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?
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 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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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[ 0.18 ms ] story [ 128 ms ] threadI 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.
Session Buddy
200 OK (Local Plain html server)
Custom Javascript
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'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.
I also include uBlockOrigin and 1password
https://apps.apple.com/be/app/hacker-news-comments/id1602932...
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.
I think separation of these two utilities makes more sense.
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.
Thus, I use and recommend integrated password managers.
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.
- 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)
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)
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
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.
- 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