Ask Slashdot: Best Browser Extensions -- 2016 Edition

Reader LichtSpektren writes: Almost eleven years ago, Slashdot featured an Ask titled "Favorite Firefox Extensions?". I thought it might be worthwhile to ask the question again (Editor's note: we couldn't agree more!), but expand the query to all web browsers now that there's more choices available.

Right now my main browser is Firefox, which I use with uBlock Origin, Disconnect, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger, NoScript, Self-Destructing Cookies, Decentraleyes, Privacy Settings, and Clean Links. (N.B. the first four of these are also available in Chromium-based browsers.) I use Chrome as a secondary browser, with the first four of the aforementioned extensions, plus also Clear Cache and occasionally Flashcontrol.

This one has nothing to do with security or privacy, but Reedy on Chromium is a really nice tool for speed reading.

What do you use?Let's get this going.

Comments

Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[Anonymous Coward]

I never setup a computer without both

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[LichtSpektren]

uBlock Origin and Disconnect do the same things as Adblock Plus and Ghostery respectively, minus taking money to let some "acceptable ads" through the filters.

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[Anonymous Coward]

"set up", not "setup". The setup is what you set up.

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[Anubis IV]

Most of the people on Slashdot would be better-served by using either uBlock Origin or uMatrix instead of ABP.

uBlock Origin is a drop-in content blocker that "just works" out of the box. It's great for dropping onto non-techies computers and knowing that they'll be a lot better off. Plus, unlike ABP, it doesn't allow ads through by design for companies willing to pay, and it's also significantly more efficient than ABP in terms of its processing and memory overhead (though APK may point out that it's still less efficient than a hosts file...).

uMatrix, however, is likely better for many of the people around here, since it provides a simple UI made up of a matrix of boxes that allow you to enable/disable different types of content on a per-subdomain basis for each site you visit. By default, it only allows CSS and images from sites other than the one you're on, which blocks basically all tracking immediately, but also breaks functionality on some sites until you whitelist specific items. For me, I find that if I drop it onto a new computer, there's 2-3 weeks of infrequent fiddling needed before I've gotten it configured to the point where I'm not having to open it up on a daily basis, but after that, I only need to pop it open once in a blue moon and it works like a champ.

Ghostery is fine and all, and it used to be one of my go-to add-ons, but I find that for anywhere it comes up short (either because it lets stuff through that it shouldn't, or doesn't let stuff through that I want), it's a pain to manually configure. In contrast, uBlock Origin and uMatrix put those controls right in front of you, which is why they've become my preferred ones.

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[x_t0ken_407]

Out of curiosity, how does Disconnect compare to uMatrix? I use uBlockO & uMatrix for the ABP+NoScript/Ghostery functionality. uMatrix took getting used to at first but I never leave home without it these days.

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[Aighearach]

Most of the people on Slashdot would be better-served by using either uBlock Origin or uMatrix instead of ABP.

I would say uBlock Origin and uMatrix.

I'm running both of those, and also scriptblock, but most users will only want uMatrix.

The "regular end user" set that I would recommend is uMatrix, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Flashblock. (Flashblock isn't just for flash, it is also for stopping html5 auto-play)

For us grumpy old paranoid farts who don't mind having to fiddle before a site can run client code, then add in scriptblock.

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[instagib]

I still use ABP because I rely on the Adblock Plus Pop-up addon. This allows for site specific handling of pop-up windows. It is useful on certain contaminated sites. Couldn't find a replacement for this until now. (NoScript requires too much re-enabling of scripts on too many sites in my experience, which makes it useless for me.)

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[Anonymous Coward]

GHOSTERY settings are on THEIR website now. Do not use. Use Adblock Plus and NoScript and BetterPrivacy.

In NoScript advanced settings uncheck everything under ABE and also under XSS remove ALL default permissions to Google and twitter etc.

Those are helping themselves to the US government Google spy network if you allow them.

As you go along, blacklist other tracking in Adblock plus manually.

I suggest you import these for starters, to block a huge chunk of common trackers.
http://pasted.co/6aeed3e0

Just save it as a txt file and import it in Adblock import/export. You have to toggle a dialog box to import a custom list, you will see what I mean when you go to do it. After that, use that list's format and block all bullshit domains that keep popping up.

I also suggest setting your PC clock to some very wonky value. Time logging is the default US government failsafe tracking mechanism. If you wonder how accurate it is? Grab a copy of wireshark and count decimal digits on the time stamps. It's way out there and latency is merely math.

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[Anonymous Coward]

By the way, I should add this.. they are not permanently blocked. It is very easy to uncheck the whole list if it interferes with a site that absolutely has to be visited like an account login or whatever. Just uncheck the whole list while you do it, check it back for casual surfing.

And you can reset your PC clock to correct for any time you need proper timestamps on an outgoing email or whatever.

Use your heads. The USA is broke because they bought a lot of spy shit including data centers and drones.

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[Anonymous Coward]

That's super old.
Mozilla fixed the bug that caused that problem nearly a year ago.
Now they are roughly equal.

Re:Adblock Plus, Ghostery

[Anonymous Coward]

I find the ABP UI for seeing the "log" for the current page, and for blocking elements is much nicer than the uBlock UI. As a result, I currently run both. uBlock to clean up the ABP mess. ABP for blocking elements.

What I have not found yet is a way to kill the "keep alive" connections proxomitron reports when I run uBlock or ABP.

What I use?

[nospam007]

Besides all the one you mention, being an asocial asshole I use 'Social Disconnect Plus' to block all Facebook, Twitter etc buttons and servers, Allinone Gestures, Canvasblocker, Google Privacy, 'I don't care about cookies', 'Simple site blocker' to block some newspaper directories that serve otherwise unblockable ads,

I use also Greasemonkey with scripts to circumvent Anti-Adblock measures in WIRED and to replace all occurrences of 'Trump' on a page with 'orange baldyman orangutan', I know it's stupid but it makes me smile every time.:-)

Re:What I use?

[Anonymous Coward]

... and to replace all occurrences of 'Trump' on a page with 'orange baldyman orangutan', I know it's stupid but it makes me smile every time.:-)

Hey, just last year you said you used 'orange baldyman orangutan' for Steve Ballmer. How can you be sure which orangutan you're reading about? They're both pretty big in business, saying and doing crazy things on stage, and are fairly adept at poo flinging.

Re:What I use?

[green1]

I don't suppose you'd be willing to share your greasemonkey scripts for the anti-adblock measures?

Re:What I use?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, just last year trump said trump used 'orange baldyman orangutan' for Steve Trump. How can you be sure which orangutan trump're reading about? They're both pretty big in trumpiness, saying and doing crazy things on stage, and are fairly adept at poo flinging.

Re:What I use?

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it strange that you are blocking all social features in websites, while at the same time allowing this Greasemonkey privacy nightmare add-on to run on your machine.

Re:What I use?

[LichtSpektren]

Privacy Badger will automatically replace the social media buttons for you, there's an option on its dashboard.

Re:What I use?

[pr0fessor]

Opera used to have an asteroids extension that allowed you to shoot elements off the page... Anytime an ad made it through I would blow the website to hell..

Re:What I use?

[LichtSpektren]

Also, thanks for mentioning Canvasblocker -- didn't know about that one, it looks to be useful.

Re:What I use?

[jon3k]

I use also Greasemonkey with scripts to circumvent Anti-Adblock measures in WIRED

Just switch from Adblock Plus to uBlock Origin. WIRED doesn't harass me about using it and it's better anyway.

Re:What I use?

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook, Twitter etc buttons and servers [] 'I don't care about cookies' [] circumvent Anti-Adblock measures

There are adblockplus/ublock lists for these. I'm currently using
  Anti-ThirdpartySocial
Fanboy’s Annoyance List
Fanboy’s Social Blocking List
EU Prebake and some custom filters that I created with ublockorigin's element picker tool. It's amazing how many modal popups, even some paywalls, are nothing but an overlay element and the site works as normal when the element is deleted from DOM.

Re:What I use?

[nospam007]

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to share your greasemonkey scripts for the anti-adblock measures?"

It's available in the usual userscript places, f.ex. the ones below:

http://reek.github.io/anti-adb...

http://reeksite.com/anti-adblo...

Re:What I use?

[lucm]

Steve Ballmer would never have agreed to the Windows 10 upgrade racket. He was colorful and not a techie, and buying Nokia was misguided, but since he left, common sense has no place at the executive meetings.

Adobe plugins

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd put Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Reader at the top of the list. Microsoft Silverlight is really good, too.

Re:Adobe plugins

[Anonymous Coward]

Plugins are not extensions. Adobe Reader is not even a plugin (if you're doing it right -- but arguably if you're using *any* Adobe software to read PDFs you're doing it wrong) it's a full desktop application.

