Best New Browser Tools This fortnight’s most useful tips and add-ons to help you get the most from Chrome, Firefox, Opera and more F FIREFOX
OTHER BROWSERS
Timestamp videos to resume watching later Some video sites remember how much of a video you’ve watched so you can pick up where you left off when you next visit. Others don’t, or they require you to log in or allow the site to store a cookie on your computer, which may not suit your private-browsing needs. A new WebExtension called Media URL Timestamper (bit.ly/ time436) solves this problem by letting you save your place in long videos, podcasts and other streams so you can resume your watching or listening later. By default, it timestamps all streams that are more than 10 minutes long at 60-second intervals, but you can easily change the settings or timestamp videos manually by right-clicking the address-bar icon and choosing ‘Update timestamp’. The tool works on a wide range of streaming sites, including YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Dailymotion and BBC iPlayer.
Try the new LastPass
Now that the fantastic Firefox 57 has finally arrived – see our Workshop on page 52 for full details – many developers have upgraded their add-ons to WebExtensions, which are compatible with the new browser. One such tool is the popular password manager LastPass. A beta version of the LastPass WebExtension (bit.ly/lastpass436) has been released, although we hope the stable version will be available by the time you read this. As with the old add-on, it lets you manage all your passwords in one place, storing logins securely so you can enter them on any website automatically, and protecting them with a single master password.
Destructing Cookies, which helps you protect your privacy online by setting websites’ cookies to delete 10 seconds after you’ve closed their tabs. Fortunately, an excellent alternative called Cookie AutoDelete (bit.ly/cookie436) is available that does work with Firefox 57. This WebExtension offers several options: you can make cookies disappear automatically when you close a tab, delete them manually for the current website, remove cookies for all open tabs or clear any cookies you haven’t specifically chosen to keep. We particularly like the way the add-on lists individual domains, so you can whitelist any site whose cookies you want to keep (to stop the website logging you out when you leave, for example), or ‘greylist’ them so your browser only stores the site’s cookies until it next restarts.
Stop websites mining your PC
Last issue, we addressed the growing problem of websites that sneakily harness your PC’s processing power to ‘mine’ for cryptocurrency, and recommended a Chrome extension called MinerBlock (bit.ly/miner435) to stop them. You can get the same protection in Opera by installing a new add-on called Mining Blocker (bit.ly/mining436), which scans websites for mining processes and code, and disables them before the site loads. The crypto-blocker then checks the site again after it has loaded to ensure no miner is running. It blocks more than 20 known cryptocurrency miners including CoinHive, JSEcoin and Minecrunch.
Block pop-up ads in Edge
Like most browsers, Microsoft Edge has a built-in pop-up blocker. Go to More, Settings, ‘View advanced settings’ and switch on ‘Block pop-ups’. If you find that pop-ups – and especially adverts – still appear, however, you can increase your blocking power by installing the new Popup Blocker extension (bit.ly/popup436). Any time a website requests to open a pop-up, this lightweight tool stops it and lets you accept or deny the request. You can also choose to open the pop-up in a background tab if, for example, it’s essential for logging into the site or viewing important information.
Delete cookies automatically
One handy add-on that hasn’t made the transition to WebExtension is Self-
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15 - 28 November 2017
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