CHROME32 21 Aug - 3 Sept 2019
Remove clickbait from
YouTube
YouTube has a clickbait prob lem.
Even a quick glance at the sidebar
bombards you with false claimsand wild
exaggerations, such as ‘Proof th e moon
landings were faked’, or ‘How I earned
nine million dollars in two days’. If you
can feel yourself being drawn in, your
best bet is to log off – or instal l Clickbait
Remover for YouTube (bit.ly/click482).
This add-on can’t actually remove these
irritating uploadsfrom YouTube, but it
lets you control how they appear.
Clicking the extension’s icon reveals
two options: ‘Where to grab the
thumbnail image’ an d ‘How to format
video titl es’, with further options below.
These remove the enticing cover images
that make videos seem so compelling. It
also limits the impact of sensationalist
headlines that grab your attention with
liberal use of CAPITAL LETTERS.
Get the latest tweets on
your timeline
Not everyone, it seems, is a fan of
Have you ever come across a dirty URL? These are web
addresses that contain datatelling the site how you
found its link. Companies use them all the ti me in online
ads, emails and sponsored posts to track your browsing
activity and monitor the effe ctivenes of th eir campaigns.
CleanURL (bit.ly/clear482) takes those filthy links and
scrubs away the tracking code so companies can’t see if
their sneaky advertising campaigns are working.
You can also scrub URLsmanually by going into the
Tools section – click the spanner icon – and pasting as
many links as you want into the box. CleanURL will spit
them out the other side, clean as a whistle. The tool is
still a work in progress and may not work on every link,
but the developers behind the extension are beavering
away to make it even better. Look out for a worksh op on
CleanURL in our next issu e.
Highlight anythingon
the web
One of Microsoft Edge’s best
feat ures is the ability to ‘write’ on
any web page using your mouse or
device pen. You can then share your
brightly coloured notes or save
them for later, which is useful for
students, professionals or anyone
who wants to highlight something
of interest ona website.
Liner (bit.ly/liner482) brings a
similar feature to Chrome. Select
some text using the left mouse
button, and a highlighter pen icon
appears beneath, alongwith a
selection of colours. Choose the
colour you want, then click the pen
icon to highlight your text so it
stands out on the web page or PDF
document. Click the text again to
changeits colours, add a comment
or delete the highlighting. If you
want to save your highlights so
they reappearwhen you next
visi t the site, you needto sign in
atgetliner.com/login.Twitter’s redesign. Users are particularly
botheredby the way the new filtering
system works. When you click Latest,
Twitter tends to switch back to Top
Tweets the moment you’re not looking.
But what if you’re not interested in
those supposedly popular tweets?
That’s where Latest Tweets First
(bit.ly/tweet482) steps in. With th is
extension instal led, you can scroll
through Twitter and see tweets as they
happen. It’s automatic, so you don’t
needto alter any settings, either in the
extension or onthe social media site.Best New Browser ToolsDelete hidden trackers from URLsAFTERBEFORE