WebUser – 21 August 2019

FIREFOX

Weloveadd-onsthat
make our newtabsmore
interesting –whether
theysimplyprovide the
date, timeandweather,
orlet usmake impromptu
notes.However, Quick
Maps (bit.ly/maps4 82 ) is
a newone onus. This
handyextension replaces
blandtabswith atoolthathelpsyou plana journey byenteringa starting
locationand destination.Whenyou first openyournewtab,Quick Mapsdisplays
a searchbar (powered byBing), a linktolivetraffic (powered byGoogle) and
satellitemaps (powered byNASA).
QuickMaps alsogives you the optiontoGet Directions. Click this(if it doesn’t
pop upautomatically)toset yourcourse.Choose which mapyou wanttouse –
Bing, GoogleandMapQuestare all supported –thenclickGet Directionsto
planyournextroadtrip.

Best New Browser Tools

Tell us yourfavourite add-ons atwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine^21 Aug - 3 Sept 2019^33

Plan trips on your new tabs

Checkthe accuracy of
subreddits
Reddit isone of the mostpopular social
mediaplatforms,andit owes muchof
its successtoits 1.2 million dedicated
subreddits, where users can postabout
everythingfrom hot political topicsto
StarWarsmemes.The problemisthat
its r/politicssubreddit isa hiveof
biased, incorrect orjust made-up news.
Tocombatthisproblem,Stopaganda
(bit.ly/stop4 82 ) scans the newslinks
onr/politics, thendecorateseachpost
with two colouredbadges. These let
you see ata glance whethera sourceis
typically accurateinits reporting,and
which way it tends tolean politically.
It’s a usefultoolwhenyou’relooking for
current affairs updates onthe
increasingly wildsocial network.

Capture anypart of

your screen

Droplr (bit.ly/drop4 82 )

providesaneasy way to

screenshotorscreencastany

partofyourscreenandshare

it. Click the toolbar buttonto

choosebetween image or

videocapture and decide

whetheror not tosaveimages

tothe desktop.Switching on

‘CaptureandAnnotate’ lets

you capture and savepartof the

screen. If you havemultiple tabs

open, the extension captures

themall. Whenthe processis

complete, you can choosethe

imagesyou wanttokeep. Click

the Share optiontodownload

a copy, or double-clickto

annotateyourscreenshotina

separatebrowser tab.

Summarise any

web page

The internet’s many

distractionsmakeit harder

andhardertofindtimefor

everythingwewanttodo. TLDR

This (bit.ly/tldr4 82 ) –which

stands for ‘TooLong, Didn’t

Read’ –isa clevertoolthat

summarises longarticles, texts

andessays.Witha singleclick,

thistime-saving toolsums up

the contentsofa web page,

picking out the mostrelevant

sectionsandfeeding themto

you inbullet-point form.

It’s usefulfor getting the gist

whenyou don’t havetimeto

read anentireessay. The

extension isalsoavailablefor

Chrome,Opera andFirefox.

OTHER BROWSERS

This fortnight’s most useful tips and add-ons to help you get the

most from Chrome, Firefox, Opera and more

Get the oldTwitter back

Firefox users havehadtoput upwith

Twitter’s controversial redesign just

likeeveryoneelse. Untilnow,thatis,

becausea newextension,Tweak New

Twitter (bit.ly/tweak 482 ), aimsto

combatTwitter’s renewed focus on

‘engagement’ – orkeeping you onthe

page toshowyou ads.

LikeChrome’s LatestTweetsFirst

add-on (seeopposite page), thistool

forcesTwitter todisplay tweetsin

chronological order. It alsoshifts

Retweetstoa separatesection,

removes the sidebar, ditches someof

the less usefullinksonthe left-hand

sideof the screenandshrinksthe

fontsizebacktonormal, making the

sitea littlemore peaceful.

If that’s not enoughfor you,try

Twitter Tamer (bit.ly/tamer4 82 ). This

browser tool letsyou hidejustabout

every aspect of the site, fromsidebar

distractionstoLikes and media.