Google Extras

Because of the new tab menu screen for Google Chrome, I decided to see what this Google App Store was about. My initial guess was that it was just a online store for apps that you can buy for your web browser. And it is. But much more!

They've actually bundled it all together with additional software, extensions and themes, which is really smart. One of the hardest things about using Chrome was figuring out how to put 'add-ons' or 'extensions'. It took me ages to find out how to do it, so I could have my mouse gestures (which incidentally is really useful: hold down right mouse button, make a shape/gesture and it does a function, such as go back a page, close a tab, refresh etc.). But now it's all in the AppStore, and you just need to click install and it does it all for you.

There are some really useful ones, like currency converters on the fly, games in browsers (Angry Birds), Google App tie ins (Calender, Reader, Gmal) and different themes that can be applied so easy. There isn't a huge range, as compared with Android or Itune stores, but I guess it's pretty early.

The only thing is, once the excitement and wonder had died down, I realised that I didn't quite like the whole idea. The one thing going for Google Chrome is that it's light (software wise). It's one of the, if not the most, fastest browsers on the market. It's simple and elegant. Adding all these extensions don't come without consequences, and the consequence is processing power. Obviously, some of these apps need to run in the background (e.g Gmail icon needs to constantly check if you have mail), so it's running even when you're not doing anything. Have a couple of these, and Chrome is suddenly slowing down not only itself, but your computer in general.

So I installed a few...and then uninstalled them when I saw them eating up my processing power. Maybe when I have settled down, and I have a monster PC, I will use them. But for the humble laptop, I can't afford it.

Still nice advancements. Also, using pictures on blogger is SO much easier now, thank god.

teoh,

P.S Good luck to everyone for exams.