Many people are aware of the different browsers out there – Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple’s Safari are a few of the bigger ones. But what many people do not realize is that these browsers have add-ons (sometimes called extensions) that can make your browsing experience better (or worse). The majority of add-ons and extensions are available for Google Chrome and Firefox, though more are coming for other browsers as well. Some of these add-ons, such as the search toolbars, I find annoying, as they seem to take up unnecessary space and slow down performance. But there are a few I find worthwhile, and perhaps you will too. Best of all, they’re all free and easy to use!
Block Annoying Ads
Tired of all the flashy annoying ads online? Me too. Adblock Plus (adblockplus.org) makes sure the most annoying ads are never seen by the user, and also adds some privacy and malware protection as an added bonus. If you’re tired of seeing all kinds of “Share” buttons for social media everywhere, then this free product is definitely for you because it blocks those too! Unlike many extensions, Adblock Plus is actually available for a wide variety of browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari.
Maximize Your Cash Back
If you do a lot of shopping online and enjoy getting cash back with your credit card, you’ll find Wallaby useful. Wallaby specializes in managing your cash back credit cards. With so many cards having rotating bonus categories, it’s easy to forget which cards to use. When you sign up for Wallaby, you tell it which credit cards you have, and it will ll tell you which one to use. There’s a mobile app that will tell you based on your location, or a browser add-on that is currently available for Chrome that will tell you which card to use as you shop online. Check out more on this at https://www.walla.by/.
Speed Up Firefox
If you’re a Firefox user, FastestFox may be an add-on to look at. It includes several features that are meant to improve your browser’s speed and efficiency. If you’re viewing a series of pages, FastestFox begins downloading the next page as you’re viewing the current page. There is also some other tweaking that goes on behind the scenes, all to give you a faster browsing experience. FastestFox can be downloaded from the Mozilla add-ons website.
View Websites Like Internet Explorer …Without Internet Explorer
If you’re using Firefox, Chrome, or Safari, you’ve probably noticed that some websites just don’t seem to display correctly. The task of making a website compatible with many different browsers that behave differently can be tedious, and some websites may have not added the support. With Internet Explorer being the dominant browser for a number of years, many websites, especially older ones, were optimized for rendering within Internet Explorer. Fortunately, the solution for Firefox and Chrome users is an add-on called IE Tab. This add-on mimics Internet Explorer and renders pages as they would appear in Internet Explorer. IE Tab is available in both the Mozilla add-ons and Chrome web store.
These are just a few of the browser add-ons that I’ve found useful, but there are hundreds more. Which add-ons and extensions do you use to make your online experience even better?
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