How to surf the web effectively. The best extensions.

Web browsers are gateways to the Internet, so they play a key role in your browsing experience. They shape the way we experience the Internet. There are many web browsers in the market, which one should you use? Unfortunately, the answer is not straightforward.

• Google Chrome: Known for its speed and extensive extension ecosystem, Chrome is ideal for general browsing and web development. It is designed to make the web faster, safer, and easier. Google Chrome is indeed fast and, of course, it is absolutely free of charge. Arch: yay -S google-chrome

Google Chrome supports themes and extensions, so you can customize the appearance of your browser (its look and feel) and expand its functions. Some of the extensions you may be interested in are:

1. Awesome Screen Recorder & Screenshot is the highest-rated screen capture & screen recorder tool.
2. AdBlock, block ads across the web; SponsorBlock for YouTube skip sponsorships, subscription begging and more on YouTube videos.
3. Grammarly for Chrome. “From grammar and spelling to style and tone, Grammarly helps you eliminate writing errors and find the perfect words to express yourself.”
4. Bonjourr. It transforms your browser’s new tabs into a beautiful, customizable and lightweight startpage. While it aims to look and feel minimal, it still brings you lots of options to customize it to your liking, e.g., Weather, Search bar, and import your current bookmarks from your browser.
5. Honey. It is a browser extension that unlock access to automatic coupons, promo codes, and deals to save you money.
6. Free VPN for Chrome. A free VPN service.
7. I don’t care about cookies is a really cool extension that removes annoying cookie warnings from many websites and saves you thousands of unnecessary clicks.
8. SuperCopy - Enable Copy is another great extension that allows you to copy text from restricted sites.
9. Unpaywall is a fast, free, and legal extension that lets you easily find legal free sources for articles behind paywalls. When you see the green tab beside a research article, click it to read the full text.

• Mozilla Firefox is a free, open-source, and very popular web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It is is easy to use and fast. Firefox supports extensive customization and add-ons.

• Brave is a security-focused web browser that blocks trackers and third-party cookies that monitor your activity by default. Let’s install it in Arch:

1. Firstly, we clone its repository:

   git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/brave-bin.git
   

2. Secondly, we move to the recently created directory: cd brave-bin
3. Finally, we create a package, install the package and missing dependencies: makepkg -si

   Alternatively, you can install it with the help of an AUR helper such as yay or paru: yay -S brave-bin

   Enable Brave Rewards: Click the Rewards icon △ Rewards Settings, Verify Wallet, Uphold. Fine-tune your Brave Rewards settings: Auto-Contribute (disable, this is a way to automatically support publishers and content creators), Brave Private Ads Settings (10 ads per hour).

• Vivaldi is fast, easy to use, and highly customizable with features like tab stacking and a built-in ad blocker for power users. It is an ultra-flexible browser for power users.

• Arc Browser: A visually appealing browser with built-in productivity tools like split-screen views and note-taking integration. Arc aims to keep things clean and clutter free by allowing users to create new workspaces. It is currently available on MacOS and Windows.

• Tor is one of the easiest ways to browse the web anonymously. “Tor Browser isolates each website you visit so third-party trackers and ads can’t follow you. Any cookies automatically clear when you’re done browsing.”

• Torch Browser is a free, Chromium-based web browser which adds a ton of different features for the modern user. Basically, you can easily share sites, download torrents, accelerate downloads, grab online media, play games, and listen to the music from within the browser.

Many security-related websites consider Torch Browser to be untrustworthy because it comes ‘bundled’ with a lot of questionable toolbars and programs.

Surfraw

Surfraw is a command line interface to many popular search engines and websites. It lets you search the web and find everything you need from the terminal very efficiently. It is a really time-saver.

Installation: sudo apt install surfraw surfraw-extra. It is a fast command-line interface to search engines. You can see a complete list of supported sites and search engines by typing: surfraw -elvi. Examples: surfraw [bing | google | wikipedia | youtube | duckduckgo…] justtothepoint, surfraw urban douchebag (Urban Dictionary), surfraw thesaurus love.

Buku

Buku is a command-line bookmark manager.

1. To install buku run: pip3 install buku
2. Add a website: buku -a url
3. Open by DB indices in the browser: buku -o index
4. Show all bookmarks: buku -p
5. Delete a bookmark: buku -d index
6. Help: buku -h.