Google’s web browser, Google Chrome, has become increasingly popular in the Philippines, and has overtaken other browsers to be the second most used browser in the country with 21.88% share of the local browser market, according to StatCounter.

Among Chrome users, the extensions feature is particularly liked, because it allows Pinoys to personalize their browser depending on their needs.

Extensions are small programs that add new features to your web browser, allowing you to customize your web experience. Don’t like pop-up ads? There’s an extension that blocks them. Prefer to browse photos on Google Images, Flickr and Picasa in slideshow mode? There’s an extension for that too. There are thousands of Chrome extensions to choose from and you can install as many or as few as you’d like in one click.

Depending on how you spend your time in the Web, the Chrome extensions gallery offers applications that increases online productivity and offer a unique browsing experience. Whether you are a Web 2.0 specialist who spends most of the time in social media networks or a web developer who need power tools for coding, here are some of the most useful extensions based on your needs:

For the social networker

Get wired to your social networking sites by integrating these extensions in your Google Chrome browser:

Facebook: Here’s your one-click access to your news feed, wall, inbox, and notifications. No need to login every time you open your browser, as the application integrates with your Facebook account and saves your login details, so the extension is always ready to post your new status messages.

Chromed Bird: Post a tweet, check updates from your followers, or search public tweets, all from this simple Twitter extension.

Yoono: Acquire a one-click resource to all your social network accounts through Yoono, which allows you to log in to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, MySpace, and even YouTube and Flickr.

Mashable: Serious social marketers can stay up to date with the latest social media news in Mashable.

Keep up with the latest news

Have the latest news on demand integrated in your Chrome browser. Get one-click access to the following resources:

News Reader: View the world’s five most recent top stories in Google News with the News Reader application. Keep updated with the article headers of each article appearing in the popup.

Financial Times News: Access the latest news, in-depth information, and comprehensive analysis on world business, finance, and political news as it happens through an extension for The Financial Times.

TIME: Time news magazine readers can browse through must-read content of the day with the latest photos and videos. With the extension, users can search the Time’s free archive, which spans back to 1923.

For the web developer

Google Chrome offers extensions that provide quick access to web developer tools right in your browser:

Chrome editor: Eliminate the hassle of switching between an HTML editor and a browser by integrating the Chrome editor with Google Chrome. This extension allows web developers to edit codes within the browser.

Web Developer: Incorporate a toolbar host to a number of web developer tools right within a click in your browser.

MeasureIt!: Here’s the digital ruler to measure elements in a webpage. Get the width and height in pixels of any element in the website.