The other ones you listed are actually remote access backdoors masquerading as browser plugins. Stay far away.

Re:Adobe plugins

[green1]

If silverlight qualifies as "really good" for you, I'd hate to see what you think is bad...

Re:Adobe plugins

[Espectr0]

Plugins are not extensions. Adobe Reader is not even a plugin (if you're doing it right -- but arguably if you're using *any* Adobe software to read PDFs you're doing it wrong) it's a full desktop application.

Whooosh. He was being sarcastic

Re:Adobe plugins

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

If silverlight qualifies as "really good" for you, I'd hate to see what you think is bad...

Lol, silverlight...never used it, never will. Doesn't seem to affect my browsing not to have it installed. If I ever run across a site that's using it I'll just go somewhere else.

Re:Adobe plugins

[Anonymous Coward]

Jacko, obvs.

Re:Adobe plugins

[Anonymous Coward]

Aha, I see your browser is running a Sarcasm Blocker.

Re: Adobe plugins

[Anonymous Coward]

silverlight used to be necessary since ms lobbied hollywood and tv content producers that they would license content on stipulation that if you streamed it to "desktop" you would have to use the drm built in to silverlight. doing the monopoly attack on flash(silverlight is a carbon copy of flash as what it is) through a proxy.

then ms announced that the platform and apis and everything was discontinued.

then a little while later they released a phone platform using those same libs/apis as a programming interface you had to use.

ms did the exact same thing with wma. what a bunch of cocks. and it has to have been ms lobbying it as the stipulation came from content holders, ALL of the big players, even sony movies, demanding it despite sony having their own alternative..

and it only applied to desktop, not android or ios. desktop linux it applied to. and this the explanation why silverlight plugin has special marking on most browsers to enable it.. because some content still needs it and streaming from some smaller tv stations sites still need it despite being obsolete for half a decade already(the irony is that tv stations all over the world started using it for streaming just after ms cancelled it.

anyways, how they defined desktop i was never really that sure. also it was pretty stupid they would allow streaming to a mobile app, possibly running on a desktop or on a device with straight un hdcp hdmi video out.

Chrome extensions

[green1]

Adblock (with "acceptable ad" turned OFF)
Centre Image
Cisco WebEx (for work)
Disable HTML5 Autoplay
Enhancer for YouTube
Google Calendar
Image Backtrace!
IMG Rotate (why isn't this included by default with so many galleries of sideways iPhone images?)
IPvFoo (I'm on a test group for IPv6 at work)
Linkclump
Mailto: (again, why isn't this default in chrome, you'd think many of their users would want to open mailto: links with gmail?)
Open Frame
QR-Code Tag Extension (because someone depreciated chrome-to-phone)
Right-Click Enabler (Browsers should never allow websites to block right clicks, it's MY browser, not yours!)
Save to Google Drive (Another one google should have included by default)
Text URL Linker (because browsers are too stupid to figure out that text formatted as http://www.somedomainname.com/ are actually URLs even if someone forgot to wrap them in A tags)
View Background Image
View Image
Yet another flags (It's nice to see at a glance where the website is likely actually hosted)

And with all that loaded, and an aggressive ad-filtering DNS server, the web is almost tolerable.

Re:Chrome extensions

[Anonymous Coward]

replace adblock plus with uBlock

Re:Chrome extensions

[green1]

Don't use adblock plus, or ublock.
adblock works great for me. on the rare occasion that an ad does somehow manage to sneak through, I nuke it pretty quickly either with adblock, or more often by blackholeing the whole host on my DNS server.

Re:Chrome extensions

[hcs_$reboot]

Great. But does your page load at a decent speed after it's been filtered by all those exts?

Re:Chrome extensions

[green1]

Far faster than it loaded without them. Amazing how fast pages load when you strip all the junk out.

Also note that many of those extensions don't do anything unless you request it, so they don't have to "filter" the page, things like right click enabler, open frame, view image, image rotate, IMG backtrace, etc.
About the only ones that actually filter the page are adblock, and disable HTML5 autoplay, Both of which speed up pages quite significantly.

RequestPolicy and RefControl

[Anonymous Coward]

There are no legitimate reasons for cross-site requests and you should never use a referrer for anything, even access control.

Re:RequestPolicy and RefControl

[Anonymous Coward]

care to elaborate or link to something that does?

Re:RequestPolicy and RefControl

[Aighearach]

Try uMatrix, it blocks all third-party scripts by default, but it is easy to turn them on a per-first-site basis.

I use it together with regular scriptblock, so first I have to say "yes you can use scripts" and then if it wants third party, I have to say yes to each one. There are few sites that get that much access.

It can also strip the referrer for you.

It can also fake the agent string, but IME that will break most mapping applets so if you can't get your government weather radar to work, turn that off.

Serious question

[Captain Splendid]

What do most of these other blockers do that Noscript doesn't? Been using NS for years and it seems to handle all my needs just fine.

Re:Serious question

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

What do most of these other blockers do that Noscript doesn't? Been using NS for years and it seems to handle all my needs just fine.

Yep...I use Adblock and NoScript and together they seem to sanitize the web fairly well.

I've considered installing Ghostery but I'm not sure what it would bring to the table. Blocking ads and scripts seems to cover most of the stuff I don't want running in my browser.

Re:Serious question

[Captain Splendid]

Well, here's the thing. What do you need adblock for? If you're not going to whitelist advertiser domains, they're not showing up in the first place.

Re:Serious question

[amicusNYCL]

I've considered installing Ghostery but I'm not sure what it would bring to the table.

Tracking, privacy, etc. All of those third party domains that have a tracking pixel or some other thing to track you across web sites. If you install Ghostery and configure it you'll see that it has sections for Advertising, Analytics, Beacons, Privacy, and Widgets (Facebook, Twitter, etc). It's blocking over 2,000 items for me. Right now I've got a recent version of Opera with the built-in ad blocking turned on, plus Ghostery, AdBlock, and Privacy Badger, and even here on Slashdot all of them are blocking something (Ghostery 7 items, AdBlock 5, Privacy Badger 2, and Opera is still natively blocking 10 items).

Re:Serious question

[nmb3000]

Well, here's the thing. What do you need adblock for? If you're not going to whitelist advertiser domains, they're not showing up in the first place.

Most, but not all advertising is displayed via Javascript. AdBlock is useful for blocking static images and element hiding rules are nice for just removing text ads or other annoying elements of webpages. There is also the case of allowing domains to execute scripts (temporary or trusted) to make pages functional. AdBlock takes care of any ads that would be displayed as a result.

But yes, NoScript easily takes care of 60-70% of it and AdBlock helps clean up the rest. I don't think Ghostery is necessary with them (or even a good idea, given who owns it).

Re:Serious question

[Captain Splendid]

But if all those tracking domains haven't had a chance to even load in the first place, why would you need Ghostery?

Re:Serious question

[amicusNYCL]

Obviously, you wouldn't, but I provided an example to show that AdBlock does not block all of those. Like I said, I have 4 different ways to block content and all of them are blocking certain pieces. I don't know if all of them are injected via Javascript, but it would be trivial for OP to install Ghostery and determine whether or not it found anything to block.

Re:Serious question

[Captain Splendid]

I don't know if all of them are injected via Javascript

Noscript doesn't just do javascript. That seems to be a common misconception.

Re:Serious question

[Aighearach]

Oh, but they do load! They load the JS, and also cookies and images and image cookies, etc. If you only block the JS, you still get tracked by the image loading.

I recommend Privacy Badger rather than Ghostery, though.

Re:Serious question

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Well, here's the thing. What do you need adblock for? If you're not going to whitelist advertiser domains, they're not showing up in the first place.

As nmb3000 mentioned below, most ads are served via a javascript snippet embedded in the page. NoScript takes care of most ads but it also blocks any malicious javascript that may be in the page as well. It blocks javascript called from other domains as well, so it's pretty effective.

Re:Serious question

[Anonymous Coward]

With the 6.x release, ghostery has gone full darkside.
No more local configuration, you have to go their website in order to configure your local plugin. And they dark patterned it to trick people into creating accounts. They are also studiously deleting 1-star ratings on their mozilla page. I thought that last accusation was bullshit from whiners until they deleted my 1-star rating.

Too bad because of all these add-ons, they had the best UI (even though the 6.x UI is now more form over function, its still better than everything else out there).

Re: Serious question

[Anonymous Coward]

If you continue to use a 1 star app, your rating is useless.

NoScript

[Anonymous Coward]

NoScript was mentioned in article, but bears repeating. If I have to enable more than two (maybe three) domains to view a website, I will not view it.

