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Thank you so much. I didn't even think about Greasemonkey. I went to make a script using your code and it said there was already one available. That script looks like this:

Edit: Updated script

(function() {
    'use strict';

    var links = document.links;
    for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {
        var referer = links[i].href.indexOf('&u=');
        links[i].href = decodeURIComponent(links[i].href.substr(referer + 3));
    }

})();

and it worked fine. Then I replaced that code with yours, and it worked just as well. Thanks again.

I'm not sure what the best way to make using it convenient is, but you could paste something like this into the JS console to rewrite all the r.php links:

(function() {
  let links = [...document.getElementsByTagName("a")];
  links.forEach(link => {
    if(link.href.startsWith("https://skimfeed.com/r.php"))
    {
      let url = new URL(link.href);
      let clean_link = url.searchParams.get("u");
      link.href = clean_link;
    }
  });
})();

The basic idea of my JS snippet is that it looks for all the anchor tags (i.e. <a href='...'>), finds the ones that link to r.php, extracts the u query parameter which appears to contain the actual URL of interest, and then replaces the href attribute of the anchor (i.e. the part of the HTML that contains the destination URL) with the clean URL. That entire snippet of logic is wrapped in an anonymous function which is then immediately called so that you can just paste the snippet in more or less wherever it makes sense to trigger the logic.

Way back in the day I would've stuck snippets like that into GreaseMonkey scripts, but I haven't messed with that stuff in a long time and I'm not sure which extensions are still good to use for doing that kind of thing.

Apologies in advance if my snippet is not perfectly correct; I'm not familiar with that site and wrote this off the cuff when I saw your post. Hopefully it's helpful though.

This screenshot shows a shield icon next to the address bar:

If they want to get rid of the padlock icon, I'd guess, they'll group the certicate into there, together with the toggle for Tracking Protection.

I guess, we could also download Nightly and see for ourselves...

Its a fork of Firefox with a different user.js

Waiting pays off!

Fixed an issue where the "List all tabs" button was not able to be moved from the toolbar. (Bug 1918681)

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/131.0.3/releasenotes/

Maybe there are better examples, but Google famously removed JPEG-XL support from Chrome despite there being a huge demand for it and other browsers preparing to support it.

I browsing the Mozilla forum right now. Seems they already had an arrow pointing downward doing the same job, but more discret. Plus you could hide it with about:config. Seems a lot of people are unhappy with the new uncustomizable button. I think I should apply the Hanlon razor, and assume the new button is just here out of stupidity. And it will be rolled back soon, or be less intrusive, and be removable

I am currently testing out Zen browser, and it seems fine. I am not sure how much it can be customized vis-a-vis Firefox, but I wanted something that remains Gecko based and relatively close to FireFox, and it seems to deliver.

I tried LibreWolf, but I quickly realized it's not for me. Not allowing websites to detect dark mode preferences is a level of paranoia I hope I'll never reach.

Here are my favorite Firefox extensions—these are a mix of essentials I can’t live without, privacy tools, and some that just make browsing a lot easier:

Essentials:

uBlock Origin: The best adblocker out there. It’s fast and blocks ads, trackers, and more, which keeps things running smoothly. KeePassXC-Browser: Integrates KeePassXC to auto-fill passwords—super handy so I don’t have to type anything in manually. To Google Translate: Great for quick translations. Just highlight text, right-click, and you’re good to go.

Privacy & Security:

ClearURLs: Cleans up tracking elements from URLs, so when I share a link, it’s cleaner and more private. Firefox Relay: Creates alias emails to protect my real address, helping keep spam away. Privacy Badger: Blocks trackers automatically as I browse—set it and forget it. LocalCDN: Prevents my browser from connecting to third-party servers unnecessarily by using local resources instead. Consent-O-Matic: Fills in those annoying cookie consent forms for me, saving time while keeping my privacy settings intact.

Enhancements:

Dark Reader: Turns on dark mode for websites, perfect for late-night browsing. Augmented Steam: Improves the Steam store by showing better prices, deals, and user reviews. FoxScroller: Auto-scrolls pages, so I don’t have to keep manually scrolling long articles or threads. Save Page WE: Saves web pages as HTML, which is awesome for viewing them offline or archiving stuff. Download All Images: Lets me bulk download all images from a webpage—super useful. Simple Tab Groups: Keeps my tabs organized in groups so my sessions don’t get messy. Plasma Integration: Integrates Firefox with my KDE Plasma desktop for native notifications and media controls. Add custom search engine: Lets me add any site’s search bar to Firefox as a custom search engine for quicker searches. I mainly use this for SearXNG.

