Google Chrome - Extensions Coming Our Way

Over the past year, Google Chrome has really been through a lot of changes regarding stability, speed, features, and more. I remember the first day Google Chrome was available to the public. I got my hands on it so fast, that I was one of the first to actually use Google Chrome. I also got a few people to switch over to Chrome also. A year ago, I was already thinking about the future of Google Chrome. In the very beginning, I remember Chrome as a crashy, buggy web browser that was very limited in features.

Now, I know Google Chrome as one of the most crash-prone web browsers out there, one of the quickest web browsers out there because of its fast JavaScript engine, and it's powerful web rendering system, WebKit, which Apple's Safari also uses. I love every bit of Google Chrome, but from the very beginning, I was always thinking about what'll happen in the future. I wondered if there's going to be theme support, plugin support, and many other things along with those ideas.

Today, in December of 2009, Google Chome has changed the way it'll be forever. In the latest beta of Google Chrome, it now has extension (plug-in) support! I know what you're thinking: will it be slow, will their be the same plugins from Firefox, will anyone develop extensions...and so on. As of right now, I really do not think Google Chrome will be slower just because it now has extension support. Come on, it's Google who we're working with; they would never let such a thing happen to one of their products!

This is a huge thing for me mainly because in Firefox, I really do count on Firebug and Web Developer when creating my websites. It would be just amazing if it were able to have the same functionality I get in Firefox for Chrome. If this would happen, it would be just a miracle. Currently, Firebug is for Google Chrome, but it's a lite (limited) version of it and you cannot do as much as you can compared the the Firefox version.

My question is, I wonder how hard it is to create extensions for Google Chrome. Is it easier than Firefox? Maybe I'll take a look and see for myself. Who knows, maybe we'll even have Twitter integrated into Chrome soon! The only thing I can see feature wise in Chrome, is that they should really expand upon their theming support so you can even edit the default Windows elements; what a feature that would be.

What are your thoughts on Google adding this support? Do you think it'll be a drawback or a great feature in Google Chrome? Personally, I don't think it's going to slow it down that much and it'll sure improve the functionality in Chrome even more! Are you going to download the latest beta of Chrome to test it out; give it a shot, there's nothing to loose.