Honey, Dictionary of Numbers

[bluefoxlucid]

For Chrome, Honey, Dictionary of Numbers, Backstay, and Transover. Stop Autoplay for Youtube is a good one, too.

uMatrix or RequestPolicy Continued

[mrchaotica]

uMatrix or RequestPolicy Continued let you block all the cross-site requests and whitelist them yourself instead of relying on a possibly-subverted third-party whitelist (like Ghostery or Adblock).

Re:uMatrix or RequestPolicy Continued

[Anonymous Coward]

Care to offer up the advantages/reasons for RequestPolicy Continued rather then RequestPolicy? I don't think I could use a browser without RequestPolicy and it's great for helping you realise just how chatty most sites are (even when NoScript pre-empts an awful lot of the junk).

Re:uMatrix or RequestPolicy Continued

[mrchaotica]

Care to offer up the advantages/reasons for RequestPolicy Continued rather then RequestPolicy?

RequestPolicy Continued is under active development, while the original RequestPolicy has been abandoned by its author.

Also, RequestPolicy Continued allows you to block or unblock several domains at once without having to exit the menu and reload the page each time.

Stylish

[Anonymous Coward]

display: none; the crap NoScript can't catch.

Re:Stylish

[Luthair]

Stylish is great, I've used it for a few years to make websites with stupid layout and text sizes (I'm looking at you Medium, Jira) render more reasonably. Further, just last night I was using it to make the IKEA kitchen planner user the full screen instead of 600x400px

Adblock & NoScript

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Adblock and NoScript seem to make the web a much nicer, faster, safer, cleaner place.

I used a browser without Adblock the other day and was stunned by the amount of crap that litters most pages. Without Adblock and NoScript most pages load megabytes of ads and run dozens of scripts from a hundred different places. Using Adblock speeds up browsing to the point where not using it is downright painful.

Re:Adblock & NoScript

[jebrick]

NoScript is #1 for me.speeds up browsing by stopping all of the crap js from running unless you want it

Re:Adblock & NoScript

[painandgreed]

Adblock and NoScript seem to make the web a much nicer, faster, safer, cleaner place.

Very much so. For the last 6-12 months I've noticed Safari on multiple macs crashing, freezing, and failing to load pages at least one a day. I went and installed various ad blockers as an experiment and so far it's been weeks without a single such crash or freeze. I was willing to let ads by but not when they are actively breaking the internet. Ad in fear of third party injection of malware via ads, and now I'll always install an adblocking extension.

Re:Adblock & NoScript

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Ad in fear of third party injection of malware via ads, and now I'll always install an adblocking extension.

Yep, that all by itself is a good enough reason to install one.

Sadly, the web has become a gaudy, eye-watering shithole, littered with endless ads and social media vomit. I remember when it wasn't that way, when you didn't have to worry that just visiting a site would load malware on your system that would maliciously encrypt your files and hold them for ransom.

It's become the equivalent of a $2 crack whore- an entity with zero morals or ethics who's just looking for any opportunity to rip you off and fuck you over.

My Personal List

[darkain]

Google Voice - send and receive text messages right from the browser.
IPvFoo - shows what connections are IPv4 vs IPv6 with a page. Great for debugging new IPv6 web servers to ensure everything is working properly.

Everything else I use is quite obvious and listed countless times here already, mostly just privacy/blockers.

TreeStyleTab on Firefox

[Anonymous Coward]

TreeStyleTab - the only thing keeping me on Firefox for the last 5 years.

Re:TreeStyleTab on Firefox

[Bathroom Humor]

I have been using Vivaldi in Windows for a while now, and it has a built-in vertical tab option. The browser isn't fully open sourced, but if Firefox ever goes too far off the deep end, it's nice to have an alternative that offers vertical tabs.

Re:TreeStyleTab on Firefox

[fbumg]

Ditto.

Re:TreeStyleTab on Firefox

[brix]

And for those reading this that either don't know what TreeStyleTabs is or why it is useful ... Modern widescreens make vertical screen space a premium. Most web layouts, of course, are vertical as well. Meaning your content and tab UI at the top (or bottom) of the screen are competing for the same space. TreeStyleTabs, among other features, moves the tab bar to a vertical list on the side, in an area of the screen that probably isn't being used for anything in the first place, and allows you to view more content vertically on the screen at one time.

I probably would never have tried it without the great explanation of someone touting its benefits in an Arstechnica thread, so hopefully repaying that here in this thread for others.

And yes, to tack on a reply to another comment to this parent, it's nice that Vivaldi brings the same base-feature to a Blink-based core.

None

[Anonymous Coward]

The attack surface of browsers is massive as-is no point in making it any worse with plugins.

I have all plugins disabled including inline document handlers for pdf etc and use a personal database of hundreds of fake DNS zones for filtering derived from a few capture filters over time. Filtering software is so full of malice, noise and ad vendor exception extortion rackets I just don't have the time or patients to deal with it. Most of the popular ad blocking software is written by ad agencies themselves.

My only goal is blocking the cesspool of malicious cross site tracking systems pervading the web. Ads are so caught up and integrated with these systems filters end up taking many of them out without even having explicitly targeting them.

Primary browser: Vivaldi

[Tyrannosaur]

My primary browser is currently Vivaldi, but I have recently started the search again for a new one because it seems that after a couple hours of youtube my computer cannot do anything... Which just means that I still mostly run chromium extensions

Adguard AdBlocker I am not super picky about my ad blocker, and I generally leave acceptable ads turned on for blockers that support it

Ghostery Privacy matters, and I am suspicious about the many trackers that are all over everywhere...

Magic Actions for Youtube This one is probably my favorite- I get volume control with my scroll wheel, it can disable autoplay, force the html5 player, and really why I use it: I can resize my browser window, and it will fullscreen the youtube video only to that browser window! I used to do this by modifying the url to have "embed" in it, but this only worked on some videos and did not let me undo it to look at the comments. Also available for firefox

Best video downloader 2I haven't used this in a while, so I don't know if it will still work, but this is the only youtube video downloader I have found that works on chromium-based browsers. Firefox, on the other hand, has very many in their add-ons store.

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the point of using Ghostery if you are using Google Chrome? Google (most likely) tracks everything through the browser itself.

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[LichtSpektren]

Is there any evidence that Chrome chats with Google for anything other than updates, if you turn off "Safe Browsing" and "Search Suggestions" and what not?

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't have evidence, hence the use of the phrase "most likely." My suspicions are based on Google's past behavior and general business model.

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[Anonymous Coward]

Care to elaborate?

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[LichtSpektren]

Their business model by distributing Chrome (and also ChromeOS and Android, by extension) is to get a browser in as many peoples' hands as possible that uses Google as the default search engine, which is their bread and butter. I have not seen any evidence that any of their products outside of the search engine proper is guilty of spying like Windows 10, but I would be happy to be proven wrong.

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, that makes perfect sense. I may actually start using it more now.

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[Xian97]

Vivaldi user here too.
Ublock Origin
uMatrix since Chromium based browsers do not have No Script like I used in Firefox
I did have HTTPS Everywhere, but there is a bug in it that prevents you from seeing your Netflix DVD queue so I had to remove it. I still have a DVD plan as there are many titles I want to see that are available on streaming.

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[allo]

chromium (core) is not chrome.

Even if the closed parts in chrome may spy on you is vivaldi not using them. They build on the chromium opensource part, as it is packaged i.e. from debian. And you can bet, they wouldn't package any spyware functions.

Re:Primary browser: Vivaldi

[MrNiceguy_KS]

Best video downloader 2I haven't used this in a while, so I don't know if it will still work, but this is the only youtube video downloader I have found that works on chromium-based browsers. Firefox, on the other hand, has very many in their add-ons store.

I've had a couple of video downloader extensions that quit working, or would work for some videos but not all. I've switched to just pasting the address in at keepvid.com to get a download link.

FoxyProxy

[Sarusa]

If you need a browsing proxy, which is great for things like tunneling out through an ssh link, it's really hard to beat FoxyProxy Standard. Also available for chrome: FoxyProxy Standard

Don't Fuck With Paste

[TechyImmigrant]

The only extension I use on Chrome is "Don't Fuck With Paste", which prevents web sites preventing you from pasting into a field. So I can copy and paste from my password manager.

Re:Don't Fuck With Paste

[Anonymous Coward]

Niiiiice. For those with Firefox, this has a similar setting:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/28tnv0/lpt_stop_websites_from_disabling_copypaste_in/

Re:Don't Fuck With Paste

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a Don't Fuck With Copy? Getting tired sites appending text and links to the thing I copied.

Re:Don't Fuck With Paste

[allo]

noscript.

Re:Don't Fuck With Paste

[q4Fry]

Mod parent up.

Short List

[wbr1]

Work: uBlock Origin TamperMonkey goo.gl Tabs Outliner Home: uBlock Origin Tabs Outliner Various price comparison and inventory count web scraping tools that change frequently (I run a side biz flipping items on AZ)

Re:Short List

[UnknownSoldier]

+1 for Tabs Outliner! (shows all tabs, vertically, in a separate window)

Tabs Outliner
* https://chrome.google.com/webs...

