Eco-friendly search engines have gained popularity in recent years as a way for individuals and organizations to reduce their carbon footprint and support environmental causes while using the internet. These search engines operate in a similar way to traditional search engines, but they use renewable energy sources, offset their carbon emissions, or donate a portion of their profits to environmental organizations and projects.
Ecosia
Ecosia is a search engine that uses its profits to plant trees and support reforestation efforts around the world. To date, Ecosia has planted over 100 million trees and aims to plant 1 billion trees by 2030. Ecosia also offsets its carbon emissions through the purchase of renewable energy credits and is certified as a B Corporation, which means it meets high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
Oceanhero
Oceanhero is a search engine that combats plastic pollution by donating a portion of its profits to organizations working on ocean conservation and plastic waste reduction projects. In addition to supporting these causes, Oceanhero also offsets its carbon emissions and uses renewable energy sources. The search engine also provides users with information about the environmental impact of their searches and offers suggestions for eco-friendly alternatives.
Not a search engine: TreeClicks
Rather want to use Google? Or use Ecosia AND plant extra trees? For those who want to plant trees while shopping online, the browser extension and app TreeClicks can be a helpful tool. TreeClicks partners with retailers and plants trees on the user’s behalf when they make a purchase. The app is available for both desktop and mobile and is free to use. This can be a convenient way to offset the carbon emissions associated with online shopping and make a positive impact on the environment.
Tab For a Cause
Another way to plant trees while browsing the web is through the Chrome extension Tab For a Cause. Each time the user opens a new tab, a small donation is made to plant trees or support other environmental causes. The extension also provides users with a dashboard where they can track their impact and see the number of trees planted through their use of the extension.
Overall, eco-friendly search engines like Ecosia and Oceanhero offer a convenient way to support environmental causes while using the internet.
Additionally, tools like TreeClicks and Tab For a Cause provide easy ways to offset carbon emissions and plant trees while shopping and browsing online. By using these resources, individuals and organizations can take steps towards a more sustainable future.
There are several alternatives to Ecosia for those looking for a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly search engine.
Ecosia Alternatives
Alternative 1: DuckDuckGo
One alternative is DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine that does not track its users and does not show targeted advertisements. In terms of sustainability, DuckDuckGo offsets its carbon emissions through the purchase of renewable energy credits and has a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. It is less focussed on trees.
Another alternative is Ocean Hero, a search engine that donates a portion of its profits to ocean-related environmental organizations and projects. Eco Internet also has a feature that allows users to see the carbon emissions and energy usage of their searches.
This one is not a search engine, but an app and browser extension, so that you could keep using Ecosia, Google or DuckDuckGo. For those who want to plant trees while shopping online, the browser extension and app TreeClicks can be a helpful tool. TreeClicks partners with retailers and plants trees on the user’s behalf when they make a purchase. The app is available for both desktop and mobile and is free to use.
Another way to plant trees while browsing the web is through the Chrome extension Tab For a Cause. Each time the user opens a new tab, a small donation is made to plant trees or support other environmental causes. The extension also provides users with a dashboard where they can track their impact and see the number of trees planted through their use of the extension. Check out other sustainability-related Chrome extensions.
While Ecosia has a strong focus on sustainability and has planted over 100 million trees, these alternatives offer unique features and support different causes. Those interested in a more environmentally-friendly search engine or looking for ways to offset their carbon emissions while browsing the web may want to consider the above alternatives.
About Ecosia
Ecosia is a search engine that aims to use its profits to plant trees and support sustainability efforts. The company was founded in 2009 and has since planted over 100 million trees in various countries around the world, including Brazil, Burkina Faso, and Indonesia.
In addition to its tree planting efforts, Ecosia also supports other environmental and social causes through partnerships and donations. Ecosia claims to offset the carbon emissions generated by its servers and operations through the trees it plants.
The company has a transparent business model and makes its financial and environmental impact data publicly available. Ecosia has received praise for its unique business model and commitment to sustainability.
Summary of the best Ecosia Alternatives
In our opinion, the best Ecosia alternatives are:
DuckDuckGo: a privacy-focused search engine that offsets carbon emissions and has a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030
Ocean Hero: a search engine that donates a portion of its profits to plastic-related environmental organizations and projects, and allows users to see the carbon emissions and energy usage of their searches
TreeClicks: a browser extension and app that plants trees when users make purchases through partnered retailers
Tab For a Cause: a Chrome extension that makes small donations to plant trees or support other environmental causes each time a new tab is opened, and provides a dashboard for users to track their impact
Ecosia is a search engine that uses its profits to plant trees. Since its launch in 2009, Ecosia has planted over 100 million trees in various countries around the world, including Brazil, Burkina Faso, and Indonesia. Ecosia works with various tree planting organizations and partners to ensure that its tree planting efforts have a lasting impact.
In this article we will give you the statistics and facts about Ecosia of 2021 and 2023.
Environmental Impact
In terms of its environmental impact, Ecosia claims to offset the carbon emissions generated by its servers and operations through the trees it plants. As they state in their blog post:
In 2020, Ecosia ran on 335% renewable energy and planted over 30,000,000 trees. On average, each Ecosia search removes 1kg of CO2 from the air.
Ecosia has a transparent business model and makes its financial and environmental impact data publicly available. As of September 2021, Ecosia had over 15 million active users and had planted over 105 million trees.
Other Environmental and Social Causes
In addition to its tree planting efforts, Ecosia also supports various other environmental and social causes through partnerships and donations. The company has received praise for its unique business model and commitment to sustainability.
Similar Alternatives like Ecosia
There are several other search engines that have a similar focus on sustainability and the environment. One example is DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine that offsets its carbon emissions through the purchase of renewable energy credits and has a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. But it is less focused on trees.
Still prefer Google? There are ways
We must admit, the search results of Ecosia are not always as good as Google. Want to keep using Google? There are other sustainability-related browser extensions that plant trees, like TreeClicks. This app and browser extension plants trees when you shop at one of their more than 30,000 connected shops.
