How do I make websites less social?

January 28, 2012 3:19 PM

Are there any Firefox/Chrome plugins that remove facebook/G+/Twitter/etc from other websites?

I'm looking for a plugin that removes social website functionality on other social websites and not-social websites. For example, there's all the twitter, facebook, and G+ buttons on artist pages on last.fm that recognize whatever account you're logged in as.

I DON'T LIKE THAT

I've used a facebook blocker app in the past that did this solely with fb, but it seems to be broken with new versions of Firefox. Also, G+ is a big offender with all these buttons on various websites.

So, what are some recommended apps to disable these social plugin links?

posted by apip to computers & internet (13 answers total)

I really like disconnect.me. Blocks Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo. It doesn't block everything but it hides the worst offenders.
posted by elerina at 3:21 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

Ghostery accomplishes this, sort of as a side-effect of its tracker-blocking.
posted by hoyland at 3:32 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

Do you have facebook platform applications blocked? This does not fully answer your question, but it makes me really, really happy every time I'm on a website and I see a message saying that something couldn't load because I have them disabled.
posted by insectosaurus at 3:51 PM on January 28

If you're running OS X, GlimmerBlocker can do what you want without resorting to browser extensions. Just subscribe to the Facebook filter, or make your own (blocking the relevant addresses).

Privoxy should do the same for Windows and Linux, although I've never used it.
posted by kethonna at 6:46 PM on January 28

I use a Firefox plugin called Priv3.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 9:30 PM on January 28

The afore mentioned Priv3 and Ghostery basically do this, by blocking the tracker elements, but to be really thorough you might want to consider Request Policy.

This works by blocking web sites from pulling in anything from outside. It can be a bit of a pain, especially at first, since many sites bring in CSS etc from outside sites, and it kinda breaks them until you white list the right sites, though it gets better as you build up your whitelist, and I got used to fixing this pretty quickly. It does kill all this kind of thing stone dead.
posted by tallus at 11:11 PM on January 28

If you use Ad Block Plus you can add it to the filters thusly:

On the Addon page for ABP:

Open Filter Preferences.

If the details of the filters aren't visible click on the little dotted-line arrow thing on the right side of the screen. (Or hit ctrl-R)

Click "Add Filter"

Paste the following:
||facebook.net^$third-party

Repeat the "Add filter" button for each line:
||fbcdn.net^$third-party
||facebook.com^$third-party
||twitter.com^$third-party
||plus.google.com^$third-party


That will take care of Facebook, Twitter and G+.

Feel free to add other domain names from those you don't want to see outside of their home address.
posted by Ookseer at 11:18 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]

+1 for Requestpolicy. I never see any kind of Facebook or G+ thing on any other website unless I specifically allow them to appear.
posted by Solomon at 1:39 AM on January 29

I simply log out of facebook & twitter, etc. when I am done using them.
posted by rhizome at 2:31 AM on January 29

I also use RequestPolicy (here is a fixed link, in case you're too lazy to search for it).
posted by anaelith at 8:17 AM on January 29

The Antisocial subscription for Adblock Plus will do what you want, I think. I had the same concerns and this took care of it.
posted by Bonky Moon at 11:58 AM on January 29

After reading about RequestPolicy, it looks like it does everything I want plus an added layer of protection with NoScript and ABP. Thanks!
posted by apip at 2:06 PM on January 29

I've been using RequestPolicy since this thread and it's been super. Thanks so much!
posted by apip at 9:34 PM on February 5