Browser extensions. They add a great layer of customizability to an otherwise bland browsing experience, but they come with a cost, namely, memory and cpu time. I myself am guilty of overextending, and both Chrome and Firefox make it very easy to do this, so I often have to run through my extensions page and disable them all then reenable. Here are the ones that always make the cut.
First, blockers that'll remove things you didn't want to be there in the first place:
1) AdBlock - this one's a must. Anyone who uses browser extensions knows to get this one. Now, there's a bit of confusion over whether to get this or AdBlock Plus. I personally prefer AdBlock because
a) Lighter memory footprint - it used anywhere from 10-100 mb less memory when I checked Chrome's task manager
b) Better customizability - AdBlock makes it way easier to add your own filters, which is useful if you ever find anything it didn't catch
2) Disconnect - probably the best of the different tracker-blocking addons. It runs in the background, nabbing as many trackers as it can and stopping them from collecting data about you. Now, from a privacy standpoint this may not be ideal, but from a speed standpoint it definitely is. That's a lot of scripts that your browser no longer has to run and load, and a lot of cookies that don't get stored. And, speaking of not running scripts...
3) ScriptBlock - Sure, it's not quite as nice as Firefox's NoScript, but it does essentially all of the same things, and having a good script blocker is a must for any good hacker. But why would you want to block scripts anyway? Well, the biggest reason is speed. My browser loads pages without scripts up to 90% faster. Another good reason is quality control. There is a strong inverse correlation between number of different domains you have to enable scripts for and the quality of the content of the site. If they require me to enable scripts from more than 5 different sites just to read an article, chances are I don't actually want to read that article. If nothing else, you also build up some funny bits of knowledge by having to explicitly allow any domains for scripts. Some sites seem to show up everywhere. Learning why is sometimes a fun puzzle (I'm looking at you, Amazon!).
4) Web Of Trust - I have yet to find a more extensive website-rating service. Web Of Trust takes reports form users all around the world about different websites, and collects them in a total rating, as well as some specific ones depending on the site (vendor reliability, for example). It'll alert you before you accidentally end up in the sketchy parts of the internet (most download sites, for example).
5) StayFocusd - This addon has probably done more for my productivity than all the others combined. It lets you set time limits for different websites in different timeframes (e.g. "only 10 minutes on Facebook from 9 -19:00 a day"). There are various ways to configure it so it's annoying to change settings, and attempts to guilt you back into work whenever you try to add time on websites you've listed as distracting. You can also go as far as to completely block certain websites in different times, if even 5 minutes is too many.
6) FooTab - Compared to the others here, this one's simple, but still incredibly useful. FooTab prevents all tabs that aren't in focus from loading for about 20 seconds after launch, so the first page you want to load can start up that much faster.
Now, the things that add to the experience of web browsing rather than just subtracting:
7) OneTab - this has become my tab manager of choice for Chrome - it puts a button in your navigation bar that will close all the tabs in your current window and store the url's for later recovery. Think of it as a slightly less powerful (but also lighter on resources) version of Firefox's tab groups
8) Vimium - adds vim-style shortcuts to Chrome. If you are or want to become a user of vim I can't recommend this addon highly enough. It adds standard hjkl scrolling, J/K tab navigation, H/L for the back and forward buttons, and a few other really useful ones. Once you get good at using it, you'll wonder how you ever browsed without it.
9) FastestFox for Chrome - here be automations that you didn't realize you wanted. It will automatically load the next page of an article / blog you're scrolling through when you get near the bottom of the page, will instantly look up definitions when you highlight a word, instantly reports how popular a link is, improves google results, and much more.
10) ZenMate - makes it incredibly easy to work with a proxy. It will run all your traffic through any of their locations (US, England, Germany, Switzerland, and Hong Kong) and encrypt it, increasing anonymity and allowing you to access content that's normally blocked in your country. They're in an early stage so offering unlimited bandwidth for anyone who makes an account now, though that may change down the line. It's not as secure as TOR, but it's one hell of a lot faster, so unless you really need that extra security I'd use this.
DISCLAIMER: I do not support or advocate any way that you use this addon to break the law. If you're using it to do something illegal and get caught, that's your problem not mine.
Anyway, that's my top 10. What are yours?
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