What browser extensions are you constantly recommending to others?

June 14, 2021 11:27 AM

I just came across an extension that is going to change my everyday browsing for the better. What browser extensions are rocking your world?
posted by mecran01 to Computers & Internet (38 answers total)

I use LastPass Vault and Grammarly (free version) all the time.
posted by elmay at 11:28 AM on June 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

OK, for one thing, it's very unfair to post this without mentioning the extension!

The best extension is linkclump, if you're a person that opens hundreds of tabs at a time. It lets you highlight a region in the browser, and then open all the links in that region. Very customizable, highly recommended.

Looking at the rest of my extensions, they're either passive privacy enhancements (adblocker, decentraleyes, a few Google opt outs, etc) or integrations with specific sites.
posted by sagc at 11:30 AM on June 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

LastPass (which I also pay for), uBlock Origin, and EFF's Privacy Badger.
posted by jquinby at 11:38 AM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

LastPass
UBlock Origin
Pocket
HTTPS Everywhere
posted by Roger Pittman at 11:41 AM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

UBlock and Privacy Badger are required things -- I experience a totally different internet that way.
I have google scholar as a button in my toolbar.

Just last week I (begrudgingly) learned to use userChrome.css to shrink the height of items in the bookmarks menu, so I don't have to scroll through a long but overly spacious (probably for mobile/touch screen) list of bookmarks.
posted by Dashy at 11:42 AM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Selection Context Search for Firefox lets you add to the list of websites that you can search by highlighting and right clicking. It has many features and options and I can't live without it anymore. Any website with a search box can be added easily.
posted by soelo at 11:42 AM on June 14, 2021

uBlock Origin (Firefox/Chrome) is my favorite adblocker.

If you use Facebook, FB Purity might be of interest.

If you like looking at curated Google Earth images when you open a new tab (and I do), there's a Chrome extension that does that.

There's also an extension that shows bodyweight exercises to be done while watching Netflix shows. Turns out, I didn't like that as much as I thought I would.
posted by box at 11:44 AM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

DuckDuckGo !bangs lets you highlight a phrase on a Web page, right-click it, and search for it on one of a dozen major Web sites (Amazon, Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, ...).

uBlock Origin for blocking ads, disabling Javascript, deleting areas of a Web page, etc.

Send to Kindle for Google Chrome for sending longer articles on Web pages to my Kindle for reading later.

I'm really tired of Web pages that bombard me with auto-play videos, animated graphics, and pop-ups, when all I want to do is read the content. I have tried many reader-mode extensions but Reader Mode Pro does it so well and is so customizable that I gladly bought their Pro version (a free version is available).
posted by davcoo at 11:57 AM on June 14, 2021

Better Twitter - removes 'trending' and other cruft
ClearURLs - removes tracking links
Disconnect - privacy
Google Analytics Opt-out
Pinboard
View Image - Re-implements the Google Images' "View Image" and "Search by Image" buttons.
posted by Lanark at 11:58 AM on June 14, 2021

Response by poster: I just discovered Minimal Twitter. Removing all that noise feels great.

I have started using Advanced Profanity Filter

IG Downloader lets me take cool images from Instagram and share them in text chats

Library Extension shows me if the books I am browsing at Amazon are available at my local libraries

OneTab takes every single tab that I've left open and combines them into a single page of links, which speeds up my browser while easing my hoarding anxiety. I almost never look at those links ever again.

I have used Tampermonkey to install custom scripts that make Canvas/Instructure easier to use

Trim: IMDB Ratings on Netflix helps me choose highly rated movies to watch.

Word Replacer II was placed on my partner's laptop, replacing every instance of Trump with "Mr. Giggles". She was not amused.
posted by mecran01 at 12:05 PM on June 14, 2021 [4 favorites]

On Firefox (Win)
• NoScript
• Lightshot screenshot tool
• Copy PlainText
• Facebook Container

As I read the above comments, I am interested in, especially, ClearURLs, and View Image
posted by bz at 12:06 PM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: "Copy PlainText" oooooh, thank you.
posted by mecran01 at 12:18 PM on June 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

I use Social Fixer for Facebook, on Firefox. This allows me to limit my FB feed to show no more than 50 items at a time, which helps me avoid scrolling endlessly. It also offers many more capabilities that I don't use, like hiding sponsored posts and politics-related content, alerting you when someone unfriends you, etc.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:18 PM on June 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

Y'know when you want to print a page or part of a page, and navigation and other junk takes too much room? For that I like Print Edit WE.
posted by gregoreo at 12:54 PM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

You need this: Library Browser Extension

Shows whether your public library owns the books you're looking at on Goodreads, etc.
posted by missrachael at 1:05 PM on June 14, 2021 [7 favorites]

FBPurity
Bypass Paywalls
Feedly Subscribe Button (for those of us still enamored of RSS)
LastPass
ReviewMeta Review Analyzer (for when all those amazon 5 star reviews look a little TOO good)
https everywhere
Save to Pocket

(no idea what these two do, but they were recommended)
Disable Web RTC
Disconnect

Privacy Badger
uBlock Origin
posted by Bill Watches Movies Podcast at 1:38 PM on June 14, 2021

Seconding NoScript, if you're okay with trading off some usability for some security.
posted by trig at 2:08 PM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

A lot of the ones that have already been mentioned. I use Firefox.

