Browser extensions are designed to make our lives easier, more productive and fun. We love them because they require no effort to use. They follow you as you go about your internet ways and are always there, working away.
As we’ve recently updated our handy Cashback Reminder, we thought we’d take you through some of the other great extensions we’ve come across. We cover the best extensions for saving money, for organising your life, and for making your internet experience that bit weirder and wackier.
But first… our one.
Best for saving money: Quidco Cashback Reminder
Getting cashback on everything you buy is great. You get free money for something that you were likely going to buy anyway. The only problem is that you can occasionally forget this. You buy something full price, only to find out later, once it’s too late, that you could have got some cashback on top. Nightmare scenario.
Those days are now over. The Cashback Reminder does what it says on the tin: it reminds you of the cashback you can earn when you visit one of our 4,500 partnered brands.
When you visit one of our partnered retailers — let’s say Argos, for example — the Cashback Reminder will alert you to the available cashback you can earn there and then.
All that’s left for you to do is click the blue and green button top right of your screen, sign in to your Quidco account (if you’re not already signed in), make your purchase and — bam! — your cashback will be tracked.
If you know what you want to buy but aren’t sure where to buy it from, the Cashback Reminder will handily show you our live cashback rates when you search Google.
Best for making you sound good in emails: Grammarly
No matter how good a writer you are, there will always be times when you slip up. A typo here, a spelling mistake there, an apostrophe catastrophe when you’re just not thinking. This isn’t usually a massive problem when you’re texting your friend, but if you’re sending an important work email, it reflects much better on you if your writing is squeaky clean.
Grammarly goes beyond proofing silly little mistakes. It advises you on how to make your writing tighter, more compelling, and in the right tone. It lets you know of any uses of the passive voice, sentences that waffle on, and any slang you may be using in the wrong context.
You can even customise the extension to know what tone of writing you’re aiming for. You can enter in how formal you’d like to come across, what kind of audience you’re writing to, and how much emotion you’d like to run through your language. This last one really helps you avoid writing those blunt, sassy-sounding emails.
Best for guilt-tripping you into being more productive: Tabagotchi
You’re on the internet, maybe doing some work. You get a message from your friend, suggesting an interesting article, you click on an appealing recipe, you think of a song and YouTube it. Before you know it, you’re so far away from your original work, so deep into the rabbit hole that you’ve forgotten what you were supposed to be doing in the first place.
It happens to all of us. We get so many tabs open that we can’t really focus on any one of them properly. Tabagotchi (sound familiar? It’s supposed to) is a little 8-bit creature that you’ll see on your browser. The idea is pretty simple: the number of tabs you have open affects the health of your Tabagotchi. The more tabs you open, the unhealthier it gets, until it sadly dies.
Delete your tabs, stay focused on one, and the better it feels. After a few hours of tab-less focus, your Tabagotchi evolves into something else. It’s a fun way to stay focused, and you’ll even find yourself worrying for your little guy.
Best for impressing your arty friends: Google Arts and Culture
Ever feel like you should know more about art? Is your main feeling when you’re walking around an art gallery, ‘my feet hurt’? With the Google Arts and Culture extension, you can learn more about art while you go about your day-to-day internet life.
Add the extension to your browser and with every tab you open, you’ll see a piece of art from the Museum of Fine Art, Houston. You can set it to change daily, or change every time you open a new tab. So you can decide if you want to really get to know one piece throughout the day or keep being refreshed by new works.
If a piece of art sparks your interest, you can click through to find a detailed description of the artist, the work, and the context in which it was produced. Read a couple of these a week and you’ll be able to impress your friends with your newfound artsy knowledge.
Best for social media moguls: Buffer
Buffer allows you to share content on multiple social media platforms simultaneously with just one click. You don’t actually have to open a new tab with Facebook, Twitter, or whatever platform you use. It’s the perfect tool to help you save time when you’re social media-ing.
What’s more, you can either share posts immediately or schedule them for a later time — perhaps a time when you know your followers will be more likely to be on social media.
Once your great content is out there, Buffer allows you to analyse its reach and engagement, giving you insights into what is working well. Not only is it great for people who’re prolific posters just in their personal lives, but it can be a real aid for small businesses who want to their brand or product out there.
