Ask HN: What are your favorite browser extensions/add-ons for Firefox or chrome? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are your favorite browser extensions/add-ons for Firefox or chrome?

69 pointsatulatul69 comments

What are your favorite/preferred browser extensions/ add-ons?Firefox, Chrome. Primarily productivity focused. But other areas are fine, too. Also mention specific customizations of these, if any. Moderators, please edit suitably, as this is my first post here.

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Privacy Badger: https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

I use it instead of an adblocker, because it gives the effect I actually want from an adblocker: it stops people tracking me, without stopping responsible sites from making money from my visits by serving me adverts.

It's also able to allow requests without forwarding cookies, with some sane CDN defaults, so you can load third-party assets without allowing more-than-minimal tracking.

Enhanced Steam http://www.enhancedsteam.com

Reddit Enhancement Suite https://redditenhancementsuite.com

uBlock Origin https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Full Page Screen Capture https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/full-page-screen-c...

h264ify https://github.com/erkserkserks/h264ify

Linkclump https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/linkclump/lfpjknco...

Cookie Autodelete: https://github.com/Cookie-AutoDelete/Cookie-AutoDelete

Goes along nicely with something like Privacy Badger, and removes non-whitelisted cookies once a site's tabs are closed.

Use with I Don't Care About Cookies: https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/ to avoid all the EU cookie banners.

Tree Style Tabs, of course: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/

Can't imagine browsing without anymore.

The tree reminded me of Octotree for git. It is nice.

OneTab. It has serious issues, but I haven't found a replacement. Solves the problem of having so many tabs open. And solves my information addiction - usually after I OneTab it I tend not to care about it anymore (even though that wasn't my goal).

I too like OneTab though I find it problematic. I'm trying out Tabs Backup & Restore suggested farther up this thread as a potential replacement. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabs-backup-restor...

Most of my (Firefox) add-ons are privacy oriented. Besides from NoScript, Decentraleyes and Privacy Badger I also use AgentX to change the user-agent per site; simple, no bloat, and just works.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/agentx/

For anyone reading this, the user-agent switcher is not something to be over looked. If a drive-by-exploit is written for firefox and you are switched to IE... hey maybe they now try to apply an IE exploit and of course it won't work. Basically it is an extra layer to prevent browser specific exploits from being delivered.

It's also worth noting that uMatrix can spoof user agents, it doesn't take a second addon. (In the Privacy tab on the settings dashboard).

I like Tab Scissors: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tab-scissors/cdoch...

Splits your many-tabbed Chrome window into two windows at your current tab. Useful for when I open up a bunch of tangential research pages and want them in their own window.

You can kinda replicate this functionality by shift-selecting the tabs you need to split and drag them away.

Pentadactyl - an very powerful, vim-like extension which is now permanently broken by Firefox 57

It is now impossible to make any extension that powerful on Firefox, due to design decisions by Firefox to limit the power of extension developers.

Serious question, is there an emacs equivalent? I know the emacs bindings.

I don't think so. But there's this which allows you to "remote control" FF from Emacs: https://github.com/cute-jumper/emacs-firefox-controller

Far as I can tell, no. I'm open to adding an emacs profile to Saka Key. It's as easy as modifying this JSON file: https://github.com/lusakasa/saka-key/blob/master/src/options...

https://github.com/cmcaine/tridactyl

Thank you, but that doesn't even offer 1/100th of what Pentadactyl did.

Yes, it's a very early addon. Hopefully it will improve with time.

Firefox Extensions:

uBlock Origin : https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Privacy Badger : https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

Tab Memory Usage (legacy mode as not supported on v57) : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-memory-us...

WhatRuns : https://www.whatruns.com/

Boomerang for Gmail : https://www.boomeranggmail.com/

about:addons-memory (legacy mode as not supported on v57) : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/about-addons-...

Vimium: https://vimium.github.io

Let's you navigate and control the browser using the keyboard in a very clever vim style.

Thanks. Going to add it right away

Firefox: TabSearch: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab_search/

Fuzzy search for tabs + keyboard controls for tab management. (I made this, hope it's alright that I'm advertising)

Octotree: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/octotree/

Adds a tree-style panel to the side of every GitHub repo, makes it easy to browse and skim source code.

Chrome:

1. Grammarly: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grammarly-for-chro...

2. Zest: https://zest.is/

3. Scrum for Trello: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/scrum-for-trello/j...

Shameless self promotion:

SearchIT is something that I made and use almost everyday https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/searchit/fioambgbh...

