lets you capture and manipulate screen captures from within Google Chrome.

Bit.ly. This extension comes in handy if you need fast access to a URL shortener. Clicking on the Bit.ly extension launches a sidebar:

html2pdf. This extension enables you to save the HTML page you are viewing to PDF. I find this extension handy when I want to save a receipt or a piece of research.

Google Reader Notifier. Google Reader is my RSS reader of choice, so the Google Reader Notifier Extension was a natural choice for me.

TooMany Tabs for Chrome. I’ve been known to keep way too many browser tabs open especially when I am in full-on research and writing mode. TooMany Tabs for Chrome helps to keep me organized and my computer’s memory usage in check.

What are your favorite Chrome extensions?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Personal tools lead to practical business
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

Useful browser extensions, of course, are among the key reasons that many people favor Mozilla’s open-source Firefox browser over others. They’re quickly making their way to the Chrome browser, although you must have the latest beta version of Chrome to work with these, and it’s available here.

Find Bargains. Timed for the long holiday weekend, Google has highlighted a number of Chrome extensions that can help you shop and benefit from online bargains. Kaboodle lets you add products from stores online to personal lists, and see what types of deals other online shoppers are finding. Google Checkout Notifier Promo is an extension that actually comes from Google. The extension allows users to be notified when visiting a store running a Google Checkout promotion. The extension also displays details on any given promotion.

Getting High Marks. Google’s Extensions Gallery for Chrome includes ways to sort for the most popular extensions, and the highest rated ones. Google Mail Checker is hugely popular. It displays the number of unread messages in your Gmail account, and lets you open your inbox with one click. Many people are also using the Google Translate extension, which translates entire web pages with one click.

Social Tools. You can now use quite a few extensions for social-networking sites and services in Chrome. The Facebook extension lets you access your account and get at chat and notifications from the browser. Fast Twitter Search lets you search in Twitter with one click. TwitterBar lets you post to Twitter from the Chrome toolbar.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• What Does the Future Hold For Browsers?
• Disruptapalooza 2011: how Amazon’s Kindle is changing the portable media game
• HTML5’s a Game-Changer for Web Apps

I’ve been pleased to find a number of my favorite Firefox extensions available in the new gallery. The following are six of them that can help you get much more out of Chrome, including extensions for making life with Google’s own applications easier. (Note that you must have the latest beta version of Chrome to work with these, and it’s available here.)

iMacros. This extension for Chrome looks and works exactly like the hugely popular iMacros extension for Firefox. It lets you easily record repetitive actions, such as loading groups of tabbed sites that you use all day, and then play them back with the click of just one button. OStatic has a complete visual tour of how to use the Firefox version here.

Xmarks. If you’re a longtime Firefox user, you probably already use the Xmarks bookmarking and synchronization extension. Now it’s available for Chrome. As jkOnTheRun has noted, Xmarks can revolutionize the way you work.

Google Apps Shortcuts. This is a simple extension that lets you get at Google Apps with one mouse click. You can jump right to documents, spreadsheets, presentations or Gmail, for example, as seen at left.

ChromeMilk. RememberTheMilk has been a popular online to-do list manager for years, and is now available as an extension for Chrome, dubbed ChromeMilk. It lets you access your to-do tasks right from Chrome’s toolbar.

One Number. This extension lets you keep an eye on incoming traffic to Gmail, Google Reader, Google Voice and Google Wave. It’s an all-in-one dashboard, as seen here.

AdBlock. Ask some Firefox users what their favorite extension is, and they’ll say AdBlock Plus. It removes all kinds of ad-oriented annoyances from your browsing experience, and this version for Chrome carries over all the features from the Firefox extension.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Disruptapalooza 2011: how Amazon’s Kindle is changing the portable media game
• What Does the Future Hold For Browsers?
• What Google Must Do to Make Chrome OS a Success With Netbooks

If you subscribe through the Dev channel, you can now begin using quite a few useful extensions with Chrome. Several of the sample extensions are shown here, and will ring a bell if you happen to use the analogous extensions in Firefox. There is a Gmail Checker extension, an extension for quickly grabbing RSS feeds as you browse, and an extension for checking on Chrome’s latest builds. XMarks and other popular Firefox extensions are also headed for availability on Chrome. In addition, Google confirms that “we’ve also enlisted some help to get extensions up to speed on Mac and Linux.”

For those who would like to develop Chrome extensions, there is some documentation. And, if you’ve already written an extension, you should check this update. Lack of extensions has been a shortcoming for Google’s browser, which is based on an open source core and designed for extensibility. It’s good to see this new chapter unfolding for the browser.

Which Firefox extensions would you like to see made available for Chrome?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.