The world relies on the internet. Every day, we access websites, stream boxsets, join video conferences and upload media. Do we ever ask how eco-friendly these actions are? Or whether sustainable web hosting options are being used?
For a long time, individuals and businesses haven’t really considered the environmental impact of being connected 24/7. It’s easy to pick up a smartphone, send a few emails, open a few websites and never think about the carbon cost.
However, as more data is created and stored, and as more people get online, it’s a problem we can’t afford to ignore any longer.
The environmental cost of the internet
The vast majority of the internet’s information is stored and processed in data centres. Running these data centres and keeping servers cool, currently accounts for 3% of global electricity usage and 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is a similar carbon footprint to that of the aviation industry.
By 2025 those figures are predicted to rise. Only around half of the world’s population can currently access the internet. And our data needs are increasing quickly as technology advances.
Faced with the realities of the climate crisis and a more green-minded market, internet companies are having to think more carefully about how and where they get their power. Sustainability is rising up the internet agenda.
What is sustainable web hosting?
Sustainable web hosting tries to reduce the environmental impact of the internet. You may also hear it called green web hosting or eco web hosting.
Through the use of green technologies, energy conservation and carbon offsetting, sustainable web hosting makes running a website more eco friendly.
There are some smart ideas around. Companies are using excess heat from data centres to heat local homes. They’re building data centres close to renewable energy sources and in countries with naturally cold climates. There are even experiments taking place to see if data centres can operate on the chilly ocean floor!
There’s still a long way to go but a number of internet companies have been making strides towards sustainability.
What’s more, for a customer’s point of view, opting for sustainable web hosting doesn’t mean accepting a lower level of service. Eco web hosting is often just as reliable as the alternatives. And, as renewable energy becomes more common, green web hosting is becoming cheaper too.
So, if you’re based in the UK or US and you’re interested in moving to a greener web host, here are just a few of the sustainable web hosting providers available…
Sustainable web hosting providers
Sustainable web hosting providers in the UK
FAELIX
In 2016, FAELIX proudly reached their goal of powering all of their data centres with renewable energy. They use only wind, water and other green energy sources to power their business.
Eco Hosting use efficient free cooling techniques in their data centre (and were one of the first companies to do so). They also rely on 100% certified renewable energy. No offset schemes or carbon credits for these guys.
Kualo’s operations are only powered by renewable energy and their data centre is energy efficient. Currently carbon negative, the company also funds climate projects through a long-term partnership with Ecologi.
The Positive Internet Company uses only green electricity from 100% renewable sources. Their data floor runs on a low energy cooling system. This is another carbon negative company who are going way beyond paying lip service to sustainability.
Krystal Hosting use 100% renewable energy and have done so since 2017. They don’t rely on carbon offsets. The company also regularly donates to Trees for Life, a charity dedicated to rewilding the Scottish landscape.
Powered by 100% UK-based wind power, Green Hosting have been around since 2006. They designed and built their data centre to be as energy efficient as possible. And the company’s green thinking extends to their office policies too.
GreenGeeks purchase wind energy credits to cover the carbon impact of their operations. They go further than necessary, paying for three times the amount of energy that they consume. They also use energy efficient hardware for their data centres.
AISO has its very own solar panel farm, used to fully power its data centre in California. The company has also put lots of thought into the design of the data centre and has introduced energy-efficient green processors that have successfully cut energy usage in half.
These guys have a data centre and office powered by 100% on-site solar power, making it a completely carbon-free hosting solution. And one of the best sustainable web hosting options around.
So we’ve covered sustainable web hosting. What about the cloud? Can cloud and VPS solutions claim to be green?
Cloud traffic is growing at an unstoppable rate. AI, video streaming and virtual reality are all driving a need for more and more data storage.
The “Big Three” cloud solutions – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud – all have huge data centres of their own and dominate the cloud solutions market.
These companies have all committed to using 100% renewable energy in the future. But they are all still using fossil fuels. So how do these three cloud solutions rank on sustainability?
Firstly, it’s worth looking at a few commonly used environmental terms and their definitions.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs): To offset energy created by burning fossil fuels, companies buy RECs from renewable power plants. If a company buys an REC to cover all of the energy it uses, it can say it runs on 100% renewable energy whilst still using fossil fuels.
Unbundled RECs are less valuable and beneficial to the environment than bundled RECs.
Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): More expensive than RECs, when a company signs a PPA, they’re helping to fund new renewable power projects. They then get access to the green energy produced by the project when it is up and running.
With those terms covered, it’s now time to take a look at how sustainable cloud solutions really area:
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AWS is the biggest cloud solution provider around. It is growing rapidly and it seems environmental projects within the company are struggling to keep pace.
Amazon has pledged to be achieve zero carbon emissions by 2040. But its lack of transparency and real progress led Greenpeace to rank it bottom out of the Big Three in its latest Green Internet analysis.
As of 2018, Amazon only used 50% renewable energy (and this figure included RECs, some of them unbundled). It seems Amazon has a long way to go in order to reach the same level of sustainability as its main competitors.
Microsoft is aiming to totally eliminate the environmental impact of its data centres. The company has been carbon neutral since 2012.
When we include RECs, Microsoft has run on 100% renewable energy since 2014. However, not counting RECs, data centres currently run on 60% renewable energy.
By 2050, the organisation aims to remove all of the carbon it has created since founding in 1975.
Google boasts that it is the cleanest cloud in the industry. The company has certainly made some good progress towards sustainability in recent years.
The company has offset all carbon emissions created since founding in 1998. They have offset 100% of electricity consumed with renewable energy purchases since 2017. These purchases include both PPAs and bundled RECs.
Google has also committed to operating on only green energy across all operations by 2030.
What’s more, the tech giant is using AI technology to manage renewable energy more effectively. For example, in predicting how much energy windfarms will produce over the next 36 hours.
