It’s not officially released, but a gallery-like site for extensions has made itself known into the latest development builds of Google Chrome for Windows and Linux. Take a peek at what’s coming, presumably very soon, in these development screenshots.

The Download Squad blog was the first to notice the new new thing in Chrome—namely, a jigsaw-like page corner in Chrome’s new tab page, next to a message at the bottom that reads “New! Chrome now has bookmark sync and extensions!”, with both the message and the corner piece linking to http://chrome.google.com/extensions

I saw the same link appear in the chrome://extensions page on my copy of Chromium, from a nightly build Ubuntu repository. Clicking that link, however, re-directs you to Google’s home page. But as many are guessing, Chrome/Chromium wouldn’t push out a new link to leave sitting dead for too long, so we’ll keep watching that page to see when a full-fledged gallery pops up.

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler dove into Chromium’s Code Reviews section, and finds screenshots and discussions indicating that Chrome’s extensions will be able to add icons to Chrome’s top toolbar, inside the address bar, and in the bottom-right status bar, and that developers will also be allowed to customize items such as Chrome’s new tab page. Right out of the gate, developers are also indicating extensions from Google itself tied to its Maps, News, and a Gmail checker.

Exciting stuff, and even more so if many of Firefox’s developers take notice and bring over some of the same functionality that hardcore Mozilla users could never imagine leaving behind. Top and bottom photos from TechCrunch; new tab page image from Download Squad.

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Starting today, all builds in Google Chrome’s dev channel will have extension support enabled by default—meaning Chrome is one step closer to the kind of extensibility that keeps Firefox die-hards from switching.

Not that extensions is the only thing that keeps users loyal to Firefox, but from what we’ve heard around the water cooler, that is the case for a lot of folks frustrated with Firefox memory bloat.

Google pushed out some sample extensions a while back (most notably the previously mentioned Gmail Checker), but now users no longer need to add that pesky --extensions-enabled switch to the end of their Chrome shortcut in order to get extensions working.

We’ve given it a try on the latest Windows and Mac builds, but so far it only seems to be working on the Windows build. Hopefully this means we’ll start seeing more—and better—extensions very soon. If you’re not already on the dev channel, head to this page and download the installer for the dev channel (or just click here).

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Mac OS X: Chrome for Mac is progressing at a slow but steady pace, but if you’re willing to risk the latest Chromium for Mac builds, some great new features await. But how do you stay up-to-date with the latest Chromium builds?

Enter Chromium Updater, a barebones application that determines if you’re running the latest build of Chromium, then updates to the latest and greatest if you aren’t. Just run it each time you want to check if you’re up to date.

Chrome for Windows users get the previously mentioned Chrome Channel Chooser to take care of this for them, but since it’s not available to Mac users, Chromium Updater for Mac is a decent workaround. It’s still not exactly automated (you have to run it manually every time you want to check), but it is quicker and easier than heading to the Chrome snapshots page every time you want to see if you’re updated.

Chromium Updater comes with an extremely un-reassuring readme warning explaining that it may be packed with bugs, but the same is true for the bleeding edge Chromium builds, so in both instances, proceed with caution and only use if you’re comfortable as an early adopter. Chromium Updater is freeware, Mac OS X only.

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