Enhancing Your Browsing Experience with StopTheMadness Pro
The contemporary digital landscape is riddled with nuisances that detract from user enjoyment. Many online platforms restrict copying, disallow right-clicking, and bombard users with intrusive pop-ups and auto-playing multimedia, often concealing the very content users seek. For those who find these disruptions exasperating, especially when navigating on an iPhone or Mac, there’s a simple remedy: StopTheMadness Pro (priced at $15). This app is compatible with Safari on both iPhones and Mac computers, as well as Firefox and Chrome on the Mac.
StopTheMadness Pro serves as a comprehensive tool for reclaiming an enjoyable online experience. Its many features are extensive enough that listing them all in detail could be challenging. Nevertheless, several standout functionalities are worthy of mention (with an emphasis on its use in Safari on Mac). After installation, the extension icon located in the toolbar allows users to explore its full capabilities. Although the General tab contains an impressive array of over 50 features, the app is designed to function effectively with default settings, making it suitable for those who prefer an easy start. The provided defaults, along with personalized recommendations, can significantly alleviate numerous online annoyances.
For users eager to delve deeper into its functionality, more information on each feature can be found at StopTheMadness Pro’s official site. It’s important to note that the installation approach differs for Chrome and Firefox, but the app guides users smoothly through the installation and updates processes.
Take Charge of Your Video Experience Online
A standout feature of StopTheMadness Pro is its capability to eliminate auto-playing videos across websites. Despite disabling this feature in browser settings, many sites neglect these preferences, employing unique video players that complicate playback control—often launching at full volume. Fortunately, StopTheMadness Pro includes an option under the General tab to “Stop autoplaying audio and video,” which has proven effective on all visited sites. For instance, a sports scores site often inserts a live analysis stream within articles, which starts playing automatically, even when users aren’t on that content. The intervention of StopTheMadness Pro brings much-needed peace in such scenarios.
Additionally, this extension enhances YouTube usability significantly. It can skip advertisements, enable the picture-in-picture feature without requiring YouTube Premium, set preferred video resolutions, and activate subtitles automatically. Moreover, it can compel all sites to utilize the native audio and video controls available on iPhones and Macs, permitting users to employ Apple’s default interface instead of any site-specific video player, including YouTube.
Eliminate Tracking and Other Disruptions
On a Mac, StopTheMadness Pro provides several keyboard shortcuts to enhance functionality, such as copying links without direct clicks. By hovering over a link and pressing Command-C, users can easily copy it. The extension’s Keyboard section outlines additional time-saving shortcuts. Furthermore, the Tab Rules feature allows users to dictate how clicking a link behaves, offering options to open it in the current tab, a new background tab, or redirect it to a preferred browser.
The tool was originally adopted to navigate around restrictions on copy and paste functions from various websites and to bypass Google’s AMP pages on iPhones. It continues to excel in these functions, enabling users the freedom to right-click and copy content where these abilities are restricted. Since its inception, it has expanded to mitigate numerous frustrations, including the persistent “Sign in with Google” pop-up seen on Reddit and other platforms. Moreover, it eliminates tracking parameters from most clicked links, and if it fails to do so, users can manually adjust parameters in the extension’s Trackers tab. The extension also expands shortened URLs automatically to prevent tracking from URL shorteners.
Although it isn’t an ad-blocker, it provides the capability to conceal annoyances on any webpage through its element-hiding feature, enabling users to eliminate bothersome elements easily.
Exploring Advanced Functionalities
Before diving into the advanced features, it’s worth noting that StopTheMadness Pro allows for site-specific configurations as well. Within the General section on Mac, a handy + icon is present next to My default options for all websites, enabling users to add tailored settings for individual sites. This capability is mirrored in the extension menu on iPhones, facilitating personalized preferences for frequently visited domains.
For those keen on customizing their web experience, this extension offers the ability to insert custom CSS or JavaScript, swap standard fonts for preferred selections, or utilize JavaScript snippets akin to bookmarklets. The Custom Code section allows for automatic execution of CSS or JavaScript upon each page load. The JavaScript Snippets functionality is intended for code that users wish to run manually.
Additionally, the Web Rules feature provides the flexibility to open links from specific sites in a user-selected browser. Many may find that Chrome or its derivatives perform better with Google Docs or Sheets than Safari, and this function effectively redirects those links accordingly.
Finding a robust browser extension that enhances usability is rare, but StopTheMadness Pro stands out as an essential tool for anyone using Apple devices to surf the web. While there is a learning curve involved, the comprehensive documentation provided by the developer simplifies the process of exploring all available features.