You can swap where you are searching easily. Maybe someday I will eventually add more sites, but no promises. It's open source here: https://github.com/IanBurgan/SearchIT

Depending on device:

Ublock origin

Privacy Badger

treestyle tabs (here is hoping that the we version catches up)

Https everywhere

Umatrix

CanvasBlocker

Cookie autodelete

Tampermonkey

#Todo: add links and description

PS really wonder why nobody here seems to use umatrix it's awesome

I use umatrix, awesome addon. I hardly ever see it recommend either, much better than noscript.

Scroblr, for scrobbling (tracking) what music I listen to on youtube, soundcloud, bandcamp etc [0]

Lastpass for password mgmt.

Pocket for saving pages and never looking at them again (which allows me to close tabs that otherwise might linger for months).

0 - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/scroblr/mflbcmpjne...

Glad you ask.

Great convenience with these little-known gems:

* "It's All Text" -> edit any text input area in your favorite editor, since after all it's all text. Hope the author updates quickly to webextensions.

* "Easy Copy" -> many use cases, for example select relevant words in any page, copy as Markdown link (or other markup) and paste in your other editor. Easy to adapt to any sane markup language.

Also:

* Display #anchors

* uBlock Origin

Given up Ghostery for shady business model.

* "It's All Text" can be approximated with "Textern". That one requires Python3.5+ and a (short) manual install.

* "Easy Copy" -> no real replacement. Partial features at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/copy-as-markd... and https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/url2clipboard/ .

Not affiliated with these in any ways.

HTTPS Everywhere: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

More and more sites do the right thing by default for their own resources, but by no means all. HTTPS Everywhere helps you avoid the TOFU hole, and also help for sites that try to load resources over http that they should load over https.

On Firefox, these are the ones I use in every installation (yes, they make me more productive):

uBlock Origin (ad blocker)

Privacy Badger (tracker blocker and ad blocker)

HTTPS Everywhere (forces https when available)

Perspectives (checks for certificate changes)

Cookie AutoDelete (the alternative WebExtension replacement for Self-destruct Cookies - deletes a tab’s cookies, local storage sometime after it’s closed)

Tab Mix Plus (the Swiss Army Knife of tab management)

Session Manager (save, restore windows/tabs - till date I haven’t found one that works as reliably as this one on Chrome)

Tree Style Tabs (display tabs as a hierarchical tree; place the tab bar on any side)

Link Alert (point the cursor at any link and know if it’ll open a new window or not, if it’s a PDF and many other things)

FoxClocks (configure several time zones and see the current time in those quickly)

FoxyProxy (switch proxy servers based on URL patterns or cycling through them with the toolbar button)

Fuzzy tab search with https://saka.io/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/saka/nbdfpcokndmap...

Time tracking with https://wakatime.com/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wakatime/jnbbnacme...

Cloud to Butt Plus – Adds silly fun to all tech websites: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cloud-to-butt-plus...

Pocket – Saves articles, so I can read them later on my phone: https://getpocket.com/

Also I made Sloth Worth that counts money "lost" on distracting sites: https://qotoqot.com/sloth-worth/

Sight (Chrome) - code file syntax highlighting: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sight/epmaefhielcl...

OpenList (Chrome) - opens a list of URLs that you paste in as text. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/openlist/nkpjembld...

I really like these extensions :

https://github.com/learn-anything/chrome-extensions

Although I mostly use Chrome only for web development.

As someone who has always had 100+ tabs open at any moment, Tabs Ouliner for Chrome changed my life and freed up a TON of memory.

I downloaded the free version, played with it for 5 minutes, bought the $15 pro version, and am completely hooked. My guess is I’m averaging about 5 open tabs since picking up this extension, with the rest automatically filed so I actually go back to the ones I intended to go back to instead of just having them buried behind 30 other tabs in one of many browser windows.

I don’t know the dev, don’t have any connection to the app, but this is clearly how browsing was supposed to be.

HTTPS Everywhere: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

Forces your browser to always use an HTTPS version of a site if available.

NoScript, uBlock, Cookies Autodelete, Stylus.

And Firebug, merged into Firefox now.

My list is similar, though formerly I'd have said Cookie Controller.

I'm sad to be losing that, but I've been trying Cookies Autodelete on one of my machines and it seems a decent alternative. I look forward to seeing it mature a bit more.

I have a stock set that I use anytime I use Firefox or Chrome. They're there for security and privacy.

Adblock Plus

NoScript

Ghostery

Privacy Badger

I've also added HTTPS Anywhere lately.

For Firefox only, though, there's more.

I also use Forecastfox (fixed version) without the bottom notifications turned on, since I like being able to see the weather at a glance without having to grab my phone.

I also have a very old version of Copy Plain Text that I use for what it says on the tin.

Also some password generator, and a useragent switcher for testing/security, and referrers disabled for the same.

