Extensions continue to play a key part in adding third-party functionality to Safari. They’re often great ways to boost productivity, security, and privacy to a rather barebones browsing experience. But with the hundreds of Safari extensions available across different devices, it can feel overwhelming. Here’s a list of my top picks.
PiPifier – Picture-in-Picture for any video
PiPifier is a native Safari extension that lets you view any HTML5 video as a PiP (Picture-in-Picture). With the extension installed, you must pull up a video (YouTube, Twitch, Netflix, etc.), and click the Pipifier icon on the toolbar.
Overall, PiPifier brings a familiar experience we’re used to on iPhone and iPad, as a pretty smooth workaround for PiP videos. I’ve yet to run into a video that wasn’t compatible, though sometimes it can take a few minutes for the button to light up (become available) on larger files, such as movies.
Price: Free
Compatibility: Mac (macOS 10.12 or later)
StopTheMadness – Take back your web browser
StopTheMadness is likely the most capable and quirky extension on this list. Notability, it overrides websites’ attempts to lock out browser features such as ⌘-key keyboard shortcuts, drag and drop, AutoFill of usernames, passwords, and emails, selecting the text, and the list goes on.
It also removes tracking tags such as utm_source from URLs and prevents clickjacking in Gmail, Facebook, and others.
One of my favorite features is its ability to stop URL shorteners. StopTheMadness checks the links you click in Safari for well-known link shorteners like bit.ly and tinyurl.com, and loads the unshortened destination instead of the shortened URL. This occurs without the extension using cookies or site data; therefore, your click can’t be tracked.
Price:…
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