PREFBAR!

[ealbers]

Prefbar is awesome, you can with a single click enable/disable flash,javascript,cookies, you can click and clear you cache, or clear all...lots of options in a single bar, easy to enable disable each.
There are sites I goto where I want javascript and images OFF...easy to do...

Chrome - The Great Suspender

[Anonymous Coward]

I have too many tabs open, and this gives me back all that memory...
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great-suspender/klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg?hl=en

Re:Chrome - The Great Suspender

[green1]

While I see the point to this, my usual use case is to open a ton of tabs, and let them load in the background so they're ready by the time I switch to them. It would seem that this would break that making me wait for each one to load after I get there.

Disconnect is now redundant

[nowsharing]

You don't need Disconnect any longer since Firefox integrated Tracking Protection into the browser.
Enable Tracking Protection
about:config
privacy.trackingprotection.enabled = true

Re:Disconnect is now redundant

[LichtSpektren]

I'm aware of that, but here's the deal on that: Firefox gives you two options -- "strict" or "regular" tracking protection. The strict blocks more things than Disconnect, but it also breaks lots of websites. (I presume the "regular" is exactly equivalent to just using Disconnect.) Occasionally I want to temporarily disable the "strict" protection but still have the "regular", which is not currently an option in Firefox; it's all or nothing. You can switch in the Options menu, but it requires a restart of the browser, so it's a pain in the ass to do it that way. So I keep Disconnect installed so that I can disable the "strict" and still get the "regular" protection.

(Now, all of this is redundant because you can get Disconnect's filters through uBlock Origin, but that's beside the point...)

Re:Disconnect is now redundant

[nowsharing]

Ah, I see. I didn't realize it worked that way. Thanks for the clarification. I have uBlock Origin, so should I just disable FF's tracking protection after enabling the filters?

Re:Disconnect is now redundant

[LichtSpektren]

If you just use the "Normal" protection, then yes; use one or the other, both is redundant. But the "Strict" catches more things than the "Normal", in which case it makes sense to have both going so you can disable the "Strict" protection on occasion but still have the "Normal" filters going.

Re:Disconnect is now redundant

[Anonymous Coward]

I leave both enabled for performance reasons. Firefox's tracking protection is much faster because it is a low-level function, compared to the higher-level API+js that uBO/ABP/whatever has to use to intercept requests. And, if the built in blocking protection stops it, then the higher level stuff has no idea it even existed. This cuts down on the amount of URLs they have to parse and gets rid of some clutter in their UI. So, given the pros and cons, I don't see the harm of having both enabled.

TrackMeNot

[nowsharing]

Everyone should be installing TrackMeNot to pollute the search engine result tracking pool:
TrackMeNot
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/trackmenot/

By issuing randomized queries to common search-engines, TrackMeNot obfuscates your search profile(s) and registers your discontent with surreptitious tracking.

Re:TrackMeNot

[Thelasko]

Everyone should be installing TrackMeNot to pollute the search engine result tracking pool: TrackMeNot https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/trackmenot/ By issuing randomized queries to common search-engines, TrackMeNot obfuscates your search profile(s) and registers your discontent with surreptitious tracking.

I'm concerned this plugin might trigger Google's bot detection algorithm. Furthermore, wouldn't it be simpler to use DuckDuckGo?

Re:TrackMeNot

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone should be installing TrackMeNot to pollute the search engine result tracking pool:

  TrackMeNot

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

  By issuing randomized queries to common search-engines, TrackMeNot obfuscates your search profile(s) and registers your discontent with surreptitious tracking.

Or just use DuckDuckGo as your search engine.

Re:TrackMeNot

[nowsharing]

When I first started using TrackMeNot, once every few months Google would ask me to answer a captcha (bot detection). I haven't had that happen for at least a year now, so they must have fixed it along the way.

Yes, DuckDuckGo is definitely the best solution. But if you're stuck making occasional Google searches or using gmail, it's nice to have TrackMeNot running.

Re:TrackMeNot

[LichtSpektren]

How does TrackMeNot stop gmail tracking? Google reads the contents of your inbox and outbox before you even open your browser.

Re:TrackMeNot

[psyko_chewbacca]

I'm concerned this plugin might trigger Google's bot detection algorithm. Furthermore, wouldn't it be simpler to use DuckDuckGo?

My thoughts exactly! Google, the giant of machine learning certainly could spot this extension blurting out unrelated search request and filter them out accordingly. I also like the fact that it's available in the Chrome Web Store!

Is the source code of this extension publicly available? If so, I'm sorry for the developer, but I would go as far as saying his extension is totally useless...

Re:TrackMeNot

[nowsharing]

It doesn't stop tracking at all, rather it adds a continuous flow of useless search results to your profile, thus obscuring your footprint.

Re:TrackMeNot

[nowsharing]

The source is on github: https://github.com/vtoubiana/TrackMeNot

How It Works
TrackMeNot runs in Firefox and Chrome as a low-priority background process that periodically issues randomized search-queries to popular search engines, e.g., AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and Bing. It hides users' actual search trails in a cloud of 'ghost' queries, significantly increasing the difficulty of aggregating such data into accurate or identifying user profiles...To better simulate user behavior TrackMeNot uses a dynamic query mechanism to 'evolve' each client (uniquely) over time, parsing the results of its searches for 'logical' future query terms with which to replace those already used.

More info at: http://www.cs.nyu.edu/trackmen...

Re:TrackMeNot

[Anonymous Coward]

The big problem with TrackMeNot is that its queries by and large don't actually look like natural queries. They're insanely easy for Google to filter out, which is probably why they aren't taking much action against it. Meanwhile, it slows your computer and increases your network usage, and it doesn't even protect you from Google following you when you are really clicking around on a Google-affiliated site.
Don't want Google to track you? Not using Google would be a much better first step.

Classic Theme Restorer

[nowsharing]

Classic Theme Restorer brings back the drop down search engine list that they removed. I'm not one of those people who critiques every decision that Mozilla makes, but I was disappointed when they removed the about:config string that allowed you to retain the search engine list.

Classic Theme Restorer
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/

Re:Classic Theme Restorer

[postmortem]

Yep, and it also fixes UI and has convenient buttons to disable non-browser functionality (Pocket, Reader, etc)

An Important One

[jon3k]

Video Speed Controller will change your life.

Re: An Important One

[Anonymous Coward]

An interesting article though at times I did wonder if it was an April fool.

"We all chart our own paths through a text. I rarely read a book straight through from start to finish. I take detours, I backtrack, and I always scan the plot summary on Wikipedia to learn what's coming next. "

UBlock = inferior + inefficient vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

UBlock can't do these as well as (or @ all) hosts do 4 speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C's
3.) Protect vs. dyndns botnet C&C's
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C's
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks/hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O use
17.) UBlock now uses hosts (no DNS benefits vs. dns issues) - poor imitation = "sincerest form of flattery"

Hosts = native vs. illogically "Bolting on 'MoAr'" & not ClarityRay blockable like addons.

APK

P.S.=> Hosts (1st resolver) do MORE w/ less in fast kernelmode & before slow usermode addons

Hosts ~3mb vs. UBlock = 64MB -> http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...

Re:UBlock = inferior + inefficient vs. hosts

[danbob999]

Can you temporarily disable host file for a single web site? Does the host file warns you when content is blocked? There is a reason why people prefer an extension to editing a file (which also requires administrative rights).

Re:UBlock = inferior + inefficient vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

that's what commenting out the line is for

when you're done, just remove the comment and resave

Re:UBlock = inferior + inefficient vs. hosts

[LichtSpektren]

Maybe people would take you more seriously if you didn't post like a Russian scammer advertising for viagra.

Re: UBlock = inferior + inefficient vs. hosts

[Samantha Wright]

You shut your mouth! APK is a national treasure. Like the World's Largest Ball of Yarn, or Donald Trump's toupee. Anyone who can envision a Slashdot without his enlightened and charming meditations is a dirty, dirty heliocentrist.

...

More soberly, I honestly think he has schizophrenia. His writing and formatting is consistent with that exhibited in TimeCube and bears some resemblance to that of Francis E. Dec, Esq.

Re: UBlock = inferior + inefficient vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

None of you proved him wrong. He did Darinbob. All you had was down moderation that's unjustifiable. Don't you think we notice that?

Drumpfinator for Chrome

[WerewolfOfVulcan]

Replaces all instances of Trump with Drumpf (go to youtube and search for John Oliver Drumpf if you don't get it.)

X-Notifier

[nowsharing]

X-Notifier is a great way to get email updates from lots of different accounts.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/xnotifier/

Re:Better than extensions 4 speed & security

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent up.

