For me, it would have to be Hola Unblocker, it lets you access websites that are blocked in your country, or content that is blocked in your country. (I.e. The American version of Netflix in the Uk) https://hola.org/
SmartVideo for YouTube. Definitely improves the experience, and I can finally watch 720p because of it. Videos don't stop buffering when you pause. Lots of options. Firefox version available as well. HTTPS everywhere. A must if you go on public networks sometimes, makes sure sites that offer HTTPS have them enabled, so people can't sniff your data. Hover Free. Hover your mouse over a picture or direct link to see it in fullsize. Super useful for Facebook and websites like reddit. HerpDerp for YouTube. While the name is silly, it has made YouTube a lot more tolerable for me. Turns all comments into herps and derps until you click them. AdBlock, obviously. Just remember to disable it for websites you actually wish to support, and that has non-intrusive ads! Their websites can't run for free! Firefox version available as well. YTshowrating. Shows the number of thumbs up/down in a nice way on YouTube. Facebook full-size profile pictures Vew full-size profile pictures of people you aren't even friends with. StayFocusd Useful if you're like me, easily distracted by the internet. Block pages (except some, like wikipedia) when you really need to study or concentrate. Gmail checker Small icon in your browser that shows how many unread emails you have. Also check out other add-ons by Google! Reddit plugins: Reddit Enhancement Suite, a must! Reddit Companion, also a must! Reddit NSFW links in incognito, in case other people might see your log.
Regarding SmartVideo, Youtube forced me over to HTML5 with no option to go back to flash and I could not get SV to work even though it claims to support HTML5. I'm on chrome on windows 7 FWIW. If anyone else has this problem, check out YoutubeCenter. You'll need TamperMonkey on chrome to install it. It does basically the same things SV does and a bit more. There's a full-fledged extension also, but I've read it doesn't work.
Ghostery if you're paranoid like me. Be sure to actually set it to block advertisers, I think as default it just lists who or what is tracking you. If the names are not greyed and crossed out then it is not blocking them.
If you're using Google Chrome, I recommend: Google Dictionary - Double-click a word and it will give you the definition. Rottenizer - Shows you Rotten Tomatoes scores on Netflix Stay Focused - Limits the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. You can block whatever sites you want for whatever amount of time you want so you can stay focused. However, you can still turn it off whenever you want... But that decision is yours. Hover Free - enlarges picture thumbnails when you hover over them. Dictionary of Numbers - This one can get kind of annoying, but it helps put numbers into perspective. For example, if someone says "$3 million," it will say "[≈ cost of 30-second Super Bowl advertisement]" right after that. I find it interesting just to see certain things. Disconnect - Loads pages faster and stops sites from tracking you.
No one has said mediahint yet so... mediahint. (just follow instructions) basically mediahint lets you mask your ip as an american one giving you the ability to watch american Netflix and some websites that otherwise could be blocked in your location. It has worked wonders for me and just as i thought Netflix was getting useless
When I was on Firefox: * adblock plus for obvious reasons. be sure to enable the easyprivacy list! * cookiemonster for extra privacy and fine-grained cookie control. * noscript to provide fine-grained script control. it speeds everything up and makes your browser more secure. * requestpolicy to block just about everything except what i actually want to see. it's essentially the noscript concept generalized to all external references. * https everywhere for, uh, https everywhere * pentadactyl for vim ui Now that I'm on dwb, equivalents of all of these are either built-in or provided by the developer, which is just as good with the combination of adblock, cookiemonster, noscript, and requestpolicy, my normal browsing mode is more private and secure than the default incognito mode. i recommend ghostery if you don't want to go quite this far.
These are the ones that I have that I find really useful: AdBlock Plus - Blocks ads Greasemonkey (Firefox) - Runs userscripts iMacros (Firefox) - In-browser automation Omnibar (Firefox) - Basically combines the address bar and the search bar Tab Mix Plus (Firefox) - Makes tabs easier to use Magic Actions for YouTube - Makes YouTube better
I can't agree with you more: Living in Germany where a ridiculous amount of videos on youtube are blocked due to GEMA, those unblockers are really helpful. Also they help me to watch Netflix from Europe, which is awesome too! For Firefox I have a variety too: * Screengrab!, which is super awesome to make screenshots of websites * FireBug and Web Developer for Web Developing, which I really like on Firefox * FoxyProxy which helps to use TOR with the regular FireFox And of course the obligatory Reddit Enhancement Suite mention, if you surf reddit!
cryptocat for Firefox.Cryptocat is free software that aims to provide an open, accessible Instant Messaging environment that encrypts your conversations and works right in your browser.
I really like imgur's browser plugins and get the most mileage out of their right-click context menu. Makes rehosting and sharing images super easy.
Adblock Plus or an equivalent adblocker. They all go by the same name (adblock) but developed by different people. Some are better than others. The original/official is the one I linked for Firefox. But really, as long as it has the "adblock" name, it's pretty much a must have. I also have a scroblr extension for my browser, which detects youtube, google music, pandora, etc. I love my last.fm. I also have an app on my computer for scrobbling from itunes. I used to be real big on extensions, but since I've switched to safari I haven't really used many of them.
I suggest Adblock Edge. Adblock Edge is a fork of the Adblock Plus version 2.1.2 extension. The fork provides the same features as Adblock Plus 2.X and higher but without the "acceptable ads" feature. Adblock Edge was primarily branched off from Adblock Plus 2.1.2 source code package. (Firefox only.)
I read a lot of articles online, so readability is a godsend. Some sites don't render well on my computer, so it is really nice that readability strips the content and shows it in a pleasant format.
I live in Germany where all the music sites are blocked due to an incredibly stupid profit organisation called "GEMA". This does also count for Youtube, where more videos are censored than in China(!). Needless to say that plugins like Proxtube and (for example) Grooveshark Unlocker are essential. Thanks to your post I just learned about Hola Unblocker, which might be a cool alternative to all the unlocking tools.