It was a big year for Google Chrome—both browsers and products—in 2013, with tons of useful apps and add-ons to protect your privacy, help you be more productive, and customize the web so it works for you. Here's a look back at the biggest Chrome-related posts of 2013.


Google Chrome, your favorite web browser, came a long way this year. We previewed some of its most experimental features, downloaded some great privacy-protecting extensions, played with Chrome's new desktop apps, got introduced to the Google Chromecast, and more.


A little over a year ago, Google officially changed the name of its Docs app to Drive and gave users cloud storage to compete with Dropbox. While so far the search giant has yet to dethrone the incumbent, the service does have one distinct advantage over the competition: a wide array of extensions and apps that integrate directly into the service.


Google's Chrome browser is packed full of an incredible amount of extensions that add all sorts of functionality. It's tough to sift through the store to find what's useful though, so let us save you some time with this collection of the best Chrome extensions.


The Chrome app store has seen a lot of improvements lately, but a lot of the apps that work inside Google Chrome still go under the radar. With that in mind, here are a few of our favorites you might not have seen yet.


There are a ton of browser extensions that promise to protect your privacy, which leads to some natural questions: Which is the best? Do they all do the same thing? What should I really download? In this guide, we're going to look at the most popular browser extensions that promise to protect your privacy online, and give you our recommendations.

Ever wish you could find out whether someone actually opened that email you sent, or whether they just ignored and trashed it? A service called Bananatag can tell you—but if you find that a little creepy, we've got the lowdown on how to protect yourself too.



Google Chrome is a great browser as it is, but that doesn't mean it doesn't come with its share of annoyances and curiosities. You can fix some of these, as well as add new features by playing around with Chrome's experimental settings. Here are a few we really like.


Custom search engines are one of the coolest features of any modern browser. With just a few keystrokes, you can search Wikipedia right from your address bar, do a custom Google search for Lifehacker articles, or even get driving directions to a specific location. Here are five searches you should enable right now.


Chrome's new tab page doesn't have much going on for it by default. A few commonly visited sites, shortcuts to your apps, and that's about it. You don't have to be stuck with it though, there are a lot of great Chrome apps and extensions that make each new tab page much more useful. Let's take a look at a few of them.


Gmail is one of the best email clients out there, but even though it's packed with features out of the box, it's still not perfect. With that in mind, here are some of our favorite browser extensions and plugins for taking complete control over Gmail.

Chrome: Many of you probably search for coupons on sites like RetailMeNot when you shop online, but free extension Honey takes it to the next level: With one click, it will search for coupon codes for you, and automatically apply any that work to your checkout cart.



Google took the wraps off of the Chromecast today, a tiny thumb drive-sized stick with an HDMI port on one end that's Wi-Fi enabled. It's designed to make it simple to push video from your home network, smartphone, or the web right to your TV screen.


Last week, Google unveiled the Chromecast: a $35 HDMI stick that can stream content directly to your TV. It sold out nearly immediately due to the low price, but can it replace other streaming devices like the Roku or Apple TV?


We've talked about how amazing custom browser searches can be, but reader mdegat01 took it to the next level and submitted five even more advanced searches that make your life easier. Here's how they work.


Chrome/Windows/Chrome OS: Google today rolled out a new category of Chrome Apps, a.k.a. Chrome Packaged Apps, that run on the desktop and feel more like native apps than ones tied to the browser. Among these new apps are popular ones, such as Google Keep, Any.DO, and Pocket.


We all know that feeling: You've found an interesting article online, only to discover it wants you to click through 10 pages of a slideshow just to read the darn thing. Here are a few tricks to banishing multi-page articles forever.


Adblock Plus has updated with a new set of features to hide a bunch of Facebook's biggest annoyances, including cleaning up your news feed and sidebar.


Windows: Google has finished putting its final touches on the Chrome App Launcher, previously available as a developer preview. Now you can instantly launch your favorite webapps (Gmail, Google Drive, and Chrome apps) from your desktop, even if your browser isn't open.


Chrome: If you use Chrome, you probably haven't touched an actual search box in a while, instead using the Omnibox. With Chrome 29, you can try a new search interface that gets rid of it altogether.

Google's inched ever closer to the dream of Star Trek-style computing with its new Conversational Search, unveiled today at Google I/O. You start a search by saying "Okay, Google...," speak your query, whether it's "when does my flight leave" or trivia like "what's the population of my town." Google responds, both by voice and with text results.



Do Not Track, the feature in web browsers and web sites that asks advertisers and data miners not to track your browsing habits, is a relatively new service. It's also typically an opt-out feature. So, here's everywhere that you can enable Do Not Track so advertisers can't snoop in on your habits.

There you have it! 2013 was a big year for Chrome apps, extensions, utilities, and of course, the expansion of the Chrome brand into other products. Still, we covered more extensions and tricks than we could possibly mention here. As Google Chrome expands, we'll likely see a lot more users adopting it, and it's still our favorite on both Mac and Windows. Only time will tell whether or not Google will be able to balance the demands of users against the need to keep its browser safe, structured, and secure. If you're looking for more Chrome goodness, check out the most popular Chrome-related posts from 2012, 2011, and 2010.

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