Chrome Pig extension checks Gmail, takes screenshots -- and lets you set clipboard images as wallpaper!

In general, I prefer Chrome extensions which don't try to do too much. Do one thing, and do it well is a good general rule, after all. However, once in a while a Swiss-knife extension crops up which is filled to overflowing with useful features and just begs to be installed.

Enter Chrome Pig. Yes, it's weirdly named. Yes, it includes a somewhat random mish-mosh of features, but dang, are they handy ones. Chrome Pig can:

• Screenshot an entire page, the viewable portion, or a selected region
• Check Gmail for unread messages (you must be signed in)
• Open supported files types in the Google Docs previewer
• Edit a page's CSS to your liking
• Re-enable right click on sites which disable it
• Search the site you're currently browsing
• Open the current page in IE
• Set a clipboard image to your desktop wallpaper

I've put the last one in bold because it's a feature which you would think should be included by default in a Web browser. Firefox, Opera, and IE can all do this, but Chrome can't? Why? At any rate, problem solved! With Chrome Pig installed, just right click and copy an image, click its browser action button, and set the clipboard image to your wallpaper -- it will even resize, center, or tile.

Some of Chrome Pig's features -- lyric search, form fill, and translate, for example -- I can do without. The configuration page offers checkboxes to disable unwanted items, though they still appeared in the drop-down after multiple disable/enable attempt and a browser restart. Hopefully the developer will address this issue in a coming update.

That shortcoming aside, I'm happily adding Chrome Pig to my extensions -- it'll replace two other and add a couple additional features which will come in handy.

Tags: chrome, chromium, enhancement, extension, google, wallpaper