Chrome Extension of the Week: Scrollbar Anywhere

Posted 10/19/2010 at 8:37pm | by David Murphy

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Oh yeah, well can your mouse wheel do this?

That’s exactly what I was thinking shortly after I installed this week’s “Extension of the Week” for Google Chrome. And what prompted my decision to fire up the extension “Scrollbar Anywhere?” One of those godforsaken/annoying/why websites where, instead of vertically scrolling down the page like 98% of every other site on the ‘net, I was instead forced to move horizontally in an attempt to please a designer’s inner struggle to, “do things differently.”

I digress.

Scrollbar Anywhere is not only the perfect extension for anyone with an oldschool mouse sans wheel, it’s also a pretty nifty extension for, well, anyone who doesn’t like being limited to a mere single direction in their movement. Here’s why. Scroll Anywhere transforms your right mouse button—or the left or center button, depending on your personal preference—into a trigger switch for scrollin’.

Once you hold down said button, your mouse becomes akin to a joystick for page movement. Move your mouse in any direction and the scrolling of whatever page you’re on will follow. It’s as easy as that. You can even sort of “flick” the mouse in directions to leap across a page super-fast—my preferred style of use instead of the more tedious up-and-down (or wherever) movement.

The downside? The cursor doesn’t stay locked in place, so you’ll have to readjust your mouse back to center before resuming your scrolling on longer pages. On the plus side, this configuration-friendly extension gives you a number of options for toggling scrolling on and off using other keyboard hotkeys, adjusting the speed at which you scroll, and even editing the friction—the speed at which a flicked scroll casually guides to a gentle rest.

I swear, page scrolling never felt quite so… romantic before.

Download it here!

Maximum PC’s David Murphy is a technology journalist and avid page scroller. It’s a pity that “scroller” isn’t even a real word; it’s that fun to say. Scroller. Scroller.