Between the time Apple released Safari 5 (with extension support) and before the Extensions Gallery was officially opened, people relied on unofficial extensions sites to get their “early edition” of Safari extensions.
Now that the official site is alive, what has happened to the unofficial ones like Pimp My Safari and Safari Extensions? It turns out that they are still alive and kickin’ – maybe better than before. The latter site even has a larger collection of extensions than the official site.
Unofficial doesn’t mean bad quality, all the extensions that I tried work just fine. You can visit these unofficial sites and get some extensions that you need.
To get you started, here are several useful Safari extensions that you won’t find on the official site (at least not yet, at the time of writing).
1. KeySearch
This extension has similar features to the Quix bookmarklet, but without the geek factor. KeySearch uses short keywords to allow you to search any site you want, right from the toolbar. Just press Control-S or click the toolbar button to bring up the KeySearch bar, and type a keyword followed by your search query.
For example, type “youtube classical guitar” to find videos of classical guitar on YouTube, or “flickr sunset” to find images of sunsets on Flickr. You get the picture, right?
Aside from the ready-made keywords, you can easily add your own.
2. Get Hover It!
During my visit to the unofficial galleries, I found two extensions that will enhance your hovering experience. There’s HoverLink which will reveal the link’s URL, and there’s also HoverZoom which will show and zoom in on pictures from Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, Twitter, Digg, and more.
All you’ve got to do is just hover your mouse over the items (URLs or images/thumbnails) that you want to reveal.
3. WebWatch
To some people, the web is an addictive place where one can easily lose the track of time. Maybe that’s why Side Tree Software created WebWatch.
This extension will track your time on the internet and can be set to give you a reminder after a period of time. Just click on the toolbar item to reset the timer.
4. Gmail CSS
Even though there’s nothing wrong with GMail’s look, giving it a little touch-up wouldn’t hurt either. That’s the goal of GMail CSS; to give (slightly) better and more colorful navigation around GMail.
The changes are not extreme, though. All the extensions do is just highlight hovered rows with different colors, changing icons for attachments, and hiding several elements like Ads and Chat.
Granted, it’s not yet in the same class as Firefox’ Google Redesigned, but it’s a good start.
5. Beautipedia
Wikipedia has become everybody’s main source of information. But unfortunately, it’s not the prettiest gal on the neighborhood. If you use Wikipedia a lot, you’ll appreciate what Beautipedia does. It will make Wikipedia a better environment for reading articles.
Aside from giving the interface a minimalist look, the extension will also hide the links until you hover your mouse over it. Some people might like it, others might not, but in my personal opinion, it does make the look easier on the eye.
There are a lot of Safari extensions out there, and the best way to find the best is by peer recommendation. So if you’ve found and used nice Safari extensions, why not share them using the comments below?
Tagged: browsing tools • productivity • safari • safari extensions