If you’d like to know whether your website is hosted green, it’s easier than you might think to find out.
Just visit The Green Web Foundation, enter a website of your choice, and you’ll find out how sustainably it’s hosted.
A green result means the website uses eco web hosting – the host is using green energy or carbon offsetting its services.
A grey result means the host still relies on fossil fuels and more work needs to be done to make this host a truly environmentally friendly option.
To date, internet users have checked the green credentials of over half a billion websites! So why not join them and help to make the web a greener place?
Microsoft Edge has been growing rapidly. It is fast and simple, and it comes with many useful features like PDF and Slash. Microsoft Edge also offers a few extensions. The amount of extensions are growing and some Edge extensions are really nice!
Extensions can be described as small software programs, or apps, that integrate with Microsoft Edge. The extensions can help to make internet a safer place, and to make surfing easier and more effective in general. Extensions can be downloaded and installed from the Microsoft Store. Each extension is different in terms of function and utility. By adding extensions, you can customize your surfing experience and you can extend the features of the Microsoft Edge browser.
What are the best extensions to use with Microsoft Edge? We will discuss some popular options in detail.
The best Microsoft Edge extensions
TreeClicks
In case you are concerned about the environment you are living in (as you should!), you can opt for a ‘green’ extension. TreeClicks is an extension that plants trees for people who shop on many big websites such as Amazon, Asos, Ebay, Ikea, Adidas, Airbnb and Booking.com. When using the extension, the prices on the websites remain the same. So why not shopping and helping the environment at the same time?
We all know that shopping is not very nature-friendly: the best decision would be to cut down general consumption. But we also know that it’s impossible to keep people from shopping online. So by using this extension, you contribute to planting trees while you are buying things on the web. Just think about it: E-commerce is a huge economy, and if all of us would use the TreeClicks extension, extremely large amounts of forests could be planted!
For every order that you make online, TreeClicks will plant one tree. How does that work? When TreeClicks brings you in as a customer to its partnered shops, they received a fee, and with the biggest part of the money the company plants trees. In this way, online shoppers get the feeling that they are giving something back to the environment.
The company started to plant trees in India, and now they are looking for opportunities to plant trees in other parts of the world where deforestation is a big problem, like Indonesia and Brazil.
With TreeClicks you can keep shopping online while helping the environment and without extra costs. If everyone would start using TreeClicks, perhaps we will be living on a safer and better planet one day. Let’s all contribute to a happy world!
This extension can be used to store all your passwords by creating an auto-pilot for them. After downloading and installing this extension, the Lastpass button will appear in your browser toolbar. You will use this button to log in to Lastpass. The next step is creating your account. You will need to come up with a very powerful password. Get inspired by, for example, some famous quotes or the lyrics of your favourite song. Lastpass allows you to add websites, and the extension will then save these websites as you log in. This means that passwords (and usernames) will automatically be filled as you browse your favourite websites.
Lastpass also automatically fills your profile with your details (personal details, payment information) when you are ordering something online. Besides, it saves information of other things including memberships and insurance cards.
With Lastpass you will definitely safe time and type less! Using Lastpass means that you only need to remember one password, and that’s the one from Lastpass. The program creates strong passwords thanks to the integrated password generator. The powerful password that it creates, will protect you against hackers. Information is kept safe any time.
Furthermore, with this extension you have the possibility to share your passwords with others in a safe and fast way. Last but not least: you can allow other people that you trust to access your account for urgent matters.
There is a free version of this extension, but if you would upgrade to premium, you will pay a fee starting from three dollars per month.
This extension translates content of foreign websites automatically in a fast and easy way. Microsoft Translator is one of the best extensions for this purpose. Not every website is written in the language that you understand, and you may need the information from that website. The extension will translate the complete page in your chosen language. As a student, researcher, or article writer this is extremely helpful. If you don’t want or need a translation of the whole page, you can also select a part of the information that you would like to have translated.
With Translator for Microsoft Edge you can translate web pages for more than 60 languages. How it works? Click on the Microsoft Translator icon in the toolbar while you are visiting a website that is not written in your preferred language. By clicking on the icon, the web page will instantly translate to your chosen language.
In case you are looking for an advertisement filter, AdBlock may be the best option. With AdBlock you can finally surf the web without annoying advertisements. AdBlock can be used for web pages where pop-up ads appear frequently. On the AdBlock icon in your toolbar it will show you the number of pop-up ads that the extension has blocked. By using AdBlock, you can have a better and faster web browsing experience.
AdBlock offers the possibility to use the extension exactly the way you want to. For example, you can indicate which ads you want to allow and which ones you want to block. You can set up these functions in the options page of the extension. Besides, you even have the ability to pause and manually block an ad.
With the AdBlock extension you can apply filters on (part of) a website. There are several types of filters, including deleting warnings about using ad blockers.
Thanks to AdBlock you will not have to deal any more with pop-ups, flashing banners and ads that you don’t want to see.
If you are looking for an excellent proofreading extension, you can opt for Grammarly. With this extension, spelling mistakes and embarrassing emails are a thing of the past. Grammarly makes sure that it detects your spelling mistakes as well as incorrect use of grammar. It also gives you suggestions to correct the type errors that you made.
It’s an extension that is useful for everyone, nowadays we write almost everything online. Whether you are writing a blog for your website, typing an email to your boss or chatting with a friend: Grammarly works in any situation. It can save you from some awkward moments!
The basic version of this extension is free, however there is also a paid plan which offers advanced skills to check grammar and spelling mistakes. The free version is for most people enough, because it catches the worst mistakes.
Grammarly does not just correct grammar and spelling mistakes, it also helps you find the perfect style and tone for writing your emails or texts. This way you can make sure that the reader will react the way you expect!
When you install the Office extension, an icon will appear in your toolbar that allows access to all your Microsoft Office files that are stored on your computer and in OneDrive. This means that you can edit all your Word, OneNote, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly in your browser. It also means that you don’t need to open the apps on your desktop. This way you will consume less memory from your device. You can manage your personal and business accounts with this extension.