- DownThemAll - downloading many files from a page at once
- FF Multi-Account Containers - open pages that spy on other pages in private mode so they can't spy on your other tabs
- Google Search link fix (so you can copy a link without getting all the google click tracking crud)
- Link Analyzer - will show you what links on a page are dead
- Gmail notifier
- Open Multiple URLs - give it a big list of URLs, it will open them all
- Reddit Enhancement Suite
- User-agent switcher - to post to Instagram from the desktop
- TinEye reverse image search - reverse search with a right click
- Session Alive - stay logged in to my bank website
- Simplified Twitter - gives you basically mobile twitter on desktop
posted by jessamyn at 2:10 PM on June 14, 2021

Response by poster: User-agent switcher - to post to Instagram from the desktop: You just changed my life a little.
posted by mecran01 at 2:23 PM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Make America Kittens Again, because I don't want to see pics of the former guy.
posted by jgirl at 3:19 PM on June 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

AnyList - Import recipes from blogs, has a companion mobile app that is invaluable for grocery shopping.
DarkReader - Dark Mode everywhere.
Video Speed Controller - Speed up/slow down any online video
posted by cozenedindigo at 4:25 PM on June 14, 2021

On Chrome:

Bitwarden
Feedly Mini
Ad Block for YouTube
Bypass Paywalls
uBlock Origin
Add to Any
posted by kathrynm at 5:42 PM on June 14, 2021

HTTPS Everywhere

Note that in current Firefox versions, there's a setting to enforce HTTPS without need for that extension (which I previously did use and enjoy).
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:43 PM on June 14, 2021

If you're on firefox, Tree-Style Tabs is a must-have, as is Temporary Containers (to go along with the container tabs option which you need to enable in preferences).

Tree-style tabs is a great way of organizing/reigning in tabs, and temporary containers is a huge privacy and security feature.
posted by patternocker at 7:03 PM on June 14, 2021

If you use Gmail, PixelBlock blocks tracking pixels, without breaking Gmail's image display/functionality.
posted by pdb at 8:33 PM on June 14, 2021

Tab Menu - a drop-down list of all tabs
Recent Tabs or Toggle Tabs - to toggle between current and previous tab
Last Pass
posted by Dansaman at 8:42 PM on June 14, 2021

Note that in current Firefox versions, there's a setting to enforce HTTPS without need for that extension

I don't think they are quite the same:
browser.fixup.fallback-to-https makes the default HTTPS, so you have to type the HTTP for non secure sites (True by default).
HTTPS Everywhere automatically selects a secure connection only when one is available based on the DuckDuckGo Smarter Encryption list.
Firefox HTTPS-Only Mode - defaults to secure and blocks non-secure connections, but allows you to enable it for a particular site either temporarily or as a permanent exception.
posted by Lanark at 1:10 AM on June 15, 2021

No YouTube Comments for Firefox, hides the worst part of YouTube.
posted by snusmumrik at 3:28 AM on June 15, 2021

Kill Sticky - also available as a bookmarklet, no installation needed. One click gets rid of all the useless headers and sidebars that eat up screen space on most modern webpages. It will also kill the "Log in to Facebook" overlay so you can browse the FB pages for businesses without needing an account.
posted by Gortuk at 5:21 AM on June 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

Windows might have this function now, can’t be bothered to find out, but I am sticking with Snipping Tool which highlights any portion of the screen and saves it as an image jpg. Useful for quickly saving orders and tracking numbers, capturing an image of a work in progress to send to someone. Basically takes a quick, cropped snapshot of something as a reminder/for reference/for comparison.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:24 AM on June 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

HTTPS Everywhere automatically selects a secure connection only when one is available ...
Firefox HTTPS-Only Mode - ... blocks non-secure connections, but allows you to enable it ...

One's automatic, one's manual; but otherwise they're doing the same thing. I'm not saying HTTPS Everywhere is now useless, just that people have options.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:27 AM on June 15, 2021

For those of us in the EU who have to click on a GDPR 'This site collects cookies' warning Every. Single Time. - I don't care about cookies is a godsend.
posted by essexjan at 9:42 AM on June 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I couldn't post to Instagram using user-agent-switch which made me sad.

Unfollow Everything for Facebook is pretty great.
posted by mecran01 at 10:32 AM on June 15, 2021

Not an extension, but a browser: Brave. It's a privacy-focused Chrome-equivalent browser with built-in ad- and tracker-blocking. It also has private windows with Tor.

I've been using Brave for a couple of months on iOS, OS X, and Windows 10. It works pretty great on the vast majority of sites. Sometimes you need to disable Brave's shields to get a site to work, which is an issue with the site, not the browser.

I've also been using Duck Duck Go as a more private alternative to Google for search, but Duck Duck Go isn't as good.

Brave Browser Review - Is Brave better than Chrome? (2021)
Brave 1.0 browser review: Browse faster and safer while ticking off advertisers
Brave Browser Review: A Secure Browser With a Strong Backbone
posted by kirkaracha at 2:46 PM on June 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

'I don't care about cookies' is a godsend.

The problem with that add-in is that it accepts all cookies which isnt really what I want!

Also Brave is the very worst browser, beloved of all the Tech Bros due to its toxic ethical stances. But I think that's off-topic for a discussion of browser plug-ins.
posted by Lanark at 2:42 AM on June 16, 2021

Just a note about Brave: it's been pretty damn sketchy in the past (don't know about now). I'm not inclined to trust them for anything privacy or security related.

Re: NoScript and ublock origin, they also both work great on firefox mobile
posted by trig at 2:55 AM on June 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

DeTrumpify, anyone? He and his cohort are still referenced in the news -- this softens the blow
posted by olopua at 7:47 AM on June 16, 2021

Response by poster: A reminder that loading up on too many extensions can slow down your browser and shorten your laptop battery life, depending on the extension.
posted by mecran01 at 10:54 AM on June 16, 2021