What do you know about the most Annoying Things on the Internet and How to Fix Them? We get rid of annoying notifications, turn off automatic video playback, and more. Below are the details;
8 Most Annoying Things on the Internet and How to Fix Them
1. Annoying cookie notifications
Cookies are needed so that websites can remember that you have visited them and save your preferences for different Internet services.
But, under the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act, every resource on the Web is required to notify that it intends to store its cookies on your computer. And it’s very annoying.
Pressing the “Accept” button every time is quite tiring – unless, of course, you visit different sites on the Internet, and are not limited to your page on social networks.
Therefore, it makes sense to install the I don’t care about cookies extension. It automatically takes the files of the sites you visit and hides annoying notifications about them.
2. Automatic video playback
For some reason, web designers think that video that is included on pages open in the browser without your consent is something incredibly cool and progressive.
On hosting sites like YouTube, this behavior is still at least somehow justified. But advertisements that pop up somewhere in the corner of the screen are already beyond good and evil. They fill up your Internet channel and increase the load on the processor, and they can even scare you corny if you prefer to sit in silence.
Video autoplay can be turned off – although this is not a very obvious action. In Firefox, the option is hidden under Settings → Privacy & Security. In Permissions, next to Autoplay, click Options → Block Audio and Video. Now the browser will not arrange a disco without your permission.
In Chrome, unfortunately, using the standard browser tools, you can disable only the automatic launch of sound on sites. In the “Menu” click “Settings” → “Privacy and security” → “Site settings” → “Advanced content settings” → “Sound”. And then select Block sites from playing sound. At the same time, certain services can be separately given permissions for such an action.
If you want to stop the autoplay of not only audio but also video in Chrome, install the AutoplayStopper extension.
3. Annoying captcha
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) is a fully automated public Turing test to distinguish between computers and humans. And this is an important thing from the point of view of information security.
You probably know all these “type text from the picture”, “count the numbers in words” and “find all the traffic lights in the photos”.
But at the same time, the captcha is wildly annoying. And if some simple tasks like “indicate all the cars in the photo” are relatively easy to solve, then sitting and reading through illegible texts from pictures is very tiring.
Luckily, there are extensions like NopeCHA and Buster that can take tests for you using AI. Some difficult tasks are too tough for them, but they can still save a fair amount of time.
4. Articles and search results, divided by page
You made a request in a search engine, see the results. But in order to get less popular results, you have to click on the letter o in the word Google or on the numbers at the bottom of the screen. This is annoying, which is why most people don’t move past the first page of a search.
In addition, many sites also break long articles into multiple pages. And to continue reading, you have to click on the “Next” button at the bottom, which also does not add comfort to surfing.
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Sometimes the magic button “View content on one page” can help, but not all services provide this option.
You can solve the problem with the help of extensions that automatically “glue” search pages and long articles for you, allowing you to scroll through them like one endless tape. True, they do not work on all sites. Try uAutoPagerize for example.
5. Automatic redirect
You open some very important site, and it immediately takes you to some other page – for example, offering to bet on sports or look at new amazing coffee machines.
Conscientious web resources, of course, do not do this. But sometimes the information we need is stored on sites that are a little less pedantic in terms of advertising, and this is very annoying.
To stop unwanted navigation, in Chrome, click “Menu” → “Settings” → “Privacy and Security” → “Site Settings” → “Pop-ups and redirects”. Select Prevent sites from showing pop-ups and redirects.
In Firefox, pop-ups are disabled by default in the settings. And to avoid redirects, open the about config page and enter accessibility.blockautorefresh in the search box. And then set the parameter to true.
6. Self-cleaning fillable forms
You register on some site, diligently fill in the empty lines and … inadvertently click somewhere in the wrong place. The page reloads and everything you typed in disappears without a trace. Very annoying.
Or, which is especially sad, you almost finished registering, entered, and confirmed the password – and the site tells you that the combination is too short. And it erases not only it but at the same time all other entered data.
In these situations, extensions that can restore text in forms on web pages can help you, even if they have been reloaded. But you need to install these add-ons before you print anything.
Another effective tool to recover lost form data in Chrome browser is Typio Form Recovery. It’s not in the extension store, but it can be installed from GitHub.
Download the typio‑form‑recovery.zip archive and extract the typio‑form‑recovery folder from it. Then click in Chrome “Menu” → “More Tools” → “Extensions”. Activate developer mode in the upper right corner, click “Load unpacked extension” and point to your typio‑form‑recovery folder.
Download Typio Form Recovery →
7. Annoying notifications
Modern desktop operating systems have taken over from mobile systems the habit of showing the user pop-up alerts about everything in the world. Both Windows, macOS, and Linux now have “Notification Centers”, where all the sites you visit tend to crawl through.
You turn on the computer – and before you have time to launch the browser, news from the resources that you have ever opened appears in the corner of the screen. It distracts from work. In addition, this way you can miss a really important notification.
To solve this problem, in Chrome, click “Menu” → “Settings” → “Privacy and Security” → “Site Settings” → “Notifications”. Here you can determine which sites will show you alerts and which will not. Or disable them altogether by clicking “Use important notification mode” or “Block sites from sending notifications.”
In Firefox, the same can be done by clicking “Settings” → “Privacy and Security”. In the Permissions section, next to Notifications, click Options → Block new requests to send you notifications. Or manually configure which sites can and can’t show you alerts.
8. Spoilers for movies and TV shows
You go to look through social networks, and the whole feed is full of stories about what will happen to your beloved Wednesday in the new season. And these spoilers may discourage you from continuing to watch the series. The Spoiler Protection extension will help to avoid such troubles. It can cut blocks of text with forbidden phrases on the sites you visit, which you add in the settings. So spoilers for the movies will not catch your eye.
In addition, the same extension can be used to avoid news on topics that annoy you. So, if you are tired of endless collections of ways to “drive men crazy” and horoscopes, just add a few stop words to the list and you will find peace of mind.
