Web User - UK (2019-12-11)

FIREFOX

Cookienotificationshavebecomeone
oftheinternet’sbiggestbugbears.
WhiletheymayberequiredbyEUlaw,
we’dliketothinkmostpeoplealready
knowaboutcookiesandwhysites
collectthem.Or,morelikely,they
blindlyclickAcceptjusttoaccess
awebsite.
CookiesNotificationHider(bit.ly/
cookie 490 )doeswhatitsaysonthe
tinbyhidingthosenotificationsfor
good.Whenyouvisitapage,the
add-onquicklyscoursthesiteand,
whentheoffendingnotificationappears,intervenesandhidesitjustbeforethe
noticehasachancetodemandyouacceptorclickGotIt.
Itwon’tworkoneverywebsite,soyoumaystillhavetoclickAccept(andemit
adeepsighasyoudoso),butwefounditusuallydiditsjob,gettingtothe
contentfasterandsavingawastedclick.

Best New Browser Tools

Tell us yourfavourite add-ons atwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 11 -26December 2019^33

Hide cookienotifications on

websites

BlockYouTube’s
recommended channels
YouTubehasanastyhabitofthrowing
uprecommendedchannelsand
suggestedvideosthatsuperficiallymay
berightupyouralley,butfrequently
aren’t.Forexample,watchjustone
videoaboutthatnewlaptopyou’re
consideringbuyingand,fortherest
oftime,YouTubewillpushforyouto
watchahundredmorereviewsofthe
samedevice.
Byadding‘X’salongsideeveryvideo
andchannel,ChannelBlocker(bit.ly/
blocker490)makes it incr edibly easy to
blockthese su ggestions forgood. With
oneclick,you’llbanishthem to the
add-on’sblock ed list, wherethey’ll
neverbother youagain.

Additionally,you canheadinto
ChannelBlocker’sconfigu ration settings
and manually add channels,video titl es
and comments.Thisrequires alittle
extraknow-how, though.

ImportChrome

bookmarksinto

Edge

AsthefullreleaseofEdge

Chromiumnears,Microsofthas

beenbeaveringawayon

arguablyoneofthemost

importanttools:importingyour

datafrom

Google

Chrome.

Thereare

twoways

toaccess

thisoption

–either

goto

Settings,

Profiles,

‘Import

browserdata’;orjumpstraight

toitviaedge://settings/

importData.SelectGoogle

Chromefromthe drop-down

menu,then choose your Chrome

profileand which data you’dlike

to import.Thisdoesn’t just

include thestandar dbookmarks

andpasswords–you caneven

bringoverall your opentabs.

Monitorunread

emailsinGmail

BadgeCheckerforGmail

(bit.ly/badge 490 )isauseful

toolwhenyouneedtokeepan

eyeonyourinboxbutdon’t

wanttokeepyourGmailopen.

Tosaveyoujumpingbetween

tabs or repeatedly loggingin,

this add-onputsani cononyour

toolba rwith abadge countof

unread emails. Once you’re

logged in,you don’tevenneed

to keep Gmailopeninatab.

Clicking thebrowser tool whis ks

youtoyourGmail account, then

right-clickingita nd selecting

Options lets youtweak how

oftenthe countisu pdated,

howmanyGmail accounts

to trackand your primary

account.

OTHERBROWSERS

This fortnight’s mostuseful tips and add-ons tohelp you get the

mostfrom Chrome,Firefox,Operaand more

Access anentirelibrary

ofGIFs

Associetyseeminglyabandonstext

infavourofemoji,memesandGIFs,it

canbe

usefulto

have

theseon

hand.

Afterall,

whohas

timeto

search

foraspecificvisualrepresentation

that adeq uately expressesour

deepest thoughts?

In such cases, Jiff GIF(bit.ly/gif490 )

is ideal. Click theadd-on’stoolbar

button to search through thousands

of GIFs.Selectone andyou’ll be given

thre eoptions:copyURL,copyGitHub

markdownand sa ve todisk .Inmost

instances, copyingthe URLand

past ingitwill suffice, although saving

to disk is id ealify ou find yourself

repeatedly deployingthe sameGIF

on multiplesocial-media threads

and emails.

Thelibrary is extensive, drawingon

multiple GIFcatalogues, so there’s

onefor everymoment. Youcan also

toggle on Dark Mode when youfirst

open theadd-on.