As fantastic as the internet is, browsing the web can often be annoying. Here are a few extensions and addons to fix common internet annoyances.
We're talking about annoyances like autoplaying videos on websites, banners to accept cookies on a page, chat popups, and sticky headers taking up space. These distractions and recurring tasks take up too much mind-space and suck the fun out of browsing. It's time to get rid of these internet irritants once and for all.
Ever since the EU passed the GDPR Law, you must have seen these annoying pop-ups. They take up a large amount of the screen, telling you that the website stores cookies and you have to press the "I agree" button to proceed.
I Don't Care About Cookies detects the message on any website and auto-presses the button for you. You won't see that annoying pop-up anymore. It works on all browsers except Safari. You can also install it on Firefox for Android. Of course, this means you are granting permission to sites for storing cookies.
Before you install the extension, you might want to learn about how cookies affect your online privacy. But if you are clicking "I agree" every time anyway, then download the addon for a less intrusive browsing experience.
Download: I Don't Care About Cookies for Chrome | Firefox | Opera | Edge (Free)
A new trend among websites is to add a little popup chat tool to entice customers. These are often bots, but even if it's a real human, the chat bubble is annoying when all you want to do is browse. Hello, Goodbye blocks these live chat support popups by default.
When a chat window is blocked, you'll see the extension get a layover called "Help." This means it's actively working on the site you're on, and you can disable it with a click to see the chat window.
Hello, Goodbye is open source for anyone to check the code and claims it doesn't use any trackers to infringe upon the user's privacy. If you don't want to use the extension, you can add its list of chat and sales widgets to any adblocker you use.
Download: Hello, Goodbye for Chrome | Firefox | Edge (Free)
Auto-playing videos are the most annoying internet trend in recent times. Far too many websites now start playing a video as soon as the page loads, and often it isn't even related to the article you're reading. AutoplayStopper is here to put an end to it.
The extension does exactly what it says, killing all HTML5 video before it has a chance to run. You'll see a thumbnail, and you'll have to press the play button to start the video--- just as it always should have been.
AutoplayStopper has a few smart features that make it better than other ways to stop autoplaying Flash and HTML5 videos. You can whitelist certain websites, and you can allow a whole session on a website. So if you're browsing YouTube, only the first video will be blocked, but after that, the rest will autoplay as you open them.
Download: AutoplayStopper for Chrome (Free)
Many websites always show their headers, footers, social sharing buttons, and other elements no matter how much you scroll. It's distracting for a browsing experience, and often entirely unnecessary. If you value screen space, Sticky Ducky will remove all those extraneous and unwanted objects.
While doing this, Sticky Ducky keeps the website's original formatting and design, so it's not like one of those "reading mode" apps. Instead, it's a simple script that alters the CSS elements of the page temporarily.
And of course, those elements are not completely gone. You can see those headers or buttons by hovering over where they'd appear normally, by scrolling up once (the best option on touchscreens) or scrolling to the top of the page. You can also add some sites or specific web pages to a whitelist that will always allow these elements.
Download: Sticky Ducky for Chrome | Firefox (Free)
ZapFixed is another similar tool available only for Chrome users. In our tests, it worked better for media and news sites than Sticky Ducky. However, it's a little temperamental and you sometimes have to run it twice or thrice before it'll work.
Download: ZapFixed for Chrome (Free)
There are a few websites you visit more often than others, right? Social media, shopping, some news outlets, a sports website, or your favorite tech blog like us. You might love 90% of it, but don't care for 10%. Content Blocker will let you remove those 10% of elements that you never use and don't want to see.
Visit the website and click the Content Blocker icon in Chrome's extensions bar. The whole page will get a red overlay, with each element now letting you interact with it. 'Close' any element you don't want to see, just like pressing X to close a window. Keep going till you've customized the page to how you like it.
If at any point you want to go back to the original page, click the button to undo all changes. This is a fresh start each time, so make sure you're using it only when you really need it. If you just want to check the full page once, open it in an incognito window where Content Blocker won't switch on.
Download: Content Blocker for Chrome (Free)
It's happened to all of us at some time, right? There's an inappropriate image on the screen, inadvertently or not, at just the wrong time when someone else glances at it. The internet doesn't always warn you before serving up Not Safe For Work (NSFW) images, so this filter will fix the problem for you.
NSFW Filter uses computer vision algorithms to scan all images open in your browser tab, and detect which ones are NSFW. And it'll simply block them, there's no way you or anyone can see them after that. The extension is open-source and runs within your browser, with no data collected from the user.
In our tests, the NSFW Filter works quite well, although a few pictures still manage to beat the system at times, especially when it comes to thumbnails. Still, it's about a 90% success rate, which is great.
Download: NSFW Filter for Chrome | Firefox (Free)
No, Thanks combines many of the aforementioned features into one browser extension, and adds other ways to deal with annoyances. It costs €9.85 annually unlike the other free addons, but it might be worth it given what it can do:
- Block and auto-close all kinds of newsletter pop-ups
- Block chat, feedback, and contact boxes in the corner
- Block 'Install our app' boxes and toolbars
- Block 'Allow notifications' pop-ups
- Block 'Allow us to know your location' requests
- Block and auto-close all kinds of surveys and opinion pop-ups
- Block website ratings, 'website protected by...' and similar boxes
- Block toolbars offering website translation
- Block 'Scroll to top' buttons
- Block big 'Login / Register' pop-ups
- Block video boxes in the corner
- Block 'Pay' and 'Subscribe' boxes offering premium services
- Block pop-ups offering shopping, reading, and similar suggestions
- Automatically confirm you are 18+ years old when needed if you really are
It might seem strange to pay for an extension like this, but if you think about it, you might be earning some much-needed peace of mind. And isn't that worth 10 euros a year? You can also pay and download the extension, and ask for a refund within 14 days if you don't like it.
Download: No Thanks for Chrome | Firefox (Free)
The list of internet annoyances doesn't end here. You have to deal with spoilers. You must remember passwords. You need to recall which tab you liked that article on after you closed the tab. There's usually a way to get rid of every internet annoyance through an extension, app, or browser settings. You just need to find them.
