The following intro is a paid product review for Manganum, an all-in-one Chrome extension that turns your browser into a productivity workspace.

If you're like me then you're probably constantly living in your browser. I do tons of research on literally hundreds of websites each week, and I edit and maintain a lot of my research directly on various Google services.

Manganum is a Chrome extension (available for any Chromium-based browser) that gives you quick access to your Google services in a supercharged, but simple-to-use productivity environment. And it's all available on every browser tab you open.



Once you install the extension from the Chrome store, you'll get some basic instructions to ensure it's installed correctly, and you're ready to go. The image below shows roughly what you'll see (click to view a larger version):



The pane currently open in the above image is your Launchpad. Here you can conduct a web search, see your most visited sites, visit and customize favourites, and view your browser bookmarks (which requires permission).

Other panes available on the left side are your Calendar, synced from your GCal, a translator powered by Google Translate, your Tasks, also synced from your Google account, and a Notes pane where you can add, delete, and customize your own notes (see image below).
 

There's also a pane where you can sync your SMS messages from your Android device. Of course, any of the features that involve syncing from external services will require your permission, which is quick and easy.

The rest of the new tab page includes some widgets that you can customize, as well as some options for changing the default background images displayed. In fact, most of Manganum's features can be customized to your liking (date/time format, dark/light modes, pane to auto-open, and more).

One cool feature of Manganum is that the toolbar to open various panes is available on any website you visit. Just move your mouse to the left side of the browser viewport and the toolbar will pop in automatically, as shown on the Tech Productivity home page below:



Overall, this is a well-designed and feature-packed extension — and it's free!

One thing I noticed about the reviews is that many users say they love it because they forget it's even there until they need it. So it's not in your way, while providing a powerful and compact toolset for users working regularly in Google Workspace's tools.

You can read more about the features on the Manganum website, or just go directly to the Chrome Web Store to install it today.


Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!