Great browser extensions

TECHLIFE TEAM DIGS UP THE BEST NEW BROWSER EXTENSIONS FOR CHROME, FIREFOX AND MICROSOFT EDGE.

[ ABRACADABRA ] Genie History Search SEARCHING BROWSER HISTORY MADE EASY. Free | geniehistorysearch.com

THE INTERNET — there’s so much information on there and we keep browsing through so many websites that it’s hard to keep track of what we saw where. It’s harder still if you’re not in the habit of bookmarking, or saving bits and bobs you need in some kind of indexing app (like Index — issue 70, page 38). Genie History Search, a Chrome plugin, tries to take the pain out of finding the web pages you need when you want them quickly. For example, if you’ve been hunting down the best Chrome extensions and opened too many tabs, just click on the plugin’s blue lamp icon and type in your search criteria — “browser extensions” in this case — and you’ll get a list of all the pages you’ve got opened or have ever opened that relate to the search term. It even gives you options from your bookmarks as well. You can then click on the page you want to revisit which then opens in a new tab. It’s easy, it’s clean and helps you manage not just your browser tabs, but keep track of your search history as well.

[ SPEEDY GONZALES ] FAST FLIX SPEED UP YOUR NETFLIX BINGE SESSIONS. Free | jackhanford.com/fast-flix

Ever grown bored when a dull or overblown scene during a movie or a TV show plays on, yet you don’t want to miss a minute of the action? Well, with Fast Flix, you can speed up the playback on any streaming service or HTML5 video to get to the part you really want to watch without skipping ahead and possibly missing out.

This Chrome extension modifies the playback speed (up to 2x) of videos straight from your browser after a very speedy and easy installation from the Chrome Store. Once the little black icon is sitting on your toolbar, open a video, then click on the icon, choose the speed you want from the buttons on the right of the screen, and voilà! We gave it a whirl on both Netflix and Foxtel Now and it works a charm. If you need to go back to the original playback speed, just select the 1x button. This way, you can speed up your bingewatching and cram in more entertainment if you’re really pressed for time.

[ KEEP IT TOGETHER, MATE ] POUCH GET EASY ACCESS TO ALL YOUR GOOGLE DRIVE FILES. Free | tinyurl.com/tla73-pouch

If you’re a Google Drive or Dropbox user, you’ll know that having all your files stored away in the one online place is handy. But every time you need access to one of them, you’re switching application windows or browser tabs to find them. Which can seem a tad annoying when all you want is a file name or to quickly glance at something. Pouch can save you some trouble.

This Chrome plugin requires access to your Google and/or Dropbox accounts, then syncs all the files in either or both services, giving you access to them all straight from the browser’s toolbar. Within Pouch, you can ‘star’ files to add to favourites, filter them any way you want and open any document from within Pouch in a new tab.

We did have some trouble signing in, but it’s a brand-new extension with some bugs to polish out. Once it’s set up, however, it does make accessing Drive and Dropbox easy as. However, Pouch works only on the latest release of Chrome.