This is the only time he is actually not spamming.

uMatrix

[McGruber]

I love uMatrix, an extension for Firefox. It's like noscript, but much more powerful: "uMatrix puts you in full control of where your browser is allowed to connect, what type of data it is allowed to download, and what it is allowed to execute. Nobody else decides for you: You choose. You are in full control of your privacy."

Re:uMatrix

[Anonymous Coward]

uBlock Origin has an advanced mode that acts almost like uMatrix. I do like the granularity of control uMatrix offers.

Re:uMatrix

[AmiMoJo]

I like the concept but I prefer something a bit more automated. Privacy Badger isn't bad.

Block Talk and Plus for Best Speedup

[michalk]

After a couple of TCPdumps, and a frustrating Firefox experience, I added plus.google.com and talkgadget.google.com to my hosts file. It's amazing, because now I never get hung scripts anymore asking me if I want to kill or continue with the script.

127.0.0.1 plus.google.com
127.0.0.1 talkgadget.google.com

Proper CtrlTabbing

[Cpt. Fwiffo]

I *really* prefer ctrl-tab to open the previous tab, and not cycle through the tabs. So Tab Mix Plus.
Anybody know of another plugin to do that for me?

Re:Proper CtrlTabbing

[nullchar]

On Firefox I use "Tree Style Tab" and "Ctrl-Tab" add-ons.

I don't know how people live without tabs on the side (right or left) and ctrl-tab to quickly switch between most recent tabs.

Re:Proper CtrlTabbing

[allo]

tried ctrl+pgup/pgdown?

Re:Proper CtrlTabbing

[Anonymous Coward]

That does the same as Ctrl(+Shift)+Tab so that obviously won't help him. I think he'd prefer it if Ctrl+Tab behaved more like Alt+Tab.

Re:Proper CtrlTabbing

[allo]

Ah, that way round. Sorry, i misunderstood this.

Some favorites of mine for Firefox

[Anonymous Coward]

DownThemAll - download manager
All-in-One Sidebar
Feed Sidebar
Multiple Tab Handler
Resurrect Pages - links to archive/cache sites for defunct pages
Tab Groups - restores the feature that Mozilla killed, with a better UI
Bloody Vikings! - throwaway email addresses
Secure Login and Saved Password Editor - for handling site logins
Search by Image for Google

Unfortunately the most powerful Firefox extensions are dying or bitrotting because of Mozilla's new policies. I hope some of them make it, or Firefox is forked.

Re:Some favorites of mine for Firefox

[compro01]

or Firefox is forked.

You might have a look at Pale Moon.

Re:Never use Browser extensions!

[Anonymous Coward]

Young one, you are right, because no one's ever hacked a plug-in. Especially not if they execute in a secure sandbox like Adobe's Flash Player. That thing is built like Fort Knox, no one will get into it! I'm sure malware will never be able to use that as an installation vector. Nor will marketing folks be able to direct their websites to set everlasting flash cookies on peoples computers that uniquely identify the user by fonts or other techniques.

• Other great plugins (that can never be hacked include:
• Shockwave Player (Adobe)
• Java (Sun/Oracle)
• QuickTime (Apple)
• ActiveX (Microsoft, IE only)
• Silverlight (Microsoft)
• WinZip
• Bing, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and various other toolbars

What's that loud WOOSHING sound? It's headed this way!
Aw, man, I just fed myself to a troll. I gotta stop doing that.

Convert Millenials to "Snake People" (on Chrome)

[Henarchaga]

Helps to make reading generational rants or supposedly newsworthy stories refreshing and enjoyable. Especially the weirdly negative slashdot commentary from those old bitter users. And just generally.

My Browser Is SeaMonkey

[DERoss]

To a large extent, SeaMonkey extensions are also compatible with Firefox. The reverse is not always true.

I have 27 extensions (not plugins) installed. Here are my most important. Note that three are merely to restore capabilities that were lost when Mozilla developers decided that users really do not know what they need.
* Adblock Plus -- I do not subscribe to any filters; instead, I depend entirely on my own, manually-entered filters.
* Expire history by days -- Some developer at Mozilla decided that the users are wrong, that browser history should be pruned only when the database gets full. This extension restores that prior capability for users to set a preferred life-span for history entries. This extension was Firefox-only, but a Web tool allowed me to convert it for SeaMonkey.
* Find Preferences -- I hate the proliferation of banners in the user interface, another case where developers at Mozilla think they know what users need more than what the users say they need. This extension restores the prior capability to use a popup dialogue to search within a Web page.
* Flashblock -- Yes, I could use the Addons Manager to enable and disable the Flash plugin, Via the PrefBar extension (see below), Flashblock allows me to have a checkbox on my tool bar to enable and disable the Flash plugin without having to open the Addons Manager. Flashblock also indicates where on a Web page Flash presentations are present, provides a simple click to show the presentation, and a context menu to completely delete the presentation.
* Live HTTP headers -- I used this to find that my credit union was setting cookies for Facebook.
* Old Default Image Style -- Again, Mozilla developers decided that the user-set background color was not what users really wanted when displaying only a selected image. Instead, they forced a black background, which conflicts with images that have black along their edges. This extension restored the use of user-set background colors (pale mint green in my case).
* Password Exporter -- I use this to move passwords from my PC to my wife's. This extension was Firefox-only, but a Web tool allowed me to convert it for SeaMonkey.
* Passwords Button -- Part of the Toolbar Buttons extension (see below), this gives me a tool bar button to open the edit window of Password Manager so that I can delete, change, or copy passwords. This extension was Firefox-only, but a Web tool allowed me to convert it for SeaMonkey.
* PrefBar -- I want this as an inherent capability in the vanilla browser. I cannot easily browse without it. I have 31 checkboxes, buttons, and menus setup in PrefBar. Some are from the basic extension, some are added from the PrefBar Web site, and some I created myself.
* Secret Agent -- Although not entirely effective, this confuses attempts by Web servers to track me.
* Show Password On Input -- This is for my master password; see Show my Password below.
* Show my Password -- This is for login passwords. This and the Show Password On Input extension make passwords visible upon my request. I am getting old, and my fingers do not always type what I think I am typing. These let me see if I have mistyped a password and take corrective action.
* Theme Font & Size Changer -- This controls the fonts and their sizes in the browser's user interface, not on rendered Web pages. As I get older, I increase the sizes.
* Toolbar Buttons -- This provides an enhanced set of buttons for customizing my browser's tool bar. Additional buttons beyond that enhanced set are available from the extension's Web site.

Where I indicate "This extension was Firefox-only, but a Web tool allowed me to convert it for SeaMonkey.", the tool is at http://addonconverter.fotokrai....

Cloud To Butt

[neminem]

My favorite was when one of the developers of Kingdom of Loathing forgot they'd installed that, and replaced cloud with butt permanently in some item descriptions after updating them (through their web-based dev tool) without noticing. That was awesome.

LastPass

[Anonymous Coward]

LastPass is the only browser addon I use, besides the SoftPhone we use for Five9 VOIP calls in our call center.

My Chrome must-haves

[kav2k]

AdBlock Plus.
HTTPS Everywhere.
Desktop Notifications for StackExchange.
Chrome extension source viewer (allows examining extensions and apps without installing them).
Kicktraq (shows funding graphs embedded in the header of Kickstarter page)
RSS Subscription Extension + The Old Reader Notifier (disclosure: I maintain that one)
A few self-written extensions for Fallen London browser game.

Re:My Chrome must-haves

[Anonymous Coward]

please replace adblock plus with uBlock

Re:Nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

Because all the sites are logging everything you do online, to multiple 3rd parties. You need an array of extensions, or patience with NoScript, to minimize 3rd party interactions.

Goggle Mail Checker, Copy Link Text

[LQ]

Sorry if I'm not nerdy enough to run my own SMTP server. And why isn't Copy Link Text built-in? I use it very often.

No Java Plugin?

[wasteoid]

Surely you missed the most useful one that enhances security.

Re:No Java Plugin?

[LichtSpektren]

Surely you missed the most useful one that enhances security.

Only if it's doing something like this: https://it.slashdot.org/story/...

Firefox Extensions

[SeaFox]

Mine:

* Classic Theme Restorer - To undo stupid ideas introduced with Australias.

* DownloadThemAll - To make quick work of downloading a large number of individual images or links on a page.

* The Camelizer - For historical charts of Amazon pricing on items.

* Hover Hound - Because sometimes NewEgg is the better deal even without my Prime shipping.

* UBlock Origin - For general adblockng.

* Ghostery 5.4.11 - Because version 6.0+ has a shitty interface.

* New Private Tab - Allows you to open private browsing as a new tab with other (non-private) tabs on the same window, as opposed to an entirely separate window. Also allows you to swap the state of an existing tab between normal and Private mode.

