Google Global  not only made it easy to see how search pages looked in different countries but it also let you customize it to particular country, city, IP address.

It not only gives you a high-level overview of how your websites performs in other countries but also lets you see how your website looks from your clients point-of-view.

Suppose, you’re based in San Franscisco and you have an SEO/PPC client based in Seattle, Washington you can now check how the results look as if you were sitting there with them!

Download Google Global extension

Let me show you how the extension looks and works -

1. First, search for any term on Google and then click on the Google Global extension on the task bar. Here we search for the keyword “movie reviews“. The page shown is the usual Google.com (US) result page.

2. Choose a country from which you want to see the search engine result pages (SERP)

3. There is no number 3! Its that simple!

Tips for Power Users -

1. Click on the Google Global extension >> Show Options…

2. You can also enable/disable personalized Google results

3. Select default SERP language

4. One of the best feature is you can also Turn On AdTest. When you turn AdTest on you won’t generate impressions for your AdWords ads! This is amazing if you’re a PPC agency because you don’t have to login into AdWords for the tool.

5. You can also add countries at your will which provides more flexibility without remembering the country-level TLD

It’s one of the most useful Chrome extensions if you’re a blogger, SEO/PPC expert or even a web designer! So go download this awesome extension from my friends at RedFly – they’re great at what they do.

Google Chrome Extensions

The day has finally arrived – Google can now sync bookmarks and has enabled extensions both on the same day!

I’ve restricted my use of Google Chrome for the very reason that it wouldn’t let me sync bookmarks online.

Sync your Google Chrome bookmarks online

Have you ever saved a lot of web pages on Chrome and have lost all of them due to a PC crash? Well now you can make sure that your bookmarks can survive because Google has introduced “Sync bookmarks” feature in Chrome.

To enable Sync bookmarks in Chrome click the wrench icon and then click on the “Synchronize my bookmarks…” option. It’ll present you with a Google account sign-in box. Fill in your details and Google Chrome will start syncing your Chrome bookmarks by creating a folder in Google Docs and continuously syncing your bookmarks there!

You can also sync multiple computers and make sure that all your bookmarks are organized at a single place. When I accidently saw this option today I thought it’d sync the bookmarks with Google Bookmarks which (thankfully!) it didn’t!

Extending Chrome with Extensions

One thing that was stopping Chrome from attaining mass adoption and popularity despite its speed and simplicity was that it was a totally closed ecosystem. For one, you couldn’t install any toolbars – not even the ubiquitious Google toobar! While there was a work around to it by simply bookmarking the services and docking the bookmarks bar, it was too much work and it didn’t look good often cluttering the bookmarks bar.

Google has been in beta mode for Chrome extensions for quite some time. Some of the most popular extensions include Gmail notifier by Google, IE tab, AdThwart(!), Google Translate, AdBlock(!!) and many more. One of the alarming trends I see is that among the 5 most popular Chrome extensions 2 are for blocking ads – the pillar on which Google stands and the other 2 are Google’s and the remaining one being IE tab which I guess is used by Web developers to debug and run websites made for Internet Explorer.

A few days ago, the New York Times published an article - In Allowing Ad Blockers, a Test for Google where it discussed about the concerns Google could face if the extensions really took off (as they have done!) and there isn’t much Google can do to stop it. If it does, it could backfire in a lot of ways including more publicity for the extensions and other privacy concerns.

Use the Extensions at Your Own Risk

While the extensions exponentially increase the value of Google Chrome as a browser there is a risk in using these extensions.  While installing the extensions Google displays a warning that these extensions have access to private pages and even the whole computer.