There are now thousands of apps and extensions for Google Chrome. I've selected ten of the most interesting and useful to get you started. As you'll see, browser customization is no longer a Firefox-only affair, and Chrome makes installing apps and extensions incredibly easy, so try them out!

Evernote Web Clipper

Much easier than searching your history, and much more flexible, Evernote is an excellent way of keeping pages, links and articles you like. Evernote is like a well-organized web scrapbook, and can quickly become something you rely on. Download here.

M86 Security Secure Browsing

Have you or any of your friends ever been caught out by clicking a scam link on Facebook or elsewhere? This extension checks links on a page and tells you what is genuine and safe. Download here.

Awesome Screenshot

There are many reasons you might want to take a screenshot of a webpage, and Awesome Screenshot makes it really easy. It also features an annotate and edit function, so you can highlight or point to the important areas of the page. Download here.

Despite the strange name, The Powder Toy is an awesome falling sand game that manages to be entertaining and, dare we say it, pretty educational.

So what's it about?

The Powder Toy is an experimental falling sand game for PC and Mac. That's great if you know what an experimental falling sand game is, but not so cool if, like the rest of us, you have no idea.Think of it this way: The Powder Toy is a blank mini-world where you create your own fun by combining elements - from the organic (wood, goo, water, soil) to the electronic (conductors, electrodes, wires, transmitters) and the chemical (radioactivity, anti-matter, photons, uranium) to tools (air, water, heat, gravity).

These elements act like they would in real life, so, for instance, if you mix an explosive and a heat source, you'll get a very convincing explosion. Likewise, if you hook an energy source up to a conductor and build a generator, you'll be able to power it. It may sound like a cliche, but with The Powder Toy, the only limit is your imagination.

If you own an iPhone, chances are you use Instagram, the popular iOS app that lets you apply effects to your photos and share them online in no time. Some of the filters included in Instagram can make your photos look really awesome, to the point that you may want to apply them to the images on your computer. And here's where Daniel Box gets into action.

Being an Instagram fan himself, Daniel was looking for a way to replicate the app's filters in Photoshop. After not finding any satisfying results, he decided to create a set of Photoshop actions that let you apply Instagram filters to the images in your computer. Though he says he didn't get a 100% match, I have to say results are very close to the original Instagram filters. They look great and best of all, can be applied in just one click.

One thing I really miss about Windows is using SnagIt because it makes capturing screenshots and adding special effects so easy to do. Unfortunately, there is no version for Mac but developers TechSmith have created Jing which works on both Windows and Mac.

Firstly however, let me state clearly that Jing is no way near as rich in features as SnagIt. In fact, it's still very much a work in progress and as yet, you can't even resize images let alone create transparent ones or add drop shadow effects. However, it looks great and it does allow you to take simple screenshots, video casts and share them online immediately which SnagIt doesn't.

Once you've opened Jing, it sits in the top right of your screen like a little quarter sun waiting to spring into action. There are three options immediately available - one is a the screen selection cursor which allows you to drag and select the part of the screen you want or alternatively, it auto detects open windows and allows you to save them instantly. The second option is a window showing you the history of your screen grabs and the last option is the settings tab. To make a screenshot, simply drag the Jing cross hair over the space you want to select and you'll see it highlighted in colour (the rest of the screen will appear black and white) and release the mouse button. You're then given four saving options - save to file, upload to FTP, upload to Flickr or upload to screencast.com. You've also got a bar on the left which allows you to annotate the screenshot a bit with arrows and text.

PC users have certainly been impressed by it - Jing was rated in the top 100 products of 2008 by PC Magazine (although it did only sneak in at number 100 in a list that saw Lifehacker as low as number 99 so I'm not sure how high praise that really is!). In fairness, Jing shouldn't really be compared to SnagIt! because it's designed more for developers that want to create screencasts, tutorials or those that just want to share images quickly rather than spend time editing one particular screenshot. That said, would it really be so hard TechSmith to just add some of SnagIt's basic features to Jing to make it a truly awesome tool?