22 Google Chrome Extensions to Make Google+ Even Better

Although Google+ has solved many of our problems with social networking, it's not perfect, and we all wish they'd be a just a little bit faster with the improvements. In the meantime, you can stave off your hunger with useful Google Chrome extensions that improve upon Google+. 

Warning

• Before we recommend any browser extensions for you, please note that we cannot guarantee the reliability or safety of these extensions. Many of them require access to your browser information. This means that it is technically possible for some of these to access your private data within Google+. You'll have to use your own judgment to decide whether to trust the author of the extension.

Enhance your Google+ Experience

With these extensions, you can create more of a Google+ experience without being tied to the main page all the time. Keep track of notifications, make your Google+ experience simpler, or use these extensions to highlight some of your favorite features.

• Usability Boost for Google+ makes small CSS changes that separates posts and comments visually, helping you with the flow of information. Authored by +Florent Fremont.
• Notification Count for Google+ displays your unread notifications in your browser bar.
• GPlus Notifications does the same thing. 
• G+ Count Favicon is another notification extension, except it uses your Google+ favicon to display the notification count.
• Surplus adds Google+ integration to Chrome. You can post or respond from within a browser popup, get desktop notifications, add notification sounds, and switch between Google accounts. Authored by +antimatter fifteen.
• +Photo Zoom helps you zoom photos and profile photos from your Google+ stream. Authored by Evoreto Labs.
• +Comment Toggle hides comments on Google+ posts in your stream unless you actually want to see them. Authored by Evoreto Labs.
• Replies and more for Google+ gives you Reply and Reply to Author links so you can tag people easily. Also provides easy keyboard shortcut enhancements, such as "M" to mute a post. Authored by +Matt Mastracci.
• G+Fix sticks the Google+ menu bar at the top of your screen even when scrolling. Authored by LinkCloud.
• Sticky+ Blackbar does the same thing.
• g- takes away the Google+ stuff when you're not actually on the Google+ main page.
• G+ Extended gives you extra shortcuts while in Google+.
• QuickView for Google Plus adds QuickView keyboard shortcuts to Google+. Authored by +Syd Lawrence.
• Helper for Google+ adds a lot of functionality to Google+. Features include sharing Google+ posts on Twitter, translating posts with Google Translate, and searching in Google+ profiles and posts directly from your address box. Authored by kupriyanov.

Overall Google Enhancements

These extensions encompass two or more of Google's products, including Google+. It's useful if you use multiple Google products in your online activities.

• Google CSS Tricks helps maximize space and usability. (This doesn't just work for Google+; it will also work for other Google products.) Authored by wepika.
• Enhanced Toolbar for Google Products creates a sticky toolbar at the top of your pages while you're browsing.  
• Plus One Anything lets you put the +1 button on your browser bar so you can +1 any webpage you visit. Authored by scottadie.

Sharing Between Social Networks

You're on Google+, but you haven't entirely let go of your other social network platforms yet. Google+ has not yet introduced its API, so it's not like you can add Google+ to your Tweetdeck account. What to do? Some of these extensions can help you resolve the issue.

• Extended Share for Google+ allows you to quickly share your posts to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Authored by +Mohamed Mansour.
• Google+Tweet adds a button to display your Twitter stream inside your Google+ account. Authored by +Bruno Barbieri.
• Share+ will provide you with a context-link icon below your Google+ posts so you can share them to other social networks. Authored by +Hoai-Tuong Nguyen.
• Start G+ helps you transition over from Twitter and Facebook by putting your Facebook and Twitter streams directly inside your Google+ stream. If you go to the main site, you can transfer or sync your photos from Facebook. Authored by +Zane Claes.
• Google+Tweet integrates Twitter inside your Google+ account. Authored by MyTweetPlace.

Since all of these extensions are fairly new, you can expect them to work inconsistently. I suggest that if you use them, send feedback to the original authors so they can improve upon them. Tell us in the comments or in our forum, what are your favorite and most useful Google+ extensions? 

Photo by JanneM