Caleb Stephens ‘24
Staff Editor
So, what is an extension? Also known as an add-on (in Firefox), an extension is essentially an extra function which can be added to your browser. Most popular extensions are provided through the Chrome web store. Despite the name, most common browsers will accept these extensions directly through the Chrome store and run them without any problem.
The most essential extension in my arsenal of extensions is doubtless OneTab. OneTab does one thing, and does it really well: tab management. If you’re anything like me, you always have at least seven tabs open in your browser, if not many more. Anytime I start doing legal research, I find myself opening case after case, leaving each one open in a new tab for when I inevitably need it (why yes, I do prefer Lexis over Westlaw, in part because Lexis allows you to open cases in different tabs and won’t lose all your tabs when you log back in). The problem with this research method occurs when you have left for the day, shutting down your computer for security reasons (seriously, if you’re working for a court for the summer, they really care about that). Note that I said shutting down, not shutting the lid, not putting the computer to sleep, but actually logging out and powering off the machine. But what about my tabs, you’re doubtless thinking. Well, they’re probably gone. And that’s where OneTab comes in.
OneTab can be added to Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Vivaldi, and it simplifies your routine like this: when you’re done researching for the day (or hour, or whatever), just click on the OneTab icon in the top right corner of your browser. This will collapse all your tabs and open a single browser page, which will display a list of links to the pages you had open. If you click any of these links, they open back up in a new tab. When you reopen your browser after closing it, this OneTab page will be the first thing to greet you, inviting you to begin where you left off, either by clicking each link you want, or just hitting “restore all” to go right back to where you were. And that’s not all. You can also sort the links on this page into different headings, renaming each browsing session however you want. OneTab automatically titles each collection with the date and time, but it also gives you the option to title the collection with whatever title you want.
Browsing Amazon for the perfect water bottle and opening each bottle in a new tab for comparison? Collapse all your tabs into OneTab and title it “Quest for the Holy Grail,” returning to it when you’ve slept on your extremely important decision (you’ll know you chose…wisely when you don’t shrivel up and turn to dust on your first sip). More pertinently, if you’re researching a legal topic–say, employment law–for your LRW paper, and have to go to class, collapse all your tabs into a collection called “I blame LRW for my mental health issues”. You can also export each collection. Say you have a group project, and want your friends to read the research you did. Just collapse the tabs into a collection, title it, and hit export. You’ll get a single link that will open up that collection on your friend’s device. All that said, I find OneTab to be an indispensable part of my research process, and it’s well worth trying. I’ve introduced it to two workplaces and continue to spread it around like a COVID-19 carrier in early 2020.
There are a lot of extensions out there. Another extremely useful one in the legal arena is the DarkReader extension. All this extension does, by default, is convert the webpage you are looking at from black text on a white background to white text on a black background. It also allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast of pages in either dark or light mode, if you want your browser to be less bright without having to squint to watch the Christopher Nolan movie you’re watching on your second monitor. While you may not always want to read in dark mode (white text on a black background, as I was explaining before, for those who are wondering), an occasional break from the wall of white screens can be nice, and this extension is not very demanding and is easy to toggle on and off by simply hitting the extension’s symbol in your browser.
One more that can be helpful is the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials extension. This extension does one thing: grades websites as they’re tracking you. It displays a letter grade for each website you visit and tells you what they’re tracking about you. The letter grade varies (of course, no grading on a B+ curve here) by how much the website is tracking you, and the extension does block some of these trackers. It’s probably an extension to use before you try to find that textbook free online somewhere, or when you simply can’t find the pdf you’re looking for. Privacy is really important in the legal world, especially when you’re working with information for a client and making sure that you don’t inadvertently expose your computer to malicious actors is a core responsibility.
All of that said, there is some danger in installing and running extensions. Too many extensions can slow down your browser, so you want to be careful in your selection of extensions. In my experience, you won’t notice any difference from adding all of the options I listed above (although, thanks to OneTab, I rarely have more than around 15 tabs open at one time, which definitely makes a major difference in browsing speed). Do be smart about what extensions you install, check ratings, look at who the developer is, and make sure you aren’t downloading something that is from a country infamous for hacking attempts, poorly reviewed, and potentially dangerous for your information. All three that I listed are safe; I’ve vetted them, at least 2 million other users have added them, and I’ve had some pretty serious information security people vet them and confirm that they’re safe. I’ve even made it easy for those of you on Vivaldi or Chrome: all you have to do to access the correct links for these three extensions is to scan the QR code I’ve attached.
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cs8ws@virginia.edu