9 Google Chrome extensions to boost your productivity

Chrome's simplicity and easy-to-use interface has made it the browser of choice on many computers. But simple doesn't mean limited. On the contrary, Chrome is a robust platform with numerous plugins and extensions that make the browser powerful and extensible.

These plugins can simplify your experience, save you money when shopping online or improve the way Chrome fits into your workflow.

We've detailed 9 unique extensions, tweaks and shortcuts to help you optimize your Chrome experience, whether you're using it as a browser on a Mac or Windows machine, or as an operating system on a Chromebook.

1. Grammarly

Chrome has a nice built-in spell checker for spelling errors, but what about grammar mistakes? Grammarly will help you type your next memo or email with confidence with its own spell checker and grammar checker. Grammarly not only tells you what it thinks your mistakes are, but the extension also offers suggestions to correct these errors.

2. Pocket

When you're browsing online and you stumble across some great content that you want to reference later, don't create a bookmark or copy the web address. Use Pocket. The Chrome extension serves a similar purpose to a bookmark, allowing you to save an article or webpage to get back to later.

The best part about Pocket is that you can access your saved URLs from any virtually any device. Pocket has free iOS and Android apps, so you can read what you've clipped from your desktop on your phone or tablet whenever you have some downtime.

3. Mail Checker extension

Sometimes, when you're waiting for that important email to arrive, it could feel like waiting for the postman to come knocking with your package. Instead of absent mindedly refreshing your inbox, download Google's Mail Checker extension, which will let you know when a new email has arrived in your Gmail.

4. Adblock Plus and Adblock

Popups and ads can be annoying and outright obtrusive. Adblock Plus and Adblock are both excellent extensions that block ads on websites, and the icon next to your Chrome address bar will let you know how many ads have been blocked.

Some sites, like CBS, require you to disable ad blocking to stream videos. In this case, you can click on the icon to temporarily disable blocking for that domain.

5. OneTab

Multitasking online can result in multiple tabs opened in multiple Chrome windows. Fortunately, to keep your tabs organized, the OneTab extension will replace your existing tabs into a single tab, detailing what sites you have open.

The single OneTab is like a table of content for your Chrome tabs. If you need to open all your tabs again, OneTab has a quick "Restore all" option at the top to get you back to where you were.

The best part about OneTab is that it will reduce the amount of system memory that Chrome consumes, freeing up valuable resources for you to do other tasks.

6. StayFocusd

To hone your focus on certain tasks, you can download the StayFocusd extension. With the extension, you can block websites that will distract you, like Facebook, and set up the duration. With StayFocusd enabled, even if you're tempted, you won't be able to visit the site you've blocked.

7. Reopen closed tabs

If you closed something by accident, not all is lost. Rather than dig through your browsing history, you can hit Ctrl + Shift + T to reopen the last tab that was closed. On a Mac, type Cmd + Shift + T.

8. Chrome Remote Desktop

Chrome Remote Desktop is a simple tool that lets you access your computer and its content remotely. If you forgot to bring home a digital file from work, and your work PC is still on and connected to the internet, you can use Chrome Remote Desktop to securely log into your work computer from home.

Best of all, Google has a Chrome Remote Desktop for iOS and Android that will let you access your Macs, PCs and Chromebooks from your smartphone.

9. Momentum

Chrome's homepage is rather boring and uninspiring, and there's a quick way to spruce it up without having to change the homepage to something else and lose Google search.

Momentum, a free plugin, displays a nice background wallpaper that gets changed daily, the time, weather and a dashboard with your daily objectives and to-do items. The concept is not unlike Microsoft's Bing homepage.