Cross Download

We recommended the ad blocker uBlock for Firefox  but at that point it wasn’t available through the official Add-ons site Since then, the team behind uBlock has split up, and the creator has “forked off” aversion called uBlock Origin, which now appears on the Add-ons site (although it hasn’t yet been reviewed by Mozilla). This works in exactly the same way, blocking ads on web page sand in online videos using the same filter lists as Adblock Plus but consuming a lot less memory. As with Adblock Plus, you can choose which filters to apply and create your own ‘rules’, although uBlock Origin (which is also available for Chrome) doesn’t give you the option to allow “acceptable” ads.

Having lots of tabs open can result in random clicking to find the one you want. Tab Sorter makes life easier by rearranging your tabs to display in alphabetical order, from left to right. Just right-click a tab and choose Sort Tabs By Title. As well as helping you find specific tabs quickly, this best add-on lets you see if you’re wasting memory by having the same page open in more than one tab.

If you frequently have your YouTube viewing interrupted by emails, Facebook or work, install Smart Pause for YouTube. Instead of having to drag the progress bar back to replay anything you’ve missed, this add-on automatically pauses YouTube videos as soon as you switch to another tab, and resumes playing them when you return, without you needing to click anything. It’s so smooth that you’ll barely notice it pause and unpause.

In the early days of browsers, the Home button was vital for returning to the starting point of your session, but it’s since been usurped by the New Tab page. Usable Home Button gives Home the new function of taking you straight to the homepage of the website you’re viewing. This is useful when the site itself hides that option, although you may first need to add the Home button to your toolbar (Mozilla removed it a while ago) by choosing Customize in the Settings menu.

Other Browser Adds-on

Stack and tile browser tabs in Vivaldi

The latest Technical Preview of Vivaldi (www.vivaldi.com) introduces a clever feature called Tab Stack Tiling, which lets you view the contents of several tabs simultaneously within the same window. To use it, simply drag the tabs on top of one another to create a single stacked tab, then hover your mouse over it to access the individual pages. Right-click the stacked tab and choose Tile Tab Stack to view all the pages side by side. You can use the ‘Page tiling’ option at the foot of the browser to tile the tabs horizontally or vertically, or in a grid.

See who ‘unfriends’ you on Facebook

Sometimes, the only way to find out if someone has ‘unfriended’ you on Facebook is to check whether your friend count has decreased, then go through the whole list to workout who’s missing. The Opera add-on Who Deleted Me, which is also available for Chrome and Firefox, identifies the splitters and shows whether they specifically ditched you or merely deactivated their account. It’s certainly one way to decide who gets to stay on your Christmas list!