10 Chrome Extensions That Improve Your Search Experience

by
Spread the love

Searching on Google is something we all do online every day. But sometimes it takes a long time to find what we’re looking for, due to ads, Q&A forums, and promotional websites. This guide lists some Chrome extensions to make your search experience better than what you’re used to.

Content

1. Best for Blocking Distractions in Search: Ultimasaurus

Many people don’t want to wade through irrelevant information from discussion forums, social media, and e-commerce sites to get to the information they’re looking for. Ultimasaurus is a Google search extension for Chrome that removes the clutter, bringing back the classic Google search we all liked. It also works with Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines.

Adding this extension instantly removes the top search result hoggers, like Amazon, Quora, Reddit, Stack Exchange, and Pinterest. Ultimasaurus has a keyword setting that provides expert insights from trusted sources so that you don’t have to read unqualified opinions. Indeed, it’s the best extension for a distraction-free Google experience!

Good to know: find out why you’re seeing Reddit more often in Google searches.

2. Best for Searching for AI: ChatGPT for Google

If you have a Pro subscription to ChatGPT, GPT-4o, Claude 3.5, or Gemini, you can get their combined insights next to your Google search results. ChatGPT for Google shows AI responses next to the results, and you can get access without leaving the search page. It even works with pop-up windows!

While Google has its own AI search results alongside other insights (AI Overview), this unique Chrome extension is more intuitive and time-saving. It’s small and doesn’t clutter the search window, which is great. The only drawback is that there’s no free version, and you can’t add additional ChatGPT-like tools beyond what’s already included.

3. Best for Accessing Multiple Search Engines: Search All

Search All is a tool that combines search results from different search engines and websites. Imagine having a single page where you can see results from Google, Bing, Wikipedia, and other sites all at once. You can even add your own favorite social networks, reference sites, and recipe pages.

If you want to search anything based on context, Search All maximizes your results, giving you more interesting answers. While some say it doesn’t work on the newest version of Chrome, we tested the extension on the latest version, and it works fine.

4. Best for Searching an Entire Website: Search the Current Site

Google search knows quite a bit about your website, but it mainly shows the most important results at the top. If you want to explore a website in more detail, there’s the Search the Current Site Chrome extension. To dig deeply, you only need to enter the website in a toolbar.

While you can achieve similar results by doing a Google search with the “site:” keyword, this extension organizes it better. It gives you insights into what’s valuable on that site. As a site owner, this helps you identify areas for improving the site layout. For users, it makes finding information on the website faster than traditional searching.

FYI: check out the Chrome extensions that automate boring tasks.

5. Best for Advanced Search Filtering: Overload Search

Google has a powerful advanced search engine with many filters and categories. However, you can’t find it directly in the search bar or on the homepage. Instead, you have to dig into the advanced settings. The Overload Search Chrome extension brings those advanced Google search capabilities right to the search page window without hassle.

After installing, Overload Search allows you to refine your search results based on keywords, and their Boolean parameters, such as using an exact keyphrase, or a list. You can exclude any negative keywords, search within specific domains or countries, and refine search results based on a given date range.

Tip: check out this list of the best reverse search engines.

6. Best Reverse Image Search Tool: Search by Image

In an era of deepfake images, it’s becoming harder to tell whether an image is real. You need a powerful reverse image search tool to determine the authenticity of an image you saw online. The Search by Image Chrome extension has been around for quite some time. It provides valuable and fast information about the origin or background of an image.

You can search for an image’s source in more than 30 search engines, including Google, Bing, Baidu, and TinEye. The extension has a context menu and search toolbar to detect the originality of an image, no matter how deeply it was embedded into the original website.

7. Best for Searching Your Browsing History: Search All Tabs

If you have multiple tabs open on your browser, it’s very common to forget something. However, with the Search All Tabs extension, you can search across all tabs. You no longer have to switch to the precise tab to access the information you need. As soon as you enter your query, you will be directed to the precise tab and web page.

The simple but powerful extension lets you search based on Boolean operators, go deep inside PDF files, and the best part is, it works offline. Even if your Wi-Fi is not working for some reason, you can quickly review your already open tabs to save your data.

Good to know: find out some of the most popular YouTube Chrome extensions to enhance your video viewing experience.

8. Best for Searching Video Content: Search YouTube

For many Google search users, YouTube has become a substitute for their search queries. It’s so much easier to find relevant information using a video covering the topic. Search YouTube is a popular extension that does a good job of finding the most useful video information. Alternatively, if you just tap the icon once, the YouTube search results will open in a separate tab.

The extension is very handy for YouTube Premium account users in particular, as they don’t have to deal with YouTube advertisements. It gives them an organized way to arrange all YouTube video search queries side by side on adjacent tabs, which is not possible on YouTube’s website.

9. Best for Local Search Results: Google Search Localization

While Google does provide local search results by default, it is very difficult to change them to another location. If you want to avoid the IP address restrictions, there’s the useful Google Search Localization Chrome extension that makes your search queries more relevant based on any location in the world.

It is important to know the country short code to ensure the search results are pertaining to that country. For example, it’s “us” for United States. The search results are very accurate for each location.

10. Best for Blocking Websites: uBlacklist

Do you want to permanently block some websites from appearing in your personalized search results? There’s the brilliant uBlacklist extension, which helps you get rid of those sites. You can also add your own custom rules so that the domains and subdomains are blocked, or a particular part of the website shows up, while the others remain invisible from Google search.

Other than Chrome extensions that help improve your search results, there are also some that can provide much fun, such as this list of funny Chrome extensions to prank your friends.

Image source: Pixabay. All screenshots by Sayak Boral.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox

Sign up for all newsletters.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy. We will not share your data and you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe


Sayak Boral –
Staff Writer

Sayak Boral is a technology writer with over eleven years of experience working in different industries including semiconductors, IoT, enterprise IT, telecommunications OSS/BSS, and network security. He has been writing for MakeTechEasier on a wide range of technical topics including Windows, Android, Internet, Hardware Guides, Browsers, Software Tools, and Product Reviews.

Comments (1)