In 2008, Google expanded its lineup of Web-based services with the Chrome browser, a perennial PCMag favorite for its speed and features, as well as support for add-ons, though it lost our Editors' Choice to Mozilla Firefox in recent years.

However, Chrome remains more popular: as of this writing, NetMarketshare shows it in use by 35.05 percent of Web users, second only to Microsoft Internet Explorer (46.9 percent), and well ahead of Firefox at 11.42 percent. Many other services, though, like Wikimedia, StatCounter, and even the U.S. government peg Chrome as the most used browser, even over IE.

It stands to reason that using Google's Gmail in the Chrome browser would be like bringing together chocolate and peanut butter, right? Well, actually, Gmail works fine with other browsers, but many Chrome-specific extensions add amazing new features and abilities to the everyday Gmail experience.

Here is a collection of our favorites, many of them free, and all worth a try if you're a serious Gmail-er using Chrome on almost any platform, be it Windows, Mac, Linux, or even a Chromebook.

Featured Chrome Extensions for Gmail Reviews

Gmail Offline
Free
No Gmail extension collection is complete without this one, so let's get right to it: Gmail Offline lets you work with Gmail...when you're offline. No Internet connection? Who cares? Read, respond, even search your messages. You just won't receive or send any new mail until you reconnect. It's actually a full Web app that you use offline; it helps to also install the Gmail Offline Sync Optimizer extension, to make sure changes you make offline get synchronized the minute you're back on the Internet.

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Checker Plus for Gmail
DonationWare
The best extension for users of multiple Gmail accounts—I've got three!—is Checker Plus. It gives you fast access via a drop-down menu in Chrome, desktop notifications, color coding, even voice input for writing messages. Users of the Awesome New Tab Page app get full integration. A donation of any amount unlocks even more features.

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Send From Gmail
Free
There are links on the Internet that do nothing except open an empty email for you to send to someone. But the way most browsers react to them is to open up an external email client. If you're a Gmail user, this extension ensures all those "mailto:" links open a new compose message window where it should: Gmail. Go into options to set it to use the domain name you use in Google Apps, if necessary. It also puts a button on the toolbar that lets you forward anything you see online via a Gmail message.

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Gmelius
Free or $35.88/year for the Individual Premium plan
Google thinks it knows exactly what users want, so sometimes it makes interface changes to Gmail, which can be infuriating. Gmelius (pronounced 'Gmail'-'ius') gives you back some control of the inbox. Features including: color-coding navigation buttons; moving around the attachment icons; hiding the footer; disabling chat/Hangouts; standardizing the look of all incoming messages to avoid people's ugly font choices; and blocking ads. If you go with the premium version, you can do a lot more, like block trackers in messages, set up delayed send times, and better integrate with Google Calendar.

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Secure Mail for Gmail (by Streak)
Free
Also known as SecureGmail, this free extension promises to prevent message snooping via built-in encryption/decryption tools. Append a password to sent message, and the recipient won't be able to open it unless they are also on Gmail, have the extension loaded, and get the password from you. (If you're sending or using other email services/software, such as Yahoo Mail, Outlook, or Outlook.com, you may want to consider Virtru.)

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Snooze Your Email for Gmail
Free
You get a lot of emails. Too many. They must be dealt with eventually, but you can hit the snooze button on those that can wait. Snooze Your Email provides a drop-down menu that puts the pause on your message for five minutes or entire days. Once the time is up, you'll get a reminder to follow up.

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ActiveInbox
$39.60 per year for one account; $60 per year for 2-3 accounts.
Turn your inbox into a massive "Getting Things Done" workshop with ActiveInbox. It'll cost you (after a two-week free trial), but could be invaluable if you're leaving things undone. It'll turn your messages into tasks, tracking and prioritizing, even turning groups of tasks into projects. Everything will get done, even if it's just because you don't want to waste the money.

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Rapportive
Free
Wondering who just emailed you? Rapportive loads a sidebar next to every message giving you the full low-down on contacts, from their social-networking haunts—specifically LinkedIn, which makes Rapportive—to recent status updates, and more. Enter notes about them to access later. It's "relationship management" in your email. Also available for Firefox.

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KeyRocket for Gmail
Free
Want to learn all the keyboard shortcuts that exist in Gmail? There's a lot of them, and they're super useful, but who has the time, right? KeyRocket tracks every move you make in the Gmail interface and will pop up suggestions when you click and could have typed. You'll learn the shortcuts in no time. (If you like learning shortcuts, get the $135 premium version that works with other programs, including Microsoft Office.)

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Powerbot for Gmail
$1.99/month
Love storing everything you find online in note-storage apps like Evernote? Tossing attachments on your messages into Dropbox or OneNote? Of course you do, but it's not that easy from Gmail. Until you install PowerBot. It works with all your Gmail accounts so you can clip and store messages and attachments to your heart's (and hard drive's) delight. It also works on Firefox and Safari, and integrates with Google Calendar (at $2.49/month). Try it for 30 days first. There are versions for Yahoo Mail and Outlook.com and desktop Outlook. (If that's a bit much, just try Dropbox for Gmail to access the one service alone.)

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WiseStamp
Free or $48/year
Gmail's ability to leave a signature—that bit of pre-written text at the end of your emails—isn't exactly robust. WiseStamp is, and it works with Yahoo, Outlook.com, and AOL webmail, too. Go to the WiseStamp website and create one with all sorts of extras (like your latest tweet, company logo, etc.), which WiseStamp will import into the extension. There is a premium version that lets you have five or more signatures to rotate as needed.

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Insert Snippet

Free
Gmail has a built-in experimental feature called Canned Responses (look for it under Settings > Labs), which lets you create text snippets to auto-insert into messages. Think of Insert Snippet as that feature on steroids—because it doesn't just work with Gmail. You can insert text in any editable field in the browser, or with any Web-based mail program, and even use it to insert tags around selected text. (If you want to insert stuff in rich text, like pre-formatted links, try Insert Text.)

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Just Not Sorry—The Gmail Plug-in

Free
Have a habit of using equivocating language in your email messages? Like the word "just" or phrases like "I'm no expert" or "I think"? They can undermine your message and your credibility. Just Not Sorry is an open-source extra that will put a subtle underline on such things so you can revise before you send. Don't worry, if you keep them, no one else sees the underline, just you.

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Actions for Gmail

Free
It's simple: Rather than check a box next to message then decide to archive, delete, mark it read/unread, or as spam using buttons above, Actions for Gmail puts those options in a little button right next to the message. (It has conflicts with some Gmelius formatting, so you should probably only run one.)

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Strikethrough
Free
The simplest things mean a lot, like being able to add a strike (like this) to words in an email. It's not built into Gmail, but will be part of the formatting toolbar after you install the Strikethrough extension.

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PixelBlock
Free
Sick of others tracking when you read messages from them? PixelBlock blocks that from happening with most messages. The little red eye will show up on the message to show you when it happens. You can read the message without any issues.

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Boomerang

Free or $4.99/month
Sometimes you don't want to hit send immediately on a message. Boomerang lets you schedule it to go out later. But that's not all it does. It takes messages out of your inbox and puts them back when you are ready to follow up, and can send reminders to people who don't follow up with your messages. You get to do that with limited messages for free, but the pro version is unlimited plus adds notes and mobile access.