* Torrent Status - To easily monitor and control a torrent client on a local machine or even a remote one. I use it as my normal torrenting is done through my NAS. I actually donated to the author of this one.

* Video DownloadHelper - For saving streaming media for offline usage.

For Firefox 28

[ChrisMaple]

Back/Forward History Tweaks
Back/forward dropmarker
Classic Compact Options
Clear Cache Button
Cookie Controller
Direct Torrent Downloader
Disable Ctrl-Q Shortcut
Download Manager
Flash Video Downloader
Flashblock
FoxClocks
FxIF
Hide Tab Bar With One Tab
Image Zoom
New tab toolbar button
NextPlease
Open in Browser
Phrase Highlighter
Print selected text
RightToClick
Session Manager
Zoom Page
google-no-tracking-url

Privacy Aside

[mythosaz]

....most posts are about privacy, but here's a few that make my life enjoyable in Chrome that aren't privacy related.

General items:

Fireshot - sort of a snipping tool for webpages.
OneTab - a good tab saver and restorer.
Context Menu Search - adds configurable context searchers (IDMB, Wiki, Magic Cards, whatever)
Visualping - takes snapshots of webpages, checks them for changes.

Fun items:

Destiny Item Manager - for, well, Destiny item management.
F.B. Purity - cleans unwanted items from Facebook, since it's an evil I must tolerate.
Reddit Enhancement Suite - vastly improves Reddit.

Pushbullet

[Mefesto44]

I have to say, for productivity extensions, Pushbullet is fantastic. I've been using it for about a month now and I'm not sure how I ever lived without it. It is so easy to send links, data, notifications, and other data through the extension. The SMS feature has been a godsend at work allowing me to keep texting associates and friends without picking up my phone. +1 for Pushbullet!

chromium is going to default to google dns.

[Anonymous Coward]

the feature has name of asynchrynous dns. the last version/build i tried of chromium had removed the option to turn it off and had no option to configure it, which is very unfortunate because my isp intercepts 8.8.8.8 and i dont want that. apparently you could change it if you made a frigging web policy server(btw just having such remote config functionality enabled with no toggles and poor documentation about it is bad enough...).

it would seem obvious that such options should be editable locally without fuss, but apparently not. chromium is getting more and more intentionally cripled with options taken away without explanation.

its obvious why google would try to push this feature, of course. blame apk for example.

ah if only checking out chromium source was just a simple download and didnt have either outdated instructions or broken process. downloading the head version ready to compile should not be so complicated that it needs tens of gigs of stuff downloaded witha custom script with pieces downloaded with multiple tools that come unsigned from some random places. I should not have to run custom executables or scripts just to get the source tree as it is for everyone else. at the very least the tools should be installable elsewhere and whitelisting them on the firewall is such a chore. most annoying is that if it fails the process of getting the sources that takes hours, the tool doesnt know how to resume.

so i switched to firefox, wouldnt have thought to do that in a million years. actually firefox on android is pretty good.

also the webrtc stuff bothers me, what is the point of it if i need a plugin to use hangouts anyways!

so... anyone with a chromium build with all the shit turned off / not compiled in in the first place? it feels faster than fox on mobile if you mess around with the configs.

Chrome Vertical Tabs

[gmit]

My favorite extension for Chrome will be vertical tabs tree: https://www.indiegogo.com/at/c... Of course, only if I would get enough support to finish its development. ;)

tab tree

[Anonymous Coward]

because no website are made for widescreen, so i use the extra left and right space to put the tab

Vimperator

[Anonymous Coward]

Vimperator and Chrome's utterly broken keyword search system are pretty much the only reasons I haven't switched from Firefox to Chrome. None of the Chrome equivalents work nearly as well and Chrome's keyword search has a REALLY annoying timing bug.

Using some extensions on Firefox 27

[Anonymous Coward]

Extensions:
- File Title
- Ghostery
- Toggle Animated GIFs
- uBlock Origin

Plug-ins:
- Adobe Flash set to Ask to Activate

FFProfile

[allo]

As Meta-Extension: www.ffprofile.com to create a firefox profile with security defaults. Creates a prefs.js and a zip with some (but not many) extensions.

Firefox addons

[Anonymous Coward]

Search WP: turns words in the search box into clickable buttons to search within page
Classic Theme Restorer: speaks for itself
Ant Video Downloader: ditto
gTranslate: translation which appears on the right-click menu rather than opening a new tab
Toggle animated gifs: speaks for itself
Anonymox: kind of annoying but gives you a proxy IP address in other countries

Greasemonkey scipts:
    Disable website keyboard hooks: stops pages (like google) from changing the up/down arrow button behaviour
    YouTube Center Developer Build: prevent the most annoying Youtube behaviour (primarily autoplay)
    YouTube +: more prevention of Youtube annoyances (it's really hard to stop autoplay!)

While you're at it, disable Pocket, disable Reader, disable Google Talk and H264 Codec extensions. I only wish there was a better bookmarks addon where they would appear in multiple columns rather than one giant long list. Nothing fancy, just more columns.

My Firefox extensions

[cshay]

Hope this helps someone:

Adblock Plus - self explanatory
BetterPrivacy - unknown Cookie control including flash cookies
Case Changer - occasionally useful when I accidentally leave the caps lock key on for a few sentence.
Classic Theme Restorer - Makes Firefox like it used to be
Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus - makes blocking web annoyances much easier
Extended Copy Menu (fix version) - Adds copy as plain text
Flashblock - I prefer to manually enable Flash when I want to use it
Forecastfox (fix version) - this is a FANTASTIC weather program if you use the addon status bar at the bottom of the browser
FoxReplace - I visit some web forums where people use very offensive racist language. This replaces words that offend me.
FoxyProxy Standard - I use a few proxies from time to time and this makes it easier to set
iMacros for Firefox - nice automatic webpage scripting
Lazarus: Form Recovery - life saver if you type long screeds in a form and something goes wrong
MyWords - maintains a database of common phrases I use
NoScript - self explanatory
NoSquint - increases fonts on a few sites that I have trouble with
Open With - lets me easily load a page in Chrome when it is misbehaving in Firefo
Print pages to PDF - self explanatory
Quora Share - Makes Quora pages open without logging in
Rehost Image - lets me rehost an image to imgur with one click
Restartless Restart - Restarts Firefox with a single menu click
RightToClick - Stops javascript from stealing keystrokes or preventing menu items like Save Image As. Useful on js intensive sites I use often like yahoo mail
Screengrab (fix version) - screenshots of long forum discussions
Self-Destructing Cookies - awesome cookie lifetime manager
Stylish - allows me to redesign certain sites I use a lot to use smaller fonts, less white space
Tab Mix Plus - tab customization
User Agent Switcher - privacy or masquerading as googlebot (useful on Forbes.com)

Re:My Firefox extensions

[nctritech]

Strongly second Tab Mix Plus. The features it adds are extremely helpful.

Nuke Anything

[markdavis]

>What do you use?

One I have not seen mentioned that I like is:

Nuke Anything Enhanced- a GREAT way to hide/remove stuff you don't want to see, especially useful before printing. Also useful for getting rid of distracting animated junk while you are trying to read. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-...

Of course, I also use Adblock Plus, and Classic Theme Restorer, and a few others.

OneTab +++

[bogie]

Do people not know about this extension? Nothing better than sucking 20 tabs into a nice group you can label and get back to later. It's the only thing that makes the bloated chrome useable.

Btw side note why isn't Chrome blazing fast at this point? I mean so fast you can't believe the pages loads before you noticed? Is all the code really that far abstracted from the metal? Shouldn't it be leak proof and ultra low memory no matter how badly behaved a webpage is? Can't a company worth half a Trillion dollars make a better browser?

I use

[renegade600]

I mainly use firefox but am starting to use chrome more and more since netflix will work with it "out of the box" in Linux.

The addons I mainly use and will install in every browser

get them all
adblock plus
xmarks
last pass

I wish I can find a good one that will stop all autoplaying videos in places like Topix. none of the flash blockers were work nor will the adblockers.

Didn't see this one listed here...

[Anonymous Coward]

Disable WebRTC

Never lose any form or post again...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Lazarus addon is hands-down one of the best of the lot - it automatically saves what you fill into web forms, meaning that you never lose anything that you write.

Gone are the days, that I'd write up long posts in notepad, on the off chance that I may lose them due to a hiccup during posting :)

Is there a clickbait remover?

[Camembert]

Actually I find the offensively stupid and distracting clickbait at the bottom of many serious articles more irritating than many ads.
But I am not aware of a clickbait remover.
Does it exist or why not - I cannot be the only one who hates clickbait.

