By now you've probably heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), the bills that want to cripple your internet. Perhaps you want to do something about it. Here are some tools that can help you keep track of SOPA and PIPA as well as prepare for problems in case they pass. More »

Chrome: Albeit a little late, Evernote has jumped on the improved web site readability bandwagon and introduced a new feature called Clearly. Much like most browser extensions and bookmarklets, it takes a given web site and converts the layout into a more readable format. This makes clipping web content to Evernote a lot nicer as you won't have to deal with improper formatting as the page transitions to your notebook. More »

Chrome: The web provides tons of great written content, but that can get a little overwhelming when you're not in the mood to read all day long. Announcify is a browser extension for those times when you'd rather just listen. All you have to do is browse to any article and click the Announcify button. More »

When you come across a single web site you want to send to a friend, that's easy to do. If you have a bunch of sites open and you want to share them all, things get a little more complex. Tabulate expedites the process of sending many URLs by taking all the open tabs in a given window and providing you with a single short URL that links to them all. You can then send that short URL to someone, who will be presented with all your links. It's a one-click solution to what would normally take a little time to accomplish. More »

Start Google Plus is a great extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets you update Twitter and Facebook from within Google+, also adding feeds from both social networks onto your main page. We mentioned it in our Facebook to Google+ migration guide, but felt it deserved to be highlighted on its own because it's so useful. More »

Evernote's Chrome extension might not be quite as powerful a tool as Evernote's Mac and PC apps, but it does make a great addition to any note-capturing addict's browser toolbox. The latest update adds common Evernote actions to Chrome's right-click menu, making grabbing a clipping or starting a new note even more convenient. "Clip this page," "clip selection" and "clip image" are now just a right-click away.

Evernote for Chrome has also gained the familiar "snippet view" from Evernote's desktop and mobile apps. To browse the compact snippet versions of all your notes, click the Evernote icon in the toolbar. For extra note-browsing efficiency, there's even a tab that shows your saved notes from the site you're currently viewing.

Smaller tweaks include speed improvements and background clipping. Yep, clipping now happens in the background, so you don't have to wait til your clip is saved before you leave a page.

Serious Evernote junkies will probably still want to feed their addiction with a desktop app, but the Chrome extension is great for work computers and other situations where it's not practical to install desktop software. It's also just plain convenient, especially now that you can save a clip with one click!

Chrome-only: If you often find yourself discovering images and files you want to save but don't really want to deal with them right this moment, Cloud Save attempts to solve that problem. By right clicking on an image or download link, you can opt to send that file to one of many cloud-based services. More »

 

Chrome's omnibar is great, but it lacks the ability to set bookmark shortcuts. Quickmarks is a Chrome extension that solves this problem, allowing you to access your bookmarks via the keyboard very quickly.More »

If you want more control over your Twitter stream, check out the Proxlet Chrome extension. Proxlet lets you easily mute any user (temporarily or forever), block any Twitter app, or filter out any hashtag. The most obvious use for Proxlet is filtering out app spam from the likes of Foursquare and Paper.li, but it's also great if your friends are tweeting from a conference you don't like or they suddenly pick up a hashtag meme that doesn't interest you.

The really fantastic thing about Proxlet is that it also works with some desktop and mobile apps, including TweetDeck Desktop, Twidroyd and Twitter for iPhone. The idea is so slick that it might not be a bad idea for Twitter to look at acquiring Proxlet or implementing some of these filters themselves. Sure, Twitter is supposed to be simple, but new use cases -- like app spam -- need new user tools, and Proxlet is one of the best new tools you can add to your arsenal.

Chrome: If you prefer spending more time reading on your Kindle than in your browser, you can quickly push content from your browser to your Kindle with Chrome extension Send to Kindle.

Chrome: If you're tired of previewing only sparse links like YouTube or Twitpic on Twitter.com, Embedly's browser extension saves you from opening a flood of new tabs by integrating the most common sites right into Twitter. More »

Chrome: Browser extension Chrome Time Track is a simple tool to measure the amount of time it takes to complete a task or milestone from inside Google Chrome. More »

Chrome: Vanilla is a browser extension that serves as a whitelist for browser cookies, automatically blocking cookies from sites you don't explicitly allow. More »

Chrome and Safari: You may have dreams of reaching inbox zero, but actually getting there can be a chore. 0Boxer attempts to make the process more fun by creating a social competition out of organizing your inbox. More »

Filed under: Productivity, Freeware, Browser Tips

Don't you just love it when you find a way to make something good even better? Remember the Milk is a fantastic online task management application, and here are a couple of browser extensions that make it even better if you're using Firefox or Chrome.

Both of these extensions have existed in some form in Firefox for a while, but they have both recently been released for Chrome, and they're worth investigating for either platform if you haven't already.

A Bit Better RTM