Browser Extensions That I Like
It's just browser extensions I like, what more?
←← Take me back to the writings directory!This article is an adaptation of a post I made on Tumblr sharing propaganda for Firefox. This article won't be Firefox propaganda since frankly none of these extensions are exclusive to Firefox anyway (I think). I believe most of these extensions can be sorted as extensions for utility and accessibility, so if you're looking for those kinds of extensions... mayhaps take a look?
UBlock Origin
I'll probably end up removing this section. I do like uBlock, but do I really need to explain why I love not seeing ads?
XKit Rewritten
XKit is an extension made for Tumblr. If you don't use Tumblr or don't plan to, skip this bit.
Using the desktop version of Tumblr is... fine, but XKit Rewritten adds a lot of tweaks and features to the site that have ultimately improved my experience. You can pick and choose which features to activate so it can cater to your usage of Tumblr.
To get a feel of XKit's usefulness, I'll go over the features I use:
A peek into what XKit can do.
- Notification Block: Blocks notifications from a specified post. There hasn't been a situation where my notes have blown up, thus signifying a need for this feature, but I keep it handy.
- Quick Reblog: Allows you to quickly reblog a post without having to bring up the post editor. You can add some tags from the quick reblog menu, and it works with the quick tag feature!
- Quick Tags: Allows you to tag things quickly. (But in various ways!) I mainly use this features for its ability to do bundles of tags at once (for example: if I commonly tag my photography as 'photography', 'nature' and 'pepy photography', I can put those all in a tag bundle to add to a post in one click, instead of having to type out each tag). Some people also will tag the name of an asker when receiving an ask in order to find the post later, and quick tags has a toggle to do that automatically when receiving asks.
- Tweaks: The tweaks feature encapsulates a ton of little changes to the site's look, of which you can choose to your liking. The tweaks this feature includes (but are not limited to) are removing the 'follow' buttons next to usernames, hiding your own posts on the dashboard, and hiding filtered posts (meaning posts containing tags you've blocked) entirely.
An honorable mention for XKits anti-capitalism feature, which blocks ads on Tumblr. I don't use this feature since uBlock already takes care of the ads. The list above is subject to growth, as the amount of features I've listed (4, at the time of writing) is only a fraction of the features XKit offers (33 total features counted).
Enhancer for Youtube
This extension offers a handful of modifications to the Youtube site to cater to your own uses. I will say, if you choose to get this extension you should definitely configure it before use. I think by default the enhancer has all of its features enabled, some of which are quite bothersome... For example, there are features to flip the video vertically, flip the video horizontally, and a feature to control the playback speed of a video with your scroll wheel.
The only two features I use with Youtube Enhancer are the volume boosting and the video filter feature. The latter one is especially useful if you like to watch horror games or generally anything with low brightness. This extension also has an ad block feature, but I don't use it because uBlock Origin. That being said, the ad block on the enhancer extension is more catered to the Youtube experience, as you can choose to whitelist certain content creators who you still want to support.
SponsorBlock
While uBlock Origin takes care of the standard Youtube ad, SponsorBlock can be used to skip advertisements content creators put into the video itself. The whole thing is run on community submitted segments, and I've found that their database of segments is quite thorough. Even if there's some inaccuracies, you can downvote inaccurate segments or submit a segment of your own. If you're unsure about submitting segments, the extension has a wiki on what makes a segment valid.
SponsorBlock can also be used to skip more than sponsorships. The extension has options that allow you to skip filler/tangent jokes, intro animations or skits, self-promotion, and more.
Unrelated to the utility of the extension, SponsorBlock also keeps track of how many segments you've chosen to skip, and how much time it saved you. If you submitted any segments, it'll also tell you how many times your submitted segments have been skipped, and how much time you saved other people. There's even a leaderboard for submitted segments. Not necessary, but it's a bit of fun and provides beneficial competition!
Multi-Account Containers
Unlike other extensions thus far, I'm not sure if this one works on Chrome — but it works for sure on Firefox. Anywhoo, I haven't been using this extension to it's full power, but I believe it has a lot of strengths. With this extension, I could have two different tabs open on the same site, yet have different accounts — this works because one of the tabs has been opened in a multi-account container. By default, the extension comes with 4 default containers: Personal, Work, Banking, and Shopping, but you can configure things to add more than just these 4 containers.
If there's specific sites you need to be in a certain container, you can reopen a tab in a specified container or choose to only open a site when in a specific container.
This is probably very impractical to use, but at least it looks kinda pretty...?
Tabliss
Tabliss is an extension that allows you to override the look of a new tab when you create one. I dunno if this works on Chrome, but it for sure is on Firefox. I'm a fan of this particular extension because of how many ways you can customize a new tab. Most of the customization is done through widgets, of which can be arranged on different positions on the screen and have their own sub-settings for customizability.
My personal Tabliss settings are pretty plain (ex-Chrome user, boooo!), so I made a new Tabliss design to demonstrate what possible directions you can go with Tabliss. If you'd like to see my usual layout anyways, you can click here.
Shinigami Eyes
As of December 14th 2024, I don't fully endorse this extension anymore. I still see the value of it, however lately there has been some issues with false flagging which made me decide to uninstall it. More specifically, there seems to be a consistent issue where the extension flags intersex, transmasc, nonbinary, and people of color as transphobic for seemingly no reason. This came to my attention when Tumblr user hellsitegenetics was recently marked as transphobic, which seemed to coincide with them sharing intersex positivity posts.
When I say the extension does this, it kinda makes it sound like this is the result of an algorithm, but no. To my knowledge the reports on Shinigami Eyes are moderated by actual people, which makes this turn of events even more disappointing to me.
While looking for information on this event, someone else online did point out something important: Being trans doesn't absolve you from being transphobic. This person specifically cited instances of intersex and transmasc blogs putting transfems down in their advocacy against intersexism or transmasc discrimination (though this person did not link any specific instances). I personally have not seen this play out, but this isn't to say I don't believe them as I can totally see how this would happen (see: leftist in-fighting). Still, this highlights an issue with the extension itself that I don't wanna look past anymore, and it's that you can't see why a person was marked as trans-friendly or transphobic. If this were in place maybe there'd be a less consistent string of negative reviews. Or maybe the reviews would get MORE negative. I dunno, but the transparency would be nice.
In retrospect, it was naive of me to recommend this extension as like, a no-thought solution for avoiding transphobes online. If you're building an initial blocklist maybe this extension has value for doing that, though it'll still be on you to investigate whether the extension's claims are legit. This is also why I'm not out right removing the extension from this page. It still has value, though not as much as it did before.
This is where the utility of the extensions begins to deviate, but what's seen as 'useful' can depend on what you're looking for! If you're someone concerned with LGBT issues, particularly trans issues, Shinigami Eyes highlights what users (or even whole websites) are trans-friendly or anti-trans. Like SponsorBlock, how Shinigami Eyes determines who is anti-trans or not is dependant on user submissions. There is probably the fear of someone like a TERF marking themselves as trans-friendly to bait people, but Shinigami Eyes does have checks in place to make sure no japes are up. In my experience, I haven't encountered any inaccuracies with the extension.