Browser Extensions

[CrashNBrn]

Firefox Developer Extensions

Add-on Compatibility Reporter
Add-ons Manager Context Menu
ContextMenu Extensions (Piro, not signed)
DOM Inspector
Element Inspector
Enhanced Steam
Greasemonkey
LastPass
Multiple Tab Handler (Piro, not signed)
OmniSidebar
Remote XUL Manager
Session Manager
Stylish (only because "User Style Manager" is broken)
SuperUserContent (doesn't really work as well as Stylish or USM)
Tab Groups
Tabhunter
Tree Style Tab (Piro, not signed)
uMatrix
url-addon-bar
Vertical Toolbar

Chrome Canary Extensions

Better History 3.9.14
Bookmark Manager 2.2016.128.11729
Context Menu Search 2.93
Flashcontrol 9.2.415
LastPass: Free Password Manager 4.1.20
Nimble Bookmarks 1.1.0
Page Notes 2.4.10
Post It All : Sticky notes 0.0.1.0
Project Tab Manager 3.0.1
Sidewise Tree Style Tabs 2016.5.5.0
SimpleExtManager 1.4.3.12
SimpleUndoClose 1.3.5.3
Stylish 1.5.2
Tab Manager 4.3.4
Tab Modifier 0.14.3
Tampermonkey BETA 4.1.5259
uMatrix 0.9.3.3

Opera Extensions

Bookmarks by the Side
Classic Tabs
Colors Dev Panel
CSS Diff
DevTools Theme: Zero Dark Matrix
DomFlags
Download Chrome Extension
Download panel
Flashcontrol
Front End Developer Tools
LastPass
MyMenu
Project Tab Manager
Sidewise Tree Style Tabs
SimpleExtManager
SimpleUndoClose
Stylish
Tab Modifier
Violent monkey (likely switch to TamperMonkey)
Matrix

Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 17.0).
Your comment violated the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition.

Still at 29.5 (after pasting all the character counts, it stopped increasing after 29.5 and would not go up, nor let post)
Lorem Ipsum to the rescue.

What is Lorem Ipsum? Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. Why do we use it? It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like). Where does it come from? Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32. The standard

Re:Browser Extensions

[CrashNBrn]

Addenum Notes:

Firefox: All Plugins are uninstalled; Thus I disabled "Flash Control"

Chrome: prefer "Post It All : Sticky notes" to "Page Notes"

Opera: last item is uMatrix...

my top 3

[roubles]

1) Lazurus Form Recovery - Caches all form data that I input in text boxes, so if the tab gets accidently closed or the browser crashes, I don't have to re-type my pearls of wisdom
2) POSTman - REST client
3) CamelCamelCamel - Check amazon's price history

Honorable Mention
4) Controlled multi tab browsing - Makes sure I don't open a gazillion tabs.

Re:Easily (rename of hosts)... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Does editing a hosts file allow you to block ad server A on site B, but allow ad server A on site C?

I use SM 2...

[antdude]

My SeaMonkey extensions are uBlock Origin and Web of Trust (WoT). Plugins are on demand like Flash. No Java since no web sites use it for me. Send referrer disabled, no tracking, etc.

My current installed extensions list...

[antdude]

Last updated: Fri Jul 29 2016 23:15:03 GMT-0700 (Pacific Standard Time)
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0 SeaMonkey/2.40

Extensions (enabled: 6)
* ChatZilla 0.9.92 (http://chatzilla.hacksrus.com/) (disabled)
* ColorfulTabs 18.1 (http://www.binaryturf.com/free-software/colorfultabs-for-firefox/)
* DOM Inspector 2.0.16.1-signed (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/inspector/)
* IE View 1.5.6 (http://ieview.roub.net/)
* PrefBar 7.0.0.1-signed (http://prefbar.tuxfamily.org/)
* WOT 20151208 (http://www.mywot.com/)
* uBlock Origin 1.7.6 (https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock)

I wished there was an updated IE View that didn't have malwares. :(

Classic Theme Restorer!

[trawg]

How has noone suggested Classic Theme Restorer for Firefox! This is what allows you to restore the pre-Australis theme that (imho) marked one of the more serious nails in the coffin for Firefox.

I also use:
- FireGestures, for mouse gestures (how people work without right-click-scroll-up/down to go to the top and bottom of pages is beyond me).
- FoxyProxy, so I can use different proxies for specific URLs, mostly allowing me to test geoip stuff but also coincidentally allowing me to avoid geographical restrictions.
- Flashblock, although I've just realised I can remove this as I've uninstalled Flash months ago so it is kind of redundant.
- Greasemonkey, for a few sites that I've written custom JavaScript handles for.
- QuickJava, an indispensable little toolbar that lives in the status bar allowing you to quickly toggle on/off JavaScript, Java, Silverlight (if you them installed), images, CSS, etc.
- Modify Headers, for development so you can easily inspect & modify HTTP headers.
- Tamper Data, as above.

Allowing ads thru @ all = stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: What's the point of allowing them thru? To be slowed down or infested by malware in ads?? No thanks.

APK

P.S.=> You trolls will try ANYTHING won't you? LOL - now you'll try "what if ads are on the same server as the site?" right?? Doesn't happen typically (99% of the time) as advertisers DO NOT TRUST WEBMASTERS alleged 'click view counts' & I don't blame them... apk

My favourites

[Anonymous Coward]

xmark -- portable bookmark program
lastpass -- in the process of being updated following two bug reports
privacy-badger
Dictionaries -- spell checkers
United -- gets you the USA English Spell checker
Canadian -- Canadian English Spell Checker
French -- I live in Quebec and need it occasionally

So, the one very active add-on is privacy badger. Have not found it disruptive.

Chrome extensions

[BrinkeGuthrie]

"Daily links" is great for loading your favorite pages at once. A must. Save to Pocket, Nimbus Screenshot, and World Clocks are terrific. I do wish I could find a credible weather extension tho.

Easily via my program OR rename hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: My program does it from its tooltray icon popup menu. Admin rights PROTECT hosts vs. corruption (& my program locks it vs. corruption too). Lastly A browser warns you if a site's blocked (common sense).

Considering you had to "DOWNMOD HIDE" my answer last time I posted it https://ask.slashdot.org/comme... PROVES I CAUGHT YOU WITH YOUR PANTS DOWN IN ERROR & you know it...

(Don't worry - I'll just repost it again as I have now, lol!)

APK

P.S.=> To put it bluntly but factually per my other posts? Addons are BLATANTLY inferior on TONS of levels, slower, inefficient + redundantly so, & do FAR LESS yet use FAR MORE... apk

UBlock = inferior + inefficient vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

UBlock can't do these as well as (or @ all) hosts do 4 speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C's
3.) Protect vs. dyndns botnet C&C's
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C's
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks/hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O use
17.) UBlock now uses hosts (no DNS benefits vs. dns issues) - poor imitation = "sincerest form of flattery"

Hosts = native vs. illogically "Bolting on 'MoAr'" & not ClarityRay blockable like addons.

APK

P.S.=> Hosts (1st resolver) do MORE w/ less in fast kernelmode & before slow usermode addons

Hosts ~3mb vs. UBlock = 64MB -> http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...

AdBlock = inferior + 'souled-out' vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

Adblock can't do (or do as well) 16 things hosts do 4 speed, security & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnet C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned/downed dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks & hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O us

* ANSWER ="NO"

APK

P.S.=> Ab+ does less vs. hosts less efficiently (a 128-151mb memory hog http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...)

ClarityRay defeats it

Ab+'s bribed not to work by default http://www.businessinsider.com...

AdBlock's SLOWER: http://superuser.com/questions...

Re:AdBlock = inferior + 'souled-out' vs. hosts

[green1]

Ah the host spammer...the outfit who didn't even read the post he's replying too. I do one better than hosts and block it in DNS instead, just like a hosts file but it does every device I own at once.

And hosts isn't always superior to adblock. hosts can't block ads that are served from the same domain as the content you want to see. Adblock can.

I use a far better solution, DNS to block domains that have no redeeming qualities, coupled with adblock to block ads served from hosts that also serve content I'm interested in. Win win.

Better than extensions 4 speed & security

[Anonymous Coward]

APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-4 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?...

Ads rob speed, security (malvertising), privacy (tracking).

Hosts add speed (hardcodes/adblocks), security (bad sites/poisoned dns), reliability (dns down), & anonymity (dns requestlogs/trackers) natively.

Works vs. caps & PUSH ads.

Avg. page = big as Doom http://www.theregister.co.uk/2... & ads = 40% of it.

Hosts != ClarityRay blockable (vs. souled-out to admen inferior wasteful redundant slow usermode addons)

Less power/cpu/ram + IO use vs. DNS/routers/addons/antivirus (slows you) + less security issues/complexity.