Also, you can get a list of the most recent documents that you accessed. It will help you to find the right documents faster. The extension even gives you the possibility to drag and drop documents to open them in your browser. The extension allows you to use Office wherever you are!
Just keep in mind that this extension is not a free version for Microsoft Office. If you want to download the extension, you will not need to install Office on the device that you’re using it on. However, you need a valid Microsoft Office license that is associated to your Microsoft account.
Honey is a popular extension, especially for people who often shop online. With this extension you are able to save a lot of money while you are shopping on the web, because it detects the best coupon codes for more than 10.000 online shops. You will save tons of money when you are buying products on for example Amazon, or when you are booking a room on Airbnb. Even when ordering your pizza on Pizza Hut, or when buying your next favourite trainers on Nike you can be sure to pay the lowest prices!
From the moment you install the extension, a small ‘h’ will appear on your toolbar when you are shopping on your favourite websites. A window will pop up automatically, and you just need to click on ‘Apply coupons’ and Honey will make sure to compare every available coupon. Then, it will apply the biggest discounts to your cart.
The best thing about the extension is that you don’t need to change anything. Just install the extension and shop like you always do!
When you often want to print articles on the web, but you don’t know the best way to do it, this may be the perfect extension. The PrintFriendly and PDF extension will remove ads and other materials that you don’t need when printing the articles. You want a clear printout of the page, without useless information. But the extension offers more than this. You can even remove images that you don’t need, or part of the content. Also, you can change the font size for the text. This extension is developed for a comfortable read experience!
So how exactly does it work? Visit the page you want to print and click on the green PrintFriendly icon in your toolbar. A dialog window will open, from where you will be able to make changes to the page. Remember that you can always undo any changes that you made. You simply need to click on ‘menu’ and select the ‘undo’ option.
When you are done modifying, you can save the page as a PDF or print it. When you save the file, it still includes clickable links. You can also share the page with friends.
The extension is very easy to use. You can install it at home and at work, so you can print a page whenever you need to!
These are some of the most popular and best extensions so far. With these extensions you may translate webpages, block annoying ads, type flawless texts and emails, and buy products online using the best coupons. Besides, with the unique extension TreeClicks you can even contribute to a better world while you are doing your shopping online. We believe everyone should install the TreeClicks extension, the world of today needs some extra support! The Microsoft store keeps on growing, and more apps will be available. Installing extensions is easy and fast, and it will improve the features of Microsoft Edge. Make sure to keep yourself informed for further updates in the store!
Did you know that a lot of the Edge Extensions are also available for Chrome?
Opera was developed by Opera Software AS, a well-known company from Norway. You can download this web browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. What the majority of the users like the most is that the Opera browser operates extremely fast. No more slow surfing! Also, users like the clean look of it. However, by adding some great extensions, you can make Opera work even better and more efficiently. It will make your browser experience more fun!
Another advantage of Opera is that it was developed with some good built-in features and add-ons, for example ad-blocker. In Opera’s extensions store you can have access to many extra features to personalize your browsing experience. Opera is the most productive browser with an enormous amount of extensions that will improve the browsers’ performance. Opera browser is a lightweight program, which means that it uses few of your systems’ memory.
Depending on your browsing activity, one extension can be more useful than the other. For example, if you are most of the time surfing because of a research or business needs, Evernote Web Clipper is a very good choice. Microsoft Translator may also be a great choice, especially when you are reading articles on websites in various languages. When you are mostly surfing the net for fun, you can install the Emoji Keyboard extension to use Emoji’s instantly.
So, from all the available extensions, which ones are excellent and essential for Opera? Here we will discuss a few, and all of them are free of charges. Because Opera already comes with ad-blockers, we will not discuss this type of extensions in the list.
Your favourite Opera extensions
TreeClicks
What about a free extension that plant trees while you are ordering your favourite products online? TreeClicks is an extension that you install in only one minute and plants trees while you are shopping in more than 10.000 popular online shops. And guess what? The shopping price remains the same, so by installing the extension you can help the environment for free! TreeClicks earns by bringing you in as a customer and the biggest part of the revenue will be used for planting trees. At the moment they are planting trees in India.
If you are a frequent buyer on web shops like Amazon, ASOS, Ikea, and Adidas, you should consider adding the TreeClicks extension to give something back to our planet.
Tree planting helps limit global warming, because trees can actually cool the earth. The best thing would be of course to decrease general consumption in order to save the environment. But this is not always possible, sometimes you really need something from an online shop, not necessarily clothing or accessories. In such cases it may be a great choice to use TreeClicks while you are buying your products online, so the company will be able to plant more trees.
Imagine that each one of us would use TreeClicks, and we would be able to give our precious earth more oxygen, perhaps we would be living on a better place with more life!
The TreeClicks Extension / Add On enabled for Opera
Evernote Web Clipper for Opera
This extension is ideal for people whose job involves writing, like journalists, (content) writers, and researchers. Evernote Web Clipper helps you organize your webpages by clipping them. Are you that type of person that has endless open browsing tabs and completely loses track of what you are doing? Then this extension may be a great choice! With this extension you cannot only clip web pages, you can also clip highlights and screenshots and keep it all in one place in your account. You save it in a sort of cloud, which means that you can access the information from anywhere and whenever you like: from your phone at home, from your tablet while you’re commuting or from your computer at work. Basically, you can consider this extension as the most modern notepad.
Also, when you see something interesting online, you can share it fast and easy by using this extension. Evernote Web Clipper is a recommended extension for people who often browse the internet.
Besides, you can create reminders for notes that you clipped. The moment you are searching for something that you saved earlier, the extension will suggest your stored clips.
Imagine you are sitting in the train and some excellent ideas come into mind. With Evernote Web Clipper you can store your ideas from your phone in a fast and easy way.
What we usually see is that while people are looking for information online, they always have a tab open with a translation website. This is mostly the case if you are working with different languages, or if you need to write articles in a language other than your preferred language.
