Google Chrome extensions: Reason enough to switch from Firefox?

Firefox has long been superior to Google Chrome, in large part because of Firefox add-ins. Now that Chrome extensions are in beta, though, is it time to make the switch to Chrome? For many people, the answer may well be yes.

To use Chrome extensions, you'll have to run a beta of Chrome. I've tested out the beta, and it's extremely stable; I haven't had a single problem with it. You can get the beta, as well as a list of all available Google extensions on the Chrome extensions page.

Although there are only about 500 Google extensions, compared to thousands of add-ons for Firefox, many of the best and most useful Firefox add-ons are already available as Google extensions, or their capabilities are duplicated by a Chrome extension.

The superb Xmarks bookmarks synchronizer, for example, is available, as well as a Flash blocker, ad controller, and many others. For the list of my favorite Google extensions, check out my blog post "Google Chrome's five best extensions."

If you're interested primarily in speed, then the additions of extensions to Chrome are reason enough to make the switch from Firefox. But you do give up some things. Chrome is a stripped-down browser, with very few bells and whistles. Its handling of bookmarks is particularly poor. So Chrome may not be for everyone.

On my system at least, Chrome is so much faster than Firefox that it's worth it for me to switch for most purposes, for now that is. I'll be waiting for the next version of Firefox to see how permanent the change should be.