Ask HN: What is your must have browser extension? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is your must have browser extension?

35 pointssamuel24662 comments

Browser extensions greatly improve our browsing experience. For me: Dark Reader, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Tampermonkey, OneTab, and password manager are my must have, how about you?

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Sorted roughly by order of importance.

uBo, of course.

uMatrix, which despite being EoL has a vastly superior interface to uBo for selective resource (un-)blocking

KeePassXC as password manager

LanguageTool, less shady Grammarly, and selfhostable

NopeCHA, shady captcha solver, but better than doing that shit myself, fuck you recaptcha, cloudflare and hCaptcha.

Refined HackerNews, some HN QoL improvements

Nitter Redirect, redirects Twitter links to a chosen Nitter instance which is slightly more readable and has none of the annoying JS.

Copy Me That, recipe extractor for my chosen recipe and shopping list manager.

Thanks for uMatrix and NopeCHA. This saved my life from shortening( just from frustration).

Libredirect automatically redirects all kinds of social media sites to a privacy-conscious alternative. It's great.

I know of it, but I really only need nitter ;)

That's cool. I like Libredirect because I browse Reddit a lot and there are often links to TikTok, Instagram, etc.

I browse Reddit a lot as well, but not exactly funny or meme subs (mainly books, TV, programming, game and recipe subs), so I very rarely encounter such links.

r/tiktokcringe is all TikTok videos and I always end up there for some reason :D

I am trying to mention what others haven't.

Toolbox for Google Play store - all information is disclosed within app page itself.

Bell of mindfulness - 20-20-20, and you will be reminded to stretch, drink water, meditate, etc.

Breathing.ai -meditation + nature sounds + more

Firefox Relay - spamming inbox is reduced.

PDF Viewer for Vimium C - Vimium on pdf.

PostuReminder - Reminds you to sit up straight with pop-up notifications at specified time intervals.

Productivity Blocker - so you can relax!

Selection Search - For those who don't want to open new tab and then paste and then click 'Go'.

Shortcut Forwarding Tool - Extension can command other extension to do the work and create macros.

LoudReader - azw3, mobi, epub, offline Reader that I don't want to install a separate app for.

Morphine - Regulated distraction. Yep!

Tab Buddy - Build simple and positive habits one new tab at a time.

NewTab Adapter - Take over browser's new tab settings and open another configurable URL

Hacker News Enhancement Suite - I request an alternative to this. It is limited in features.

Hover Lookup - a popup of essential Wiktionary without changing pages.

Microsoft Editor - Alternative to Grammarly/LanguageTool.

Lipsurf - Use voice to type, click anything, scroll, watch videos, open webpages, make custom voice shortcuts and more.

Github Enhancement Suite - Saves me lots of clicks in github.

Vim new Tab - One vim tip for opening one new tab.

I use this one for Safari on iPhone to see new comments on HN

https://apps.apple.com/be/app/hacker-news-comments/id1602932...

Thank you for pointing me in this direction! I had a browser extension to show new comments that stopped working several years ago and never found anything that I liked until this one. Being able to see new comments makes HN so much more user friendly.

The first browser extension I ever installed was the original Adblock for Firebird (maybe even Phoenix, I don't recall exact timing), and to this day an ad blocker is the first extension I install on a new browser profile. These days my preference is uBlock Origin but it's still the most important part of an acceptable browsing experience.

Every time I browse the web on my phone it's just a nightmare of nonsense.

Tampermonkey is an on and off thing for me, sometimes I have it installed and use it every day, other times I go years between needing it.

I am guessing you are using an iPhone. But if I am wrong and for others who do not know, Firefox for Android supports running uBlock Origin.

I am actually using an Android, but while I have Firefox installed I generally don't use it unless I have to. It just never feels like it works as well as Chrome, plus there's the entire sync ecosystem with desktop Chrome that also connects to the system webview wherever apps feel the need to embed a browser.

I'm not against changing if I have to, and if the perpetually-delayed Manifest v3 changes ever actually get forced I will probably have to, but for now it doesn't bug me enough to be worth the trouble. I just don't care that much about browsing on a phone when I spend 95% of my day with a desktop or laptop within reach.

Adguard on iPhone has greatly improved my experience

Some safari suggestions:

- Userscripts (runs userscripts)

- Adguard (ad blocker, has custom filters as such but I haven't used anything past the basic ad blocking)

- Mate translate (I think Safari has a built in translator, but I'm not 100% sure)

- Vimari (navigation with vim, basically just vimium, but not as much configurability/features, ex disabling only certain keys on websites, vomnibar)

Vimium - navigate pages with vim input Metamask - browser based crypto wallet HoverZoom - mouse over images to expand them

- uBlockOrigin: to never see ads, anywhere.

- OneTab: to share all open tabs to an HTML/squish to one tab.

- tabcopy: to copy the addresses of all open tabs to plaintext (don't use it anymore)

- Privacy Possum: because privacy

- One Shot: arbitrary size screen capture of open web page

- Facebook Container: provides some protection when visiting sites owned by Meta

- archive.today: you are on HN- you know why

uBlock Origin, Tree Style Tabs, Sponsorblock, Auto Tab Discard, the rest I can live without. (not an extension: userChrome.css to remove tab bar) (preview of Tree Style Tabs + userChrome = https://i.imgur.com/81OpEOy.png)

+1 for Tree Style Tabs, I have the same setup.

I use AdBlockPlus to almost completely remove ads from the internet. I hear that YouTube has advertising, but I never, ever see it.

Dark Mode is helpful, as my vision works better with dark backgrounds, thanks to impending cataracts.