But cutting and pasting pieces of text in Google Translate online can be a little time-consuming. Therefore, Opera offers the Google Translate extension. This means that you don’t need to go back and forth anymore from your Word document to the browser. To get something translated in another language, you just highlight the text that you need, or translate a whole web page. As you can imagine, this can save you tons of time, especially when your profession is related to writing and/or translation.
Translating texts becomes very handy with the Google Translate extension. After installing the extension, it will detect when a page is not in your main language. The extension will invite you to translate the webpage. If you accept, it will refresh the page with the translated information.
Lastpass was created to help you log on to your favourite websites without filling in your information. Basically, you create just one password, your Lastpass password, to have access to several websites. The extension will remember your passwords, usernames and other information. The advantage of this extension is that it can sync your data across your phone and computer.
Lastpass is a powerful password manager. After downloading the extension, you have to create an account. Then, you need to create a very strong password. All set? Click on ‘unlock my vault’. The extension is the place where you control the websites that you frequently access.
In Lastpass you can save website information, such as your username and password. When you access this website again, an emblem of Lastpass will appear on the login field. When you click on it, you can select your credential and Lastpass will complete the missing information.
Boomerang for Gmail is a helpful extension, especially if you would like to know if your email has been read, or if you want to schedule an email for a future date. Write an email now and the extension will send it next week while you are offline and enjoying your holidays. The extension is very useful if you usually communicate with people in different time zones. Also, you can create alerts when you didn’t receive an answer to your email. Furthermore, with the extension it’s possible to schedule birthday emails. The extension will make sure that you won’t forget the birthdays anymore from your dear friends and family members!
The Boomerang extension can help you to keep your inbox clean and organized. For example, you can postpone incoming emails. They will disappear from your inbox, and they will be placed in another folder. Then, the emails will be brought back in your inbox at a specified time.
The basic version of the extension is for free, but if you want to take the extension to a higher level you can opt for the Personal, Pro or Premium versions. A disadvantage of the basic version is that it has a limit of ten message credits per month. In case you are interested in installing one of the paid versions, the cost will be $4.99 per month for the Personal version (including unlimited message credits), $14.99 per month for the Pro version (including smart response and recurring messages), and $49.99 per month for the Premium version (including a ‘boomerang’ of every message).
Do you love using Emoji’s while writing messages? Then this extension might be for you! With the Emoji Keyboard extension you can use your favourite emojis while surfing on the web. Using Emoji’s is a fun way of communicating with your friends, without dealing with a language barrier. You can use Emoji’s on social media, emails, chats and documents. It makes it easier sometimes to express yourself.
This extension makes it possible to use Emoji’s while you are browsing your favourite websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more. This works very easy: just click on an Emoji from the panel and it will automatically insert it into the website that you are using.
When you hover on Emoji’s you can see their meanings, and you can also choose the skin tone of the Emoji’s before sending them. A good thing about this extension is that it is completely free and without ads. What may be a problem is that the extension is very big in size, so it may take a while to download. Besides, this can make your browser work a bit slower.
Many people are using Amazon nowadays. Amazon has tons of different products including toys for kids, clothing, sports apparel and gadgets. It has literally everything! With the Amazon for Opera extension you can find out Amazon’s deals of the day and you can compare prices of different products. This will not only save you money, it will also save you some precious time.
The extension comes with a universal wish list, so you can save products from different websites (not only Amazon!). This makes comparing products across websites even more easy.
The extension reacts when you are surfing on other online shops. If Amazon has the product in stock that you are looking at, the extension will give a sign with Amazon’s price of the product. It will make sure that you buy any product for the lowest possible price!
If you are a frequent shopper of Amazon, this is a must-have extension.
In case you love to watch videos online and want to do that in your Opera web browser, then this extension can be a very good choice. The Turn Off the Lights extension can be used on several video streaming websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe and Dailymotion. You may still ask yourself what this extension does for you. With only one click it will focus on playing the video and fades out the rest of the website.
But the extension can do more than darken your browser. For example, it can allow YouTube videos to be automatically viewed in theatre mode. This means that the videos will fill most part of your screen. Besides, the extension also allows an ambient lighting mode for your browser. When you click on ‘Visual Effects’, you should then select ‘Show you the atmosphere lighting effect of the current playing video’. Besides, you can choose to ‘Extract the colour from the video’.
In case you enjoy the ‘Turn Off the Lights’ idea, the extension gives you the possibility to see any website in a pseudo-night mode. The extension has much more to offer, so if you are curious, find out more by installing the extension.
In this article we discussed some well-known and popular Opera extensions. Depending on your browsing activities, some extensions may be more fun or useful than others. But we think that one extension should be used by everyone, and that’s the first one we discussed: TreeClicks. Why not contributing to a better world for free while you are shopping your favourite products? Besides this extension, you may find it useful to install the Google Translate extension, Lastpass or maybe the Emoji keyboard. All these extensions have great features that will take your browsing experience to a whole other level.
Looking for the best Google Chrome Extensions? You’ve come to the right place! So many people nowadays use Google Chrome as their favourite web browser. Easy to understand. It is super fast and powerful. But what makes it even better, is the enormous amount of extensions and add-ons, giving it a huge variety of functions. In this article, you will find the best Google Chrome Extensions for blocking ads, privacy, shopping, causes and sustainability, tab management, and students.
Best Google Chrome Extensions for Causes and Sustainability
1. TreeClicks
Who says shopping is bad for the planet? Well, a lot of people actually. And it is. Just think about all of the carbon dioxide, toxins, and pollution coming from the production, transportation, packaging, and waste production of your stuff. Fortunately, there is an extension that you can use for free to reduce your carbon footprint while you shop! It’s called TreeClicks. Whenever you purchase something at their 50.000+ stores (including Amazon), TreeClicks receives an ad fee and with it, trees are planted – absorbing carbon dioxide.