Is there a reason you use Adblock Plus instead of Ublock Origin?

My list adds Cookie AutoDelete and Decentraleyes.

Yes, because Adblock Plus works. It's what I've always used. A lot of the wailing and gnashing over "zomg they can be bought!!!1one" was just misinformed users whining about discovering the "allow some non-intrusive advertising" option, which has been in ABP for quite a while now (and is completely optional).

I recently started using the WebMemex extensions. They are written by a friend from the Indieweb Community. Best way to save a snapshot (to "freeze dry") a website and have them in the browser cache for offline use. Lots of development still needed but it is pretty usable already.

https://github.com/WebMemex

I use Privacy Badger, AdBlock Plus, Markdown Preview, Secure Shell and JSONView.

As a web developer I find JSONView to be very useful when testing APIs and all sorts

The Great Suspender https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great-suspende...

The best one I have found for people who like to have open lots of tabs.

"Automatically suspends unused tabs to free up system resources"

I am a bit biased. But, I like this regression testing tool I created to make testing as easy as Record and play.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swifclub/eplcgfhhc...

Quick Javascript Switcher: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-javascript-s...

Great for sites with JS based pay walls.

These are all on Chrome. Firefox doesn't have Planyway and Ultimello yet.

- Toby (for tab management)

- The Great Suspender (for reclaiming memory from unused tabs)

- Evernote Web Clipper (for bookmarks)

- LastPass

- Colorzilla (to pick up colors)

- uBlock Origin (ad blocker)

- Ultimello (great Trello extension)

- Planyway (another great Trello extension with calendar features)

- Hacker News Stylish +

- Ember Inspector

- Youtube Subscription Manager (groups all of my subscribed users)

Tampermonkey: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tampermonkey/dhdgf...

(greasemonkey for Chrome)

I'm very boring with my FF extensions;

- uBlock

- Bitwarden

- Reddit Enhancement Suite

I used to go totally over top and at one point had about 30-40 extensions, and Firefox looked a bit more like the Kerbal Space Program. Not sure what compelled me to do that, but I probably only used 2 or 3 them in practice.

Switch to tab: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/switch-to-tab/gbfh...

Vimium + Visual mode, OneTab, Free Download Manager Chrome extension, Infinite Scroll for Google™, Nimbus Screenshot & Screen Video Recorder...and New Tab Draft is the best because it's the draft writing tool that I have to use every day.

Mute tabs by default:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mute-sites-by...

Ghostery- I basically block all tracking cookies and ads and social media widgets

Adguard- for ads not caught by ghostery

Youtube Magic Actions- Makes the youtube experience way better. Although the recent changes to youtube seems to have temporarily broken it :(

Any reason why Ghostery over PrivacyBadger and Adguard over Ublock? I switched from ghostery once they added user accounts and there was some suspicion about them logging user data.

http://maketrumptweetseightagain.com/

On a more serious note -

Boomerang and Boomerang Calendar Pinboard Smile Always (always redirects to Amazon Smile)

Tabs Backup and Restore for Chrome is very useful, if you are like me, and collect more and more tabs to "Read later". It will do periodic snapshots of all tabs, and you can restore any point in time.

Shameless plug: https://github.com/noam3127/github-code-folding

React Developer Tools, CORS, and the Keeper Vault along my browser menu for Chrome 63 :)

I'm biased, but I made this extension for sorting stories on HN:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sort-hacker-news/l...

I use it every day.

looks good. will try it out.

night light mode:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/night-light-m...

disable autoplay:

https://github.com/Eloston/disable-html5-autoplay

(until chrome gets their shit together)

ublock origin and ghostery

Firefox: Octotree Chrome: Momentum

this is one i made for firefox on android to simply dump the list of open tabs (after having a bad experience with sync missing stuff)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-list/

First shameless self plug for whomever watches YouTube videos, Twitch streams, or consumes instagram via the web (twitter soon too) our Social Blade extension brings stats directly to the video/image page: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/social-blade/cfidk...

Beyond that here are a few others I like that I haven't seen mentioned:

hckr news: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodle... (marks what new comments are here)

Honey: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpn... (shows price charts on amazon products plus finds a lower priced one if amazon shows a higher priced one first)

Momentum: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/momentum/laookkfkn... (inspiring images on new tab page)

Pushbullet: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pushbullet/chlffgp... (get my android notifications on my desktop/laptop)

Twitter Account Switcher: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/twitcher-twitter-a... (for changing between more then one twitter account)

Unix Timestamp Converter: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unix-timestamp-con...

Gestures for Google Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gestures-for-googl... (can close tabs, switch tabs, etc with right clicking and dragging mouse etc)

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