Fast and easy way to watch multimedia online

You’re probably already familiar with browser extensions – the small software programs that customize your browsing experience. When it comes to video streaming, they simplify the process so you don’t run into problems in terms of sluggish connection, poor visual etc.

The huge size of videos can sometimes seem incomprehensible and can lead to various problems, but with browser extensions, you can drastically improve your video streaming experience. Here, we’ve jotted down some of the most popular browser extensions for you to check out.

But before you start discussing them, here’s something you’ve to know about.

Security issues with browser extensions

Though some of the browser extensions are quite helpful, they can be dangerous at the same time. Here’re the ways through which extensions can go wrong.

Malicious extensions: Though a permission management feature exists in some extensions that you can grant or not, they won’t be installed if you don’t grant the permission. And once granted, these extensions can do almost anything they want to. In addition, most of the extensions hold massive user bases and they’re updated automatically. It means, if a user had downloaded a harmless extension, it can be made to become malicious.

Privacy issues: Most of the extensions come with the ability to collect lots of information about their users, which are sold to third parties. If the data isn’t anonymized properly, it can lead to some serious privacy issues. For example, users of the extension can be identified by the purchasing parties.

Mitigating the risk

While it may not be possible to stop using extensions completely, there’re some ways to increase the safety quotient. Let’s have a look at them.

Pay attention to permissions required by the extensions. If an extension, which is already installed in your device, requests for a new permission, it might have become vulnerable.

Use a good security solution to detect and neutralise malicious extensions.

Buy VPN for Android if you plan to use extensions on your smartphone or tablet computer.

Lower the number of extensions and install only the most useful ones.

Popular browser extensions for video streaming

Here’s a list of the six most popular browser extensions that can be extremely handy for better video streaming.

Magic Actions

Video streaming can be highly annoying, especially with random resolutions. This useful and lightweight extension for YouTube is designed to offer a more enjoyable watching experience and you can do almost anything to improve your experience. From suppressing ads to letting you control the volume with the mouse wheel – you can enjoy a complete experience with it.

FVD Video Downloader

If you’re looking for a multiple task extension for smooth downloading of videos from the web, FVD Video Downloader can be just what you need. It allows you to download content from any website and in different formats like MPEG, ASF, AVI, and FVI, among others. The best part is – you can download several files at the same time, irrespective of the source. All you need to do is to click the extension icon and select one of the quality options to start the download process.

Video DownloadHelper

With this extension, you can download all your required videos directly on the page where it’s being played with just one mouse click. It’s compatible with popular sites like Vimeo, Facebook, Metacafe, Liveleak, and Bloomberg, among others. Video DownloadHelper also offers a wide range of download options and in different formats like WEBM, MP4 etc, as well as different types of quality options like SD, HD etc.

Flix Plus

If you’re an avid Netflix watcher, you should check out Flix Plus. It comes with a bunch of innovative features like integration with IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes etc for ratings and information, enhancements to browsing, hiding spoiler content where all the episode info and thumbnail images become blurred out and are only viewable if you mouse over them, among others.

FastTube

If you’re looking for just the video with faster load times, FastTube is something you should definitely try. With this extension, your video plays in a popup window, ignoring the thumbnails, comments and everything else. It also comes with some cool features like sharing, rotating, and letting you watch the video in its own cinema mode. If you want to view comments, description, and related videos, just click the video title and you’re done.

Hola Video Accelerator

This tiny extension works greatly in reducing buffering, unblocking censored sites, speeding up web browsing as well as downloads, among others. It also helps you save your data usage significantly. You can install this Chrome extension for free from Chrome’s official website to enjoy online HD streaming without buffering.

Final takeaway

Each of these extensions is capable of offering you a complete video watching experience, without having to bump into annoying buffering issues and poor visual quality all the time.