What better way to contribute to a good cause than doing almost nothing?! Tab for a Cause raises money for charity whenever you open a new tab in Google Chrome. Free to use, it receives ad revenue from banner ads in the tabs, that they donate to human rights, environmental, educational, water or health charities.
Colour blindness is more common than most people think. Up to 1 in 10 individuals can have some form of colour blindness, which can make it sometimes complicated to perceive a website’s user interface.
The Colorblind- Dalton extension comes to the rescue and can provide tests for the most commonly found types of colour blindness. The extension will automatically adjust the browser’s colour settings according to the test results. With the extension colour-blind persons will be able to see more colours and this will improve user accessibility.
The extension comes with a solution to some of the daily issues experienced by colour-blind people. People who are affected by Tritanopia (blue colour vision deficiency), Deuteranopia (green), and Protanopia (red) could benefit from this extension.
People often believe that if someone suffers from blue-yellow colour blindness, the person only has trouble seeing these colours. However, that is untrue; it’s the whole colour spectrum which is affected.
The extension is free, and the main goal is to help colour-blind people to see the world more colourful.
Ads and cookies are not only annoying when they pop up on your screen, but they also slow down your online activities and endanger your privacy. Use these top-rated ad-blockers to prevent this from happening. Note that if an extension excessively blocks ads, some websites may not work properly.
4. AdBlock
Advertising and the internet are inextricably connected. Many websites bombard us with banners, text ads and other advertisements (targeted or not). With AdBlock, you can block (almost) everything automatically, so you can enjoy looking at a clear, decluttered webpage. You can choose and update filters, but the extension is basically ready to go.
This is one of the best-known Google Chrome extensions for blocking ads. You install it within seconds, and it works straight away. What gives AdBlock Plus the Plus, is that there are more blocking options to choose from than with AdBlock. This way, you can configure it to your own liking.
Ghostery is a free extension that is developed to easily detect and block web trackers that tag your movements across the Internet. Besides, the extension makes it possible to find out more about companies using these tracking systems. Ghostery is the perfect privacy extension. It will stop trackers, block ads, and speed up websites. When removing advertisements, you will be able to completely focus on the information that is useful for you. By blocking trackers, you have the power to control who is watching your movements and collecting your information. Thanks to the extension your data will be anonymized to take a step further in protecting your privacy. Ghostery will even ensure to optimize page performance by (un)blocking trackers. You will immediately notice that pages load quicker. Lastly, Ghostery has several dashboards available for its users so you can access the information that is relevant to you.
Install Ghostery – privacy ad blocker for Chrome >>
Best Google Chrome Extensions for Privacy
Google Chrome isn’t exactly the best browser to use if you want to protect your privacy. It remembers your settings and favourite websites on all of your computers. The browser also automatically updates itself in the background. One solution is to switch browsers, but another one is to install an extension.
7. Privacy Badger
Privacy Badger lets you block third party advertisements. The service is super smart: every time the server thinks that an advertiser is about to violate any privacylaws, it blocks that advertiser from retrieving your personal information.
If you want to try a different search engine than Google, you can use DuckDuckGo. This search engine doesn’t trace, save or use any information for commercial purposes. The DuckDuckGo extension integrates with Chrome and makes searching easy. Of course, it’s not as good as Google, but if privacy is your priority, DuckDuckGo is the way to go!
Link shorteners are convenient because they make it easier to manage unhandy URLs. The bad news is that you never know where a shortened link can take you. Are you a frequent user of Twitter, Digg, or other services that expose their users to shortened URLs? If yes, you may be concerned that these links may not lead you to where they are supposed to, and that they will damage your device.
Unshorten.link is an extension that protects your privacy by preventing short link services from tracking your movements on the web. After installing the extension, you will be automatically sent to the link expansion page each time you click on a shortened link. You will get a clear view of where the links are taking you. The extension will also make sure to remove known tracking cookies from the URLs. The extension has a list of more than 300 link shortening services, and they update this list frequently.
With the User-Agent Switcher extension you can easily and quickly swap the user-agent string, to trick your browser’s identity. It’s a useful extension for old websites that require specific browsers. Besides, you can swap between desktop and mobile views of a website.
A user-agent is a text description of your device, that is sent with every web request. Websites can recognize the browser that you are using and show different content accordingly. For example, when you are browsing the web with your iPhone, you will see a special mobile website.
The extension is the easiest way to switch between user-agents in your browser. It makes it easier to browse the net, regardless of which browser you prefer. Once you downloaded the extension it will add a toolbar button so that you can easily toggle between different user agent strings.
Changing user-agent will help you to mimic other browsers, devices, or search engine spiders.
Do you shop online frequently? Might be a good idea to download these useful extensions, that help save you money and make shopping online even more convenient.
11. Honey
Honey is an extension that finds and tests discount coupon codes all over the UK, Canada and the US. Once added to your browser, you can shop online like you are used to. Then, when checking out, click on the Find Savings button and Honey will try to find and apply a coupon code.
Talking about shopping, Amazon dominates the online shopping world. If you use Amazon regularly and like to know what deals are on at the moment (who doesn’t?!), the following extension will make your life a lot easier.
12. Amazon Lightning Deal Watcher
Amazon Lightening Deals offers a button in the toolbar of the extension, showing the number of current and upcoming deals. Click on the button to see what deals there are. You can view an image of the product, the price, a short description, information about when the deal is about to start and end, and the number of remaining products. Clicking on a product takes you to the designated Amazon page. If you want, you can also receive a notification on your phone when the deal is about to start.
Speaking of tabs, how many tabs do you have open right now? Did you know that it can actually increase your stress levels to leave too many tabs open? It’s recommended to have no more than 5 tabs open at the same time. I know, that’s easier said than done. Fortunately, you can use this extension to help you out:
13.Save my Tabs
Can’t seem to choose what tabs to close? Just save them for later. Use Save my Tabs to save all of your tabs in one go. It saves all your opened tabs as bookmarks, so you can come back to them any time you want. Tip: Create a separate folder first, so they don’t get mixed up with the tabs you want to save next time.
