The internet has a lot of positives; no more queuing up at the Post Office for your tax disc or spending hours on the phone to car insurance companies answering tedious questions and comparing the best deal for a flight and hotel is a few examples. Basically it saves a lot of hours but has in itself brought along a whole new set of headaches.
The biggest one is popups and adverts that appear while surfing the web. You might have recently visited a particular online store to browse for a new laptop and not actually bought anything. Next day you’re on a completely different website and you see the items you browsed yesterday appear as an ad on the screen. Now has does that happen you may wonder? Another problem is remembering passwords and when you do forget one you have to go through the whole rigmarole of resetting the password. Maybe you feel you’re being spied upon and don’t feel that safe when browsing? Well help is at hand for all these issues and more. I’ve got eight little web gems that’ll help you.
ADBLOCK PLUS
Want to stop those annoying ads and banners appearing when browsing? Look no further. AdBlock Plus does exactly what it says.
Website – https://adblockplus.org
GHOSTERY
In case you’re unaware, you’re tracked most of the time when browsing websites as it takes note of your preferences and your likes so it can push more of the same to you. It’s pretty harmless but it can be a bit intrusive. To take back control, install Ghostery so you can Blacklist the trackers you don’t want to keep tabs of your movements.
Website – https://www.ghostery.com/en-GB/home
LAST PASS
Advertised as ‘The Last Password You Have To Remember’, it will store all your passwords in encrypted format and is easily accessible in just a few clicks. With this facility, you can ask it to login automatically to a website with your username and password. Alternatively, if you’re not too keen on storing passwords in any way form then consider using my method as explained in a previous blog here.
Website – https://lastpass.com
HOOTSUITE
If you regularly send out messages and links using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media apps, then Hootsuite’s the tool for you. Hootsuite lets you share a webpage, images or video simultaneously from all your accounts without having to do each one individually. They can be set to go out at set times so you could have all your coming weeks’ messages setup in advance. It’s free to use for up to three Social Media apps.
Website – http://hootsuite.com
POCKET
Once known as Read it Later, Pocket lets you save pages from your computer or phone to read at home, work, or on your daily commute. The beauty about it is that you don’t need an internet connection so you could even read it on a plane journey.
Website – www.getpocket.com
PROXMATE
Do you ever come across websites that are inaccessible in the UK? With Proxmate it uses what’s called a Proxy server to trick the web in thinking that you’re viewing the site from another country.
Website – https://proxmate.me
GOOGLE DICTIONARY
Ever wandered what a particular word meant whilst browsing? Well instead of having to copy and paste that word in an online dictionary, installing the Google Dictionary will tell you exactly what it means simply by hovering over a word on a website. The ‘More’ option will give you translations, origin of the word and other definitions.
Source – Type Google Dictionary in your web browser search.
CLICK&CLEAN
Want to keep your browser in tip-top condition? Click&Clean is an extension that you install in your browser that’ll clean up all traces of your web activity, delete all redundant files that your browser accumulates over time and has built in Malware (Malicious Software) protection.
Source – Type Click&Clean in your web browser search.
