11 Great Google Chrome Extensions We Love at Redbooth

Do you work out of your Chrome browser at work? You’re in good company! At our Redbooth offices in Silicon Valley and Barcelona, many of us spend quite a bit of time in Chrome (although for a distraction-free virtual workspace, we open up Redbooth’s desktop app).

Here are 11 essential ways that our top choices of Google Chrome extensions can help you be more productive throughout the day:
 

1. They Prevent You From Having to Look Up Passwords

There are lots of good password-saving options that can save you time throughout the day. “I can sign up really quickly to any of the dozens of SaaS tools we use daily,” says Redbooth CTO Pau Ramon Revilla of Meldium.

David Schoenfeld, Redbooth’s SEO consultant, likes 1Password, as does senior developer Ilya Zayats, who says, “Can’t imagine my life without it.” Meanwhile, Customer Success Manager Eric Jesus says that his top choice for a Chrome password manager is “LastPass, by far.”
 

2. They Put Key Information Just a Click Away

“I use Permanent Clipboard to have quick access to my favorite ASCII emojis,” says Màxim Colls, full stack developer.

Of course, you can use it to have quick access to whatever you might need to access easily — and then with a simple right-click, you can select “Insert from Permanent Clipboard.”
 

3. They Keep Chrome Running Smoothly

Among the Redbooth team, The Great Suspender was a popular choice. Pau Ramon Revilla, CTO, explains, “It puts Chrome tabs to sleep that you’re not using. For tab-hungry people like me who like multitasking, this is important because it keeps your memory usage low.”

Pau Pérez, backend developer, agrees: “It keeps Chrome from frying my hands with my CPU.”
 

4. They Inspire You With Each New Tab

“For those with an artist’s soul I recommend Dribbble New Tab. Very inspiring,” says frontend developer Andrés Gutiérrez of the visually appealing extension that offers up a changing array of designers’ work with each new tab you open in Chrome.

Pau Perez recommends “Momentum, which I really like” — and which greets you with the time, a nature photograph, and a personalized message, along with a prompt about your main focus for the day.
 

5. They Help You Edit More Efficiently

If you work a lot in Google Drive, you might feel impatient when you’re asked to download an Office doc. That’s why Customer Success Manager Pedro Brito likes the Office Editing extension: “You can view and modify Office documents straight from Google Drive, bypassing the hoopla of converting to Google’s format and then saving back to .doc, .xls or .ppt again,” he says.
 

6. They Let You Access Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’re a fan of keyboard shortcuts, you may want to check out Vimium. “It allows me to work in the browser and control it almost entirely from the keyboard,” says platform backend developer Fran Casas. “And since I’m a keyboard/shortcuts freak that’s something I value a lot.”
 

7. They Improve Your Recruiting Process

Lever’s job posting and candidate screening software has been winning rave reviews internally at Redbooth for months, so it’s no surprise that the Lever Hire extension is also a favorite.

“Whenever I’m on Linkedin or Github, if there is a candidate I like, I can easily add him or her to a currently open job posting. This allows me to build my pipeline super fast,” said Pau Ramon Revilla of Lever Hire.
 

8. They Save Articles for You to Read Later

Just because you come across an interesting article doesn’t mean you should drop everything and read it. “Pocket is really good, because when you bookmark an article or website to read later, it prompts with a few tag suggestions,” said Jordi Romero, VP of Business Development. “That way you don’t end up with a big pile of uncategorized articles and it makes it easier to work through the list.”

Pau Perez is one of many Redbooth team members to agree: “Pocket is a must,” he says, “because it allows me to keep focused and save things for later.” Fran Casas adds, “I love that you can also use it on your cell phone or tablet. It synchronizes your unread stuff and allows you to read it offline when you’re in the subway or things like that.”
 

9. They Offer Technical Shortcuts

If your work in Chrome tends toward the technical, these Chrome extensions can help make your life easier. Backend developer Carlos Saura likes JSON Formatter: “It formats JSON data into a pretty, human-readable format.”

For Github, Android developer Francisco M Sirvent Sala likes OctoTree, which shows the code tree in Github (and keeps you from having to keep multiple tabs open) and Pretty Pull Requests, which collapses pull requests, making them much easier to navigate.

And don’t forget about OctoLinker — as senior platform engineer Alexandr Subbotin explains, “it makes easier to navigate between dependencies in JavaScript source code on Github.”
 

10. They Simplify Sharing on Social Media

Buffer has fans on Redbooth’s marketing team for its streamlined, user-friendly interface and outstanding customer support. But you don’t have to be a professional marketer to use the polished Buffer Chrome extension for your own social media, says Redbooth’s Carlos Saura.

With the Buffer extension, you can click on an article you have open and easily send it to your social media queue to share at a future time…so you don’t bombard your followers with 5 updates at once.
 

11. They Make Background Music a Breeze

Working in a lively open office, headphones and background music are helpful for concentrating on complex tasks (for more tips, see our recent post on 9 ways for staying focused in an open office). For fans of Pandora — or Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Music, SoundCloud, or a host of other services — SndControl is a handy way to manage your soundtrack from your Chrome toolbar.

As Redbooth’s content marketing manager, I use SndControl’s Audio Control Pad for Chrome just about every day! It’s free to connect one service, and you have the option to pay a small monthly fee or one-time lifetime subscription payment to connect with all 18+ music and podcast services.
 
Is there a Chrome extension not mentioned here that helps you stay productive at work? Let us know in the comments!