Students massively use the internet – and Google Chrome – for research and educational purposes. So, what are the two best Google Chrome Extensions students ought to have?
14. Grammarly
Grammarly is free to use and is a lifesaver for many students. Whenever you type something in Chrome, even in your email, Grammarly automatically checks the grammar and spelling. Errors are underlined in red, so it’s easy to spot them. Simply hover your mouse on the word, and it will give you several potential corrections.
Browsing the web with Google Chrome can have you run into quite a few unfamiliar words. Don’t have the slightest idea of what a word means? Add Google Dictionary to your browser and expand your vocabulary within seconds. Simply click on a word and Google Dictionary shows you the definition in a pop-up window. If you’re using a different language (say Dutch), then go to My Language and switch the language from English to your desired language. You can also easily launch a Google search for the word and see how the word is used in different contexts. The extension is free to use.
All researchers and students know how difficult it can be sometimes to properly attribute online articles. Cite This For Me is an extension that helps you to create a formatted website citation for the APA (6th edition), Chicago (16th edition), MLA (7th edition), and Harvard citation styles. For many students this may sound like music to their ears. With only one click you can create website citations and easily save or copy them for use in your documents.
All you need to do is visit the page you would like to cite and click on the button to create a correctly formatted citation. Then you can just copy and past the citation into your document, but you can also save it to your online bibliography so you can access it again later.
The extension makes it even possible to add other sources, such as newspapers, books, and journals.
Best Google Chrome Extensions to Increase Productivity
17. CrxMouse Gestures
The CrxMouse Gestures extension will add handy mouse gesture macros to improve web navigation. Besides, it allows you to add mouse shortcuts for opening and closing new tabs, to navigate backwards and forwards in your tab history, and to copy information. The extension will also help to accelerate frequent navigation tasks. On the Settings menu you will find advanced scrolling options in order to control your scrolling speed, directions, smoothness, and more. All gestures are synced across different desktop devices, as long as you are using the same Google account and have the extension installed. CrxMouse is and will always be a free extension that makes it possible to create custom mouse shortcuts for an improved browser experience. Besides, it has no advertisements. Become more productive and effective with CrxMouse!
Do you need an extension that helps you organizing to-do lists? Any.do makes it possible to sync your tasks and checklists to and from all your devices. With the extension you can create new lists, reminders, add notes, share tasks, and more. You will get your things done better thanks to this extension and you will never lose track of your agenda again. Any.do can also help teams hit their goals and increase productivity. You will have access to your to-do’s, reminders, and calendar on any mobile device, desktop, and web to keep track of your agenda wherever you go.
Make sure to set reminders to avoid forgetting important events. You can create one-time, recurring, and location-based reminders. Even grocery shopping lists can be created with this extension, and you can share them with family and friends. Besides, you can import online recipes and it works with Siri and Alexa as well.
The extension comes with amazing themes and powerful features. If you are a busy bee and love to save time while achieving great things, this extension is for you!
Pablo is an extension developed to create artful images that fit every social network. For example, you can add the images to Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. The extension has more than 500.000 images to choose from. It allows for highlighting texts and selection of images that you can then customize the way you want to. You can change typography, font sizes, and formatting. The extension will help you to quickly increase the engagement on your social media posts. It has been found that blog posts with images have 94% more views than blog posts without images. Pablo is totally free, and you don’t need to create an account. Besides, there is no design experience needed; the extension can be used by anyone. You can choose images from the extension or upload your own images. Type a text in the text box and choose your favourite image as background. When you’re ready, you can share the image to any social media that you like or download it to your computer.
Thanks to Wikiwand, Wikipedia’s content can be optimized for a better reading experience. You will get clean, organized text columns with an integrated side menu including the table of contents, a better media gallery with larger photos, and other great features that make reading easier and quicker. The extension replaces each Wikipedia link with a link to the same article on Wikiwand. You can even personalize colour, font, and layout.
Wikipedia is the greatest curator of knowledge; we are all Wikipedia fans! It helps people worldwide to freely access millions of articles in 288 languages. The only problem with Wikipedia is that it was built a long time ago, and it has not changed much over time. Wikiwand was created to optimize Wikipedia’s fantastic content for a better reading experience. It’s all about providing users a modern and enjoyable interface to the human knowledge.
If you would like to upgrade your Wikipedia experience, Wikiwand is the perfect solution.
Tired of boring websites? Stylish helps you to customize various websites by applying custom themes, changing the colour scheme, or adjusting fonts. There are themes available for everything, including Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook and even WhatsApp. With the extension you can apply themes from the database to your favourite websites or create your own theme for other users to apply. You can adjust any website according to your personal taste.
Stylish is an amazing platform for developers to test their creative skills, share their knowledge and experience and receive credit for their unique work. You can find tutorials that will help you with installing the extension, and how to create and upload themes to the library.
With Stylish you can also easily disable, edit or delete any of your themes. Create your own beautiful theme and share it with millions of other users!
Have you ever come across an image online that you wanted to use, but did it have, for example, a low resolution? With TinEye you can find other versions of any image. With only one click you will find where else on the Internet the image has been used. TinEye is the first image search engine to use image identification technology, and not keywords or watermarks.
Once you submit an image to the extension, it will create a unique digital signature for it and then compares this to other images to find matches. The great thing is that TinEye finds exact matches, even if an image is resized, edited, or cropped! The extension adds tens of millions new images to its database on a weekly basis.
You can use the extension by uploading an image or searching by URL, or by dragging and dropping your images to start your search.
The Screencastify extension allows you to easily create recordings. The extension also has annotation tools to spotlight your mouse cursor, highlight mouse clicks or draw with a pen. In this way, you can keep your audience focused on what matters. Once you are done recording, it will automatically save to your Google Drive account. You will have a shareable link, or you can decide to upload your video directly to YouTube. You can export your recording as an MP4, animated GIF, or MP3.
