CHROME32 2 - 15 October 2019
Redirect Google searches
to DuckDuckGo
Designed so that “quitting Google
search doesn’ t have tobe cold turkey”,
DuckDuckSometimes (bit.ly/duck485)
is a handy browser tool if you’re tr ying
to wean yourself off Google. Head to
Google to run a search and every now
and then – in our tests, it was
approximately one in seven searches
- your search will automatically be
redirected to DuckDuckGo.
This lets you breakthe Google habit
without even thinkin g about it.
DuckDuckGo, of course, is famously the
anti-Google when it co mes to your data:
a privacy-focused search engine that’s
as goodas its rival, but doesn’ t capture
and flog all your information.
Adverts are a necessary evil of th e web – but the worst
are those that adopt a sneaky disguise, such as Google
ads masqueradingas search results and Reddit
promotions pretendingto be posts. It’s all too easy,
when you’re not really concentrating, to click these
sponsored ads instea d of genuine results.
NoDisguisedAdsAnymore (bit.ly/noads 485) tackles
this prob lem headon. Rather than removing adverts
entirely, it adds a fadeeffe ct so they are faintly visi ble
but no longer ‘i n your face’. You’re free to click them if
you like – it doesn’ t strip out the link – but it also makes
these types of ads a lot easier to ignore.
At present, the NoDisguisedAdsAnymore extension
works on adverts on Google, Reddit and Amazon.
It’s a work in progress, though, so it’s possible that
sites such as Twitter and YouTube will be addedin time.
to the likes of YouTube andNetflix.
Refined Prime Video (bit.ly/
prime485) seeks to changethis by
bringing a few welcome tweaks to
the platform, whil e adding some
handy new feat ures.
When you first set it up, click the
toolba r button and set your region- the tool won’t work otherwise. You
can then choose how and when
‘spoilers’ are displayed. This boils
down to blurring thumbnails and
hidingdescriptions for episodes you
haven’t watched yet, so you can
binge without fear.
The add-on also lets you jump to
Prime Video from whatever website
you’re on, and pick up shows and
films where you left off. Best of all,
if you’re sick of ads (and who isn’t?),
you can click ‘S’ during a pre-video
traile r to instantly skip it.
Learn alanguagewhile
readingthe news
Learning
a new
language
broadens
your
horizons
and, with
today’s
technology ,
there’s no
excuse not
to try. The
Duolingo app makes this easy on your
phone, and now TenWords (bit.ly/
tenwords 485) takes it to the next level.
Click the extension’s toolba r button,
set the language you want to learn
and you’ll get a selection of fo reign-
language articles and news websites.
Visit these, then click any or all the
words. A text field lets you manually
translate a word and choose whether
the word is Known or Unknown to you.
These words are then addedto cards on
the TenWords dashboar d for future
revisi on. The final option is to have the
word translated for you. It’s a clever way
to gradually build your language skills.Hack and improve Amazon
Prime Video
When it co mes to browser tools for
streaming services, Amazon Prime
Video often feels forgotten comparedBest New Browser ToolsFade deceptive adverts on websites