Compliments firewalls (blocking less used IP addys vs. hosts blocking more used domains) & DNS (lightens dns load).

Gets data via 10 security sites.

APK

P.S. - Safe https://www.virustotal.com/en/... (Verified by Malwarebytes' S. Burn "seen the code & it's safe" http://forum.hosts-file.net/vi... )

BriefTube

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi! I'm the proud creator of BriefTube, a chrome extension that creates succinct tables of content from lengthy youtube videos. I'd love to hear your thoughts - http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/07/27/youll-love-watching-lectures-on-youtube-with-this-chrome-extension/#gref

Odd days, even days

[radarskiy]

On odd days, we mock the proles for not using browser extension, thereby leaving themselves vulnerable to security exploits and tracking.

On even days, we mock the proles for using browser extensions, thereby leaving themselves vulnerable to memory leaks.

Ghostery = 'souled-out' & inferior vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

Can ghostery do 16 things hosts do for speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. malicious sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C's
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnet C&C's
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C'ss
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned/downed dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks & hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O use

* ANSWER ="NO" OR as well vs. hosts (natively vs. illogically inefficiently "Bolting on 'MoAr'").

APK

P.S.=> Addons do less vs. hosts & less efficiently - hosts do MORE w/ less + start w/ IP stack before REDUNDANT inefficient addons BEGIN to work!

Ghostery (Advertiser owned) "Fox guards henhouse" -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery#Criticism

Video Download Helper

[Anonymous Coward]

Video Download Helper: Can't believe I do not see this more. When you are looking for content to watch, Video Download Helper lets you use your hard disk like the VHS recorder of yesteryear. You start the moving playing (no need for any stinking 'players' that might infect you. Once the video starts playing the three balls in the menu bar will start spinning, select it and you will see the movie downloading. Once its finished downloading you can watch without interruption, no spinning spooler icon. Even if you lose your Internet Connection (which can happen in a bad storm) you can still watch any content that you have downloaded for 'time-swap' viewing. After watching, delete video and voila, you are using your computer's hard disk like a VCR Recorder.

One of the biggest weaknesses of the cable company's DVRs is that they are not available if you do not have an Internet connection. After a particularly bad storm, power was restored rather rapidly, however the cable would not have come back up until the next working day (it was the weekend) had I not called. When the cable repairman arrived, 4 hours later, I learned they were using car batteries to backup the connection to our neighborhood and those car batteries had not charged, thus the device between me and them would not come back up with the power until he reset it.

iOpus iMacros: use the recorder to record your keystrokes and automatically replay whatever you just did. Used it at work to perform regression testing to changes that impacted the browser. Used it on a game to automatically attack the enemy in a predetermined pattern while I did something else. Allot of fun.

NoScript: Many others have mentioned, enough said...great addon

Firebug: Why develop without it.

Flash, in my opinion, SUCKS. So anything that helps me avoid it is a good thing. When I learn a site puts content in Flash, I typically can find another source elsewhere and rarely, if ever, go back to that site.

With that said....I have rarely encountered any one plugin that dealt with Flash effectively on its own. Some that have helped me, none of which are fool proof (because its Flash, duh) are:

HTML Video Everywhere: Is a decent add on.

  Download Flash and Video:

  Youtube Flash Video Player:

  Shockwave Flash: Last time I looked for someone else, it could not be located. Adobe's site buggered the install and does not offer it as an individual download.

But the real question you should be asking, what does any of this matter since PlugIns and Extensions appear to be going away and will not be in Microsoft future dominant web browser, Edge, that will be integrated with the OS?

Anyone want to bet that the browser wars, thanks to MS Edge, is about to heat up like never before. Hey Edge will play HD content....Microsoft will mess that up by not using an OPEN High Definition Codec.

History repeats itself for the umpteenth time....

Re: Never use Browser extensions!

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you talking about 'normal' browser extensions or those for dodgy activities like warez or prawn?

My favourite addon/extension list:

[iSlasher]

My picks would be:
* uBlock Origin
* LastPass
* Youtube Video Downloader
* Data Saver (For Chrome Only)

AdBlock = inferior + 'souled-out' vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

Adblock can't do (or do as well) 16 things hosts do 4 speed, security & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnet C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned/downed dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks & hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O us

* ANSWER ="NO"

APK

P.S.=> Ab+ does less vs. hosts less efficiently (a 128-151mb memory hog http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...)

ClarityRay defeats it

Ab+'s bribed not to work by default http://www.businessinsider.com...

AdBlock's SLOWER: http://superuser.com/questions...

AdBlock = inferior + 'souled-out' vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

Adblock can't do (or do as well) 16 things hosts do 4 speed, security & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnet C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned/downed dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks & hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O us

* ANSWER ="NO"

APK

P.S.=> Ab+ does less vs. hosts less efficiently (a 128-151mb memory hog http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...)

ClarityRay defeats it

Ab+'s bribed not to work by default http://www.businessinsider.com...

AdBlock's SLOWER: http://superuser.com/questions...

AdBlock = inferior + 'souled-out' vs. hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

Adblock can't do (or do as well) 16 things hosts do 4 speed, security & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnet C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned/downed dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks & hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O us

* ANSWER ="NO"

APK

P.S.=> Ab+ does less vs. hosts less efficiently (a 128-151mb memory hog http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...)

ClarityRay defeats it

Ab+'s bribed not to work by default http://www.businessinsider.com...

AdBlock's SLOWER: http://superuser.com/questions...

Ublock's far less efficient + does FAR less

[Anonymous Coward]

UBlock can't do these as well as (or @ all) hosts do 4 speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C's
3.) Protect vs. dyndns botnet C&C's
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C's
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks/hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O use
17.) UBlock now uses hosts (no DNS benefits vs. dns issues) - poor imitation = "sincerest form of flattery"

Hosts = native vs. illogically "Bolting on 'MoAr'" & not ClarityRay blockable like addons.

APK

P.S.=> Hosts (1st resolver) do MORE w/ less in fast kernelmode & before slow usermode addons

Hosts ~3mb vs. UBlock = 64MB -> http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...

Ublock's far less efficient + does FAR less

[Anonymous Coward]

UBlock can't do these as well as (or @ all) hosts do 4 speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C's
3.) Protect vs. dyndns botnet C&C's
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C's
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks/hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O use
17.) UBlock now uses hosts (no DNS benefits vs. dns issues) - poor imitation = "sincerest form of flattery"

Hosts = native vs. illogically "Bolting on 'MoAr'" & not ClarityRay blockable like addons.

APK

P.S.=> Hosts (1st resolver) do MORE w/ less in fast kernelmode & before slow usermode addons

Hosts ~3mb vs. UBlock = 64MB -> http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...

Ublock's far less efficient + does FAR less

[Anonymous Coward]

UBlock can't do these as well as (or @ all) hosts do 4 speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C's
3.) Protect vs. dyndns botnet C&C's
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C's
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks/hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O use
17.) UBlock now uses hosts (no DNS benefits vs. dns issues) - poor imitation = "sincerest form of flattery"

Hosts = native vs. illogically "Bolting on 'MoAr'" & not ClarityRay blockable like addons.

APK

P.S.=> Hosts (1st resolver) do MORE w/ less in fast kernelmode & before slow usermode addons

Hosts ~3mb vs. UBlock = 64MB -> http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...

AdBlock = inferior + 'souled-out' vs. host

[Anonymous Coward]

Adblock can't do (or do as well) 16 things hosts do 4 speed, security & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnet C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned/downed dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks & hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O us

* ANSWER ="NO"

APK

P.S.=> Ab+ does less vs. hosts less efficiently (a 128-151mb memory hog http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...)

ClarityRay defeats it

Ab+'s bribed not to work by default http://www.businessinsider.com...

AdBlock's SLOWER: http://superuser.com/questions...

Ublock's far less efficient + does FAR less

[Anonymous Coward]

UBlock can't do these as well as (or @ all) hosts do 4 speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. bad sites (past ads)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnet C&C's
3.) Protect vs. dyndns botnet C&C's
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnet C&C's
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam payloads
9.) Protect vs. phish payloads
10.) Protect vs. caps
11.) Get past dns blocks
12.) Keep off dns request logs
13.) Speed up 2 ways (adblocks/hardcodes)
14.) Work on anything webbound multiplatform.
15.) Ez data edit
16.) Block ads more efficiently in cpu/ram/I-O use
17.) UBlock now uses hosts (no DNS benefits vs. dns issues) - poor imitation = "sincerest form of flattery"

Hosts = native vs. illogically "Bolting on 'MoAr'" & not ClarityRay blockable like addons.

APK

P.S.=> Hosts (1st resolver) do MORE w/ less in fast kernelmode & before slow usermode addons

Hosts ~3mb vs. UBlock = 64MB -> http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...