14 DAY TRIAL // An option which allows users to hide the buttons added by extensions on the browser toolbar, has been introduced in the latest Chrome Canary build.
The feature has long been requested by Chrome users who like their browser's interface to remain clean and free of colorful little icons that, for a lot of people, get too many, too fast.
The problem is that all extensions add a button to the toolbar, despite many of them providing functionality that can also be called via a hotkey or from the context menu.
In all fairness, Google did implement a solution for this by allowing the address bar to be extended in order to cover the buttons and dock them away under a little menu.
However, people still felt that an approach providing a more refined control would be better, because it would allow users with different needs to tackle the toolbar clutter in whatever way they desire.
It seems that developers an UI designers at Google listened and the selective button hide feature is now well on its way.
It is already available in the latest Canary build so early adopters can enjoy it by right clicking on the desired extension button and selecting hide. However, since the build is at version 9.0.593.0, it will take a while longer until it makes it to the stable.
Considering the browser's fast-paced development and Google's promise to deliver a new major version every six weeks, Chrome 9 will be promoted to stable sometime in January.
In case you were wondering what if someone wants to get a hidden button back on the toolbar, the answer is found on the chrome://extensions page.
Next to every extension's existing "Disable", "Uninstall" and "Options" links, Google has now added a "Show button" one, exactly for this purpose.
In related news, Opera 11 recently made it to beta and is progressing towards a final release that will bring the long-time-missing extensions API to its users.