14 DAY TRIAL // Add-ons, or extensions depending on the naming convention, have become crucial for any web browser thanks in no small part to the popularity the feature has enjoyed on Firefox. Google has finally launched an online extensions repository for Chrome in December and recently has enabled extension support in the Chrome stable branch. Perfect timing then for a little round up to see how Google's implementation stacks up to Mozilla's. In part one we'll look at the Chrome extensions, in part two at the Firefox ones and there will also be a conclusion and analysis, so stay tuned.
And what better topic than the ubiquitous weather gadget/widget/add-on/extension etc. You can get the weather on your desktop, on your mobile phone, even on your TV and, of course, in your web browser of choice. First up, the challenger Google Chrome. The extensions are ranked in the order they come up when doing a search for 'weather' in the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery. They may not be the best, they many not even be the most popular, but they are the ones the algorithm deems the most relevant so they're the ones a regular user is more likely to find. For the data accuracy comparison, based on several sources and the trusty 'go outside' method, the real temperature was around -2° C, -3° C.
1. Forecastfox Weather Forecastfox, as the name implies, was initially designed as a Firefox add-on. It's the most popular Firefox weather add-on to date, so it's no surprise that it's also one of the most popular Chrome extension for weather too. Despite being available for Firefox for a few years now, the Chrome implementation is just as solid and in some ways better than the Firefox version. The extension follows the de facto design guidelines for Chrome. It adds a small icon to the main toolbar displaying the temperature and weather conditions for your current location. In this respect it is pretty much identical to any other weather extension on Chrome out there. Clicking on the icon brings up a pop-up with a full 7-day forecast and radar map. The data comes from Accuweather.com and, as far as accuracy goes, it currently reports -11° C.
2. 1-ClickWeather for Chrome This extension comes from Weather.com and a version is also available for Firefox. It follows the standard recipe, a toolbar button and a popup overlay with more information. The popup displays more detailed weather data for the day as well as a satellite map. The actual weather data was spot on indicating -2° C.3. Google Weather Despite the name, the extension is in no way affiliated with Google. It does, however, use the free Google Weather API for data, hence the name. It comes with the standard toolbar icon and a popup detailing the 5-day forecast. You can set up multiple locations, but that's pretty much it. It's not the Swiss army knife of weather extensions, like the first two try to be, and that's actually a good thing. For most people, it gives all the information you need, temperature, conditions and wind speed. The very clean and appealing design, very Google-like, makes it a perfect fit for Chrome as far as integration goes. Accuracy is OK, indicating -3° C.
4. Weather Forecast -3 This extension is as minimalistic as it can get while still coming with a rather complete set of features. It also uses the Google Weather API for data and it is, in fact, rather similar to the Google Weather extension in terms of data and features but also design. It takes the spartan look a bit too far, though. Accuracy is the same as Google Weather, obviously.5. Mini Weather True to its name, this extension doesn't come with any bells and whistles. It doesn't come with anything else than the toolbar button. It looks like it's using the Google Weather API for data, so accuracy is the same as the ones above.
More than a couple of other good or popular extensions didn't make it to the top simply because the search feature buried them further in the results. Notable ones are AniWeather, the Chrome version of the Firefox add-on, which is detailed in Part 2. Gcast, based on the Google Weather API, also looks solid. Both extensions, though, were on the second results page, this despite AniWeather having 48,355 users and 30,150 weekly installs, both numbers bigger than Forecastfox.
Forecastfox Weather for Chrome is available for download here. Google Chrome for Windows is available for download here.
