Ask HN: Which browser add-ons do you use, what for and how did you discover them? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which browser add-ons do you use, what for and how did you discover them?

11 pointsqueeerkopf21 comments

I'm reevaluating my browser setup and more generally how i use my browsers (mostly Firefox and Chromium) and web habits. I'd like some advice on which browser extensions, add-ons or even less known features improve your browsing experience :)

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Related tip: Most developer extensions have the permission to read and write data from any website you visit. I add all my developer extensions to a copy of Google Chrome Canary instead of my regular Google Chrome app. This means I don't have to worry about e.g. giving a malicious extension access to my bank accounts or LastPass account. As an added bonus, developer features can appear in Canary early.

JSONView is a godsend for my development; it basically automatically pretty-prints JSON from APIs when viewed directly, and all of our APIs output JSON.

uBlock Origin for better ad blocking.

LastPass because I believe it makes me more secure than if I shared passwords everywhere, which would likely be the case otherwise. While it does create a single point of failure, in case of compromise of LastPass, I would be in the same position as I would be if one of my other logins were compromised, and I suspect I would hear about it more quickly. On the other hand, with LastPass, if another service is compromised, it limits the damage to just that service, whereas shared passwords would mean having to change my passwords everywhere. The convenience of never having to remember usernames or passwords is pretty great too.

Motorola Connect so I can use my phone without taking it out of my pocket when I'm at a computer.

I use Chrome and using -

* Buffer so that I can post tweet later.

* Movietabs (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/movietabs/ofaifffa...) Movie fan here

* Pushbullet to sync b/w devices.

All for Pale Moon (and Firefox, duh).

Down Them All - quick, grab before it disappears due to Mozilla's horrible plans for extensions. Useful for downloading a bunch of links or media from one or multiple pages. Also useful for downloading executables and not have Windows bitch about where it came from.

ReloadEvery - Reloads a page at a set interval. Occasionally useful, mostly when waiting for something.

Resurrect Pages - Alters the error page and adds to the right-click menu to provide a few online cache options for viewing missing content. I would love to add a new option to use archive.is

How did I first discover these? I don't really remember, they've been here so long. Usually by being recommended on some forum.

A smattering of common and somewhat uncommon privacy ones -- BetterPrivacy, HTTPS Everywhere, NoScript, RefControl, RequestPolicy, Self-Destructing Cookies, uBlock Origin

I use Safari on iOS and OS X, and make use of iCloud Keychain, iCloud Tabs, Reading List and Reader View pretty much every day.

- Set Search to DDG.

- Set cookies to "Allow from current website only"

- Ghostery extension on Mac, maybe replaced soon with a content-blocker extension. https://safari-extensions.apple.com/details/?id=com.betterad...

- Currently trying Refine on iOS. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/refine-customizable-ad-block...

Firefox with vimperator for keyboard ui, firefox/mozilla sync for cross-device access to history, tabs, passwords (with option to self-host the server part), ublock for adblocking and noscript. In vimperator ctrl-i brings up vim for text inputs, which made "it's all text!" redundant. Ocationally use webeveloper.

Also use chromium for poorly designed, js-heavy and tracking/ad-optimized or media-heavy sites like facebook, youtube or various google apps.

Don't know what I'll do if ff stable breaks vimperator - maybe move to UZBL[u]?

On mobile the ux os worse (than desktop with vimperator) - just ff with password manager for mobile.

[u] http://www.uzbl.org/

Readability - through searching (also HN recommendations) because many websites delivering text do so incompetently

Pinterest Pin It - I used to enjoy Pinterest. I recognise they engage in some user hostile stuff, and that the mobile experience is sub-optimal.

Amazon's Add anything to wishlist bookmarklet - it's an easy way to create a nice wishlist. I would happily use something that took me out of Amazon.

Hacker News bookmarklet - it's a nice way of submitting articles, although I tend to do that manually nowadays.

I used to use "Track Me Not", an art plugin that generates a bunch of search traffic. I'd use something that did this properly.

Firefox on Windows 7/Ubuntu

- set search to DDG, set cookies to be removed after closing, set cookies to "allow from current website only", check "do not track"

- uBlock Origin + NoScript + Ghostery + Privacy Badger + Better Privacy

I use:

Hackernews Links Only: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-show-l...

Adds an item to the hackernews menu called "LinksOnly" which shows you how many links are found in the comment section for an entry and when clicked, toggles hiding comments that don't have links embedded in them.

also adds a few other things such a link highlighting, links open in new tab and search sorts by date.

how found: I wrote it.

For Firefox I use: 1. Disconnect, helps with privacy and trackers, heard about while reading up on ghostery (I forget which site). 2. Night Mode Page Dim, makes reading at night easier on the eyes, read about it on ghacks. 3. NoScript, stops js from running, I think it was Krebs on Security. 4. Privacy Badger, another privacy tool, read about it on the EFFs website. 5. RefControl, allows the user to manipulate http referrer for certain sites, HN. 6. uBLock Origin, it acts as an http firewall, friend told me about me.

Ghostery is the only extension I use. I prefer bookmarklets for specific actions like adding to pinboard and instapaper for instance. Being a bit of privacy nut I don't really trust most extensions, a lot of them have quite wide ranging permissions. That said I turn off cookies and just whitelist the sites I want to set data on my machine so I'm not exactly typical in my use.

  Being a bit of privacy nut

So you use Ghostery instead of Privacy Badger? [0]

[0] https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

I do. It's more regularly updated and much simpler to use. I found myself constantly having to play with the settings of Privacy Badger on a site by site basis to get the experience I wanted. But YMMV.

I use Chrome and the following extensions 1) Wallaby - Helps me pick the credit card which can offer more rewards for a site. 2) Pocket - To save data for reading later. 3) Page Monitor - To monitor the changes in webpages. Eg: It alerts me when a book is returned to the library. Helps me in taking quick actions. 4) Selector Gadget - Helps identify the Xpath of CSS and HTML components in a webpage.

By default, Firefox with noscript, ghostery, and firemacs.

Increasingly, Chromium with different "person"'s to sandbox social media sites that track obnoxiously [e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, and Google]. Tracking is one of the motivations for noscript and gohstery on Firefox. Chromium handles that with less friction.

Someone told me about Chromium person's here on HN.

Chrome with a lot of extensions (Notably: Always Clear Downloads, AlienTube for Youtube, Fireshot, Edit this Cookie, Ghostery, Google Analytics Debugger, PageSpeed Insights, Postman REST Debugger, Rapportive, uBlock). But I occasionally find myself using I use Safari for a simple, clean browsing experience.

Firefox - Self destructing cookies and uBlock origin. Discovered SDC via google searches, uBlock origin was from some discussion on HN I think.

Chrome | Lastpass, AdBlock Plus, Tampermonkey, ColorZilla, Nimbus Screenshot, Detox for facebook, Panda 4 (News and inspiration dashboard)

Firefox with Noscript, Ghostery, uBlock Origin, Self-Destructing Cookies, DownloadThemAll and TooManyTabs

uBlock (not origin because it's not available for Safari)

ClickToFlash - Flash can't autoplay

StartPage HTTPS - My Google traffic goes through StartPage

Ghostery

Hangouts

Tabcloud

Tag Assistant

Page Analytics

Boomerang for Gmail

Google Docs offline

Google Sheets

Google Translate

Murdoch Block

Search By Image

Mouse Gestures For Chrome

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