Midnight Lizard takes care of the special cases that Dark Mode doesn't seem to work with.

You've probably heard this a million times, but uBlock Origin is the new Adblock -- it's way better, more performant, and regularly updated.

Grammarly - Because I misspell all the time(Not supported on HN)

uBlock origin - Because I'm not a big fan of ads. Also works on firefox on android if you are tired of ads when browsing on your phone.

Bitwarden - Just switched from lastpass, and wow what can I say, such a breeze to use and it's free!

I'd vote for tampermonkey. If you learn how to use it well it's almost like a new superpower.

- uBlockOrigin - Most essential of all

- Dark Reader - To save my eyes at night

- Vimium - Vim navigation for the browser (once you start using it, you won't want to go back)

- Bitwarden - For password management

- Raindrop - For bookmarking and highlighting sites

- WhatFont - for seeing what fonts a site uses

>> Site / theme improvements:

1) Dark Hacker News

2) Hacker News: Mark All Read

3) DarkReader

>> Tab management and workflow:

4) Unique Tabs

5) PowerSwitch

6) Switch between your two most recent tabs

7) Tabs Outliner

8) Session Buddy

9) JoinTabs

>> Mastodon improvements:

10) Mastodon Handles in Twitter

11) Mastodon Link

>> Video improvement:

12) Picture-in-Picture Extension (by Google)

13) Video Speed Controller

14) Video Quality Settings for YouTube™ (HD/4K)

Really wish HN had a native dark mode. Oh, I know they don't want to do it. But it's the right thing to do.

Couldn't agree more. Having said that, I'm very happy with the Dark Hacker extension [1], and have been using it for years.

I'm using it unpacked as I wanted to tweak a few colors and make it compatible with the "HN: Mark All Read", but you can also find it in the Chrome webstore.

[1] https://github.com/TheLastAirsickLowlander/DarkHacker

That's why I wish HN had a native dark mode. I find myself getting away from browser extensions. I used to have a lot of them (uBlock Origin and all the usual suspects), but last year I switched to Brave and I don't have any extensions at all. It just doesn't make sense to me to have all these extensions that do tiny little tweaks like dark mode.

I understand the spirit, but I doubt HN will ever change to incorporate new functionality (including dark mode). So it's up to users to hack the site in whatever way they want.

Besides Dark Mode, I can't live without "Hacker News: Mark All Read". The ability to scan through the page and easily see only what is new is invaluable. I simply cannot browse HN without those two extensions.

I'm a big fan of FraidyCat for following RSS feeds: https://fraidyc.at/

I also include uBlockOrigin and 1password

Tab exporters (to plain-text)!

I use Tabitha for Safari, but there are plenty of different options for each browser.

I find that it's super easy to clean up my tabs by dumping them to my plain-text notes.

OneTab goes beyond these expectations.

iOS:

  Wipr (adblock)
  StopTheMadness (URL/CSS/JS mods)
  DevonThink (web archive for local search)
  Codebook (password mgr, wifi sync)

I use those as of today: https://i.imgur.com/HIAbllO.png

Vimium. Navigate the web from your keyboard, love it

Dark background light text

Browser Routr, to auto open some sites in a non-default browser; full disclosure: I made it and offer it as a premium app

uBlock Origin

Do you feel completely comfortable connecting a password manager to a browser?

I think separation of these two utilities makes more sense.

With your theoretical concern (anything specific?), you'd copy paste every time you need to login?

Yes, copy and paste everything.

Trusting all passwords to a browser and hoping vendors don't ship updates with any vulnerabilities or feature-bugs randomly thrown in is a bit much to ask imo.

I consider "accidentally copy pasting my password into a phishing website" to be a much more likely threat vector than "browser includes exploit that allows access to integrated (but not external) password managers".

Thus, I use and recommend integrated password managers.

Copy pasting one password into a phishing website.

vs.

Whole database of passwords being compromised in one swoop due to browser/plugin bug, change of terms, or change of ownership.

The latter is more dangerous no matter how we slice it. Manual process (isolation) and a bit of care are the logical choice imo.

I use Custom Stylesheet & Script to alter my HN experience a bit, along with some other sites.

I mostly use the dark theme. And that one that allows the youtube to play in the background

Blocksite.co - for getting rid of distractions

Fetcher.page - for getting distractions in a controlled way

For those who read the hn website, I think I can recommend Modern for Hacker News. ha-ha

I’m a full time Odoo developer and Odoo terminal is an absolute must have for me.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Pocket (getpocket.com)

Android Firefox Dark Reader on 100% of the time. Lifesaver.

Highly recommend Hyperweb on iOS — very impressive!

Thanks and it works on PC, for those who are looking for PC.

Unclutter - next gen reader

Picture in Picture by Google

YouTube sponsor block

OneTab

Return YouTube dislike

Single FileZ

I still don't care about cookies

Feedbro RSS reader, CookieBro, uBlock Origin

Return Youtube Dislikes, SponsorBlock

I wish there would be some way to implement sponsorblock for podcasts.

Maybe [Comskip](https://github.com/erikkaashoek/Comskip) could be used for this, depending on whether or not the hosts are doing the read.

Adblock and password manager

I don't see anyone mentioning Bypass Paywalls. It lets you bypass paywalls on most mainstream news outlets. It's a must-have for me and I wish it was available for Safari.

https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome

The listed sites block me using Cloudflare when I installed this.

uBlock Origin, password manager

uBlock origin, NoScript

uBlock

Session Buddy

200 OK (Local Plain html server)

Custom Javascript

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