If you want to use the free version of Screencastify, your videos will have a maximum duration of 10 minutes. Besides, you can’t create more than 50 videos per month, and all the videos are provided with a watermark. For only $29 per year you can use the extension without limitations, and you will also have access to expanded export options.
Whether you are an experienced or brand-new video creator, Screencastify can be used by anyone. You can choose to capture your webcam only, your whole screen, or just your tab. You can insert your webcam anywhere in your recording and you can use your microphone to narrate. No Internet? No problem, because there is also the possibility to record offline.
Being sustainable is increasing in popularity. Except from eating less meat, flying less, recycling, etc. there’s also ways to browse as sustainable as possible. In this article we’re giving 3 Chrome extensions that make living sustainable easier. Some even plant trees for free!
1. TreeClicks – Plant Free Trees While Shopping
TreeClicks is a recently launched Chrome & Firefox extension that plants trees for free while shopping. It works simple.
Download the TreeClicks Chrome or Firefox extension
When you shop at one of their more than 50.000 connected stores, trees are planted from the ad fee they receive. You do have to activate the TreeClicks popup that shows up when you visit one of their connected stores.
When shopping a decent amount, it’s easy to help planting already a couple of trees. Since online shopping is a 500 billion dollar business in the United States, if only a tiny percentage of this fee goes into tree planting, TreeClicks could plant billions of trees. Download now.
2. Tab for a cause
Tab for a Cause is a very simple Chrome extension that shows a tab with an advertisement every time you open a new tab. A part of that ad revenue is used for causes. You can select your own causes. If you want a sustainable cause, choose for example a Nature Conservancy related cause.
Like all mentioned extensions in this article, Tab for a Cause is free and can be installed for both Firefox and Chrome.
3. DoneGood – shop more ethical
DoneGood is a simple Chrome Extension that recommends brands that make the world better a place.
It’s an online shopping assistant automatically recommends the best ethical, sustainable brands as you shop on Amazon, Google, or other retail websites. Plus, with exclusive offers and discount codes for 25% off or more, you can easily shop your values while saving money at the same time.
Other handy Chrome Extensions
While this is a short list, there’s many other great Chrome Extensions. Check them out here:
Vier jaar geleden heb ik een Secrid portemonnee in gebruik genomen. Het is in principe de eerste vier jaar een top product. Wanneer je googlet op: “Secrid duurzaamheid” zie je veel posts die hem als duurzaam aanprijzen. Zoals BNR beschrijft:
Secrid produceert hun slimme portemonnee bij Nederlandse sociale werkplaatsen en gebruiken het leer van lokale leerlooiers.
Eerste tekenen van uitelkaar gaan na ongeveer drie jaar
Helaas, na drie jaar beginnen de naden van de cardprotector en het leer los te laten. Nu, na ruim vier jaar zit hij nog aan een paar naden vast, maar is hij zo goed als kapot:
Jammer, maar aangezien Secrid zo een duurzaam bedrijf is, zullen ze hier ongetwijfeld vaker te maken mee krijgen en een passend oplossing hebben.
Tijd om de klantenservice te mailen …
Mailen met de Secrid klantenservice
Secrid geeft aan dat ze een garantietermijn hebben van twee jaar. De termijn wordt met een jaar verlengd als je je wallet registreert. Helaas kunnen ze niks meer doen voor mijn portemonnee:
Wij hanteren een garantietermijn van 2 jaar en sinds 2016 is het mogelijk om een 3e jaar garantie te krijgen door de wallet te registeren. De garantietermijn is dus helaas voorbij en daarom kunnen wij je niet verder helpen.
Zelfs als ik ze aanbied om de reparatiekosten voor eigen rekening te nemen kunnen ze niks doen. Zoals ik ze mail:
Dat snap ik helemaal. Wat zouden de kosten zijn om hem te laten repareren? Ik vind het zonde om hem weg te gooien en volgens mij gaat dat ook jullie eigen duurzaamheidsprincipe tegen?
Daarop reageert de klantenservice van Secrid met:
Helaas is het niet mogelijk om het leer te repareren. Normaalgesproken sturen we een nieuw product als het nog binnen de garantietermijn valt. Je zou het zelf kunnen proberen te naaien, maar ik weet niet of dit echt gaat werken. Ik ben bang dat je toe bent aan een nieuw product.
Dan maar zelf repareren
Het kost je een uur en de nodige frustratie, maar het lukte me inderdaad om de portemonnee zelf te repareren met naald en draad:
Een druppeltje lijm langs de naden doet wellicht ook nog wat wonderen.
Verdere tips voor Secrid zelf
Nou heb ik geen zin om zuur te worden en onredelijke uitspraken over Secrid te doen. De wallet is vier jaar meegegaan, niet slecht, maar ik had van zo een hip designbedrijf dat zichzelf als duurzaam profileert toch meer oplossingen verwacht. Ik weet zeker dat veel mensen niet de moeite zouden nemen om de portemonnee te naaien, waardoor deze op de vuilnishoop belandt.
Secrid CEO, mocht je dit lezen, hier heb je wat tips van bedrijven die wel kaas gegeten hebben van duurzaamheid:
Mud Jeans – Hier lease je een spijkerbroek voor €5 per maand. Als ie kapot gaat, stuur je hem op en krijg je een gerepareerde of nieuwe. Wellicht een idee voor Secrid om te starten met leasen van portemonnees voor een tientje per jaar?
Eastpak – Biedt uit mijn hoofd 30 jaar garantie. Ik heb hier ooit mijn tien jaar oude rugzak naartoe teruggestuurd, omdat de ritssluiting kapot was. Binnen een paar weken kreeg ik weer een werkende tas terug. Eastpak heeft ervoor gezorgd dat de afvalhoop net een stukje kleiner blijft.
P.S. repareren is op eigen risico. Ga er vanuit dat je van Secrid in ieder geval weinig hulp krijgt.