VPN:

Windscribe: My VPN extension for a secure connection with just one click.

Tab Snooze - allows you to close a tab and have it reappear at a chosen time later

Media URL Timestamper - automatically inserts the current timestamp of the YouTube/Twitch video you're watching and updates it in the history in case you accidentally close/navigate away from the page or go to a different time in the video

Feedbro - RSS reader with filtering capabilities

Redirector - auto-redirect specific URLs (for example, changing a YouTube Shorts url into a regular one, or changing Reddit links to always go to Old Reddit)

Undo Close Tab Button - adds a list of recently closed tabs to the tab context menu and allows you to restore them (including the tab's history in the back button) (max amount = browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo)

Violentmonkey - using userscripts that allow you to change things on websites.

• For Instagram - unmuting videos + setting their default volume
• For YouTube - disabling the subtitles/captions + disabling "autoplay next" for playlists + disabling autoplay of channels homepage video
  • a way to disable specific keyboard shortcuts (you need to manually add the code as a new script). I use /^(Key)?(End|I|O)|(Digit|Numpad)\d$/ instead of /^(?:Digit|Numpad)\d$/ (thanks to this post), to also disable the End/I/O keys in addition to the number keys. (note: this can also be used for other sites, but you might need to change stopPropagation to stopImmediatePropagation, for example on Patreon)
• Note that, at least for Violentmonkey, if the userscript doesn't have the "://" part of the url in the @match line then you need to add it in the userscript settings after installing the script (for example, if the @match line of the script only has *.youtube.com/* then put *://*.youtube.com/* in the "@match rules" line in the settings)

YouTube Comment Reader - allows you to search through the comments of a video (by clicking on the addon in the Extension menu and then clicking on the "YouTube Comment Reader" at the top or the "X Comments" at the bottom of the tooltip)

Page Shadow - allows you to use dark and light themes on sites that don't have the option to change it.

And if you're like me and you find that some YT videos feel too slow but 1.25x is too fast, then you can use Enhancer for YouTube's "Playback speed" feature to have smaller speed steps. Then you can hold ctrl and use the scrollwheel (while over the video) to change the video's speed by the amount you chose (I use 0.05 speed variation, mostly changing to 1.05x or 1.10x)

Tree Style Tabs has helped me organize and declutter my FF window. Very customizable.

Cookie AutoDelete • I have it set to delete any cookies unless I whitelist/graylist the site

DownThemAll! • I really don’t use this much anymore, but it really saved time when I needed it

Link Text and Location Copier • I can’t live without this.

NoScript • I only temporarily enable specific domains on each site I visit, but some sites get permanent whitelisting

uBlock Origin • How does anyone browse without this?

F.B Purity • I have this in a separate profile now for those rare times I have to reach out to family or some group only has a Facebook page, but it’s not enable in my main profile anymore

On Android, I use Redirect AMP to HTML and the essential uBlock Origin.

On desktop, I use MarkDownload to quickly convert and format webpages and snippets of text in markdown format.

i still don't care about cookies is probably important for europe people

OceanHero so every search goes to preventing or removing oceanbound plastic

• uBlock Origin
• Indie Wiki Buddy
• Dark Reader

This is correct, and along side the Rust development, they also started work on a web renderer, in Rust, called Servo that at one point was considered as a possible future replacement for the Gecko engine. Around the time Rust transitioned to the Rust foundation, Servo was also pretty much abandoned by Mozilla, moved to the Linux Foundation in 2020 and then Linux Foundation Europe in 2023 where it is finally getting some steady development again. There is also some recent progress on building a browser based on Servo, although it will probably be some time before it's ready for daily use.

The feature exists on desktop, works great, but the setup is convoluted. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles There's a way to make desktop shortcuts to easily pick profile, but I don't remember how, it has been a few years since I needed profiles.

Wish they had something for mobile too, that would be huge. I use my phone for both work and personal stuff all the time, not my desktop.

Yeah, that's what I get on mobile.

checks desktop

Looks like the same is also true of desktop, so it's just that they changed it over time.

kagis

Here's a history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Mozilla

And the beast shall be made legion. Its numbers shall be increased a thousand thousand fold. The din of a million keyboards like unto a great storm shall cover the earth, and the followers of Mammon shall tremble.

— from The Book of Mozilla, 3:31 (Red Letter Edition)

The chapter and verse number 3:31 refers to March 31, 1998, when Netscape released its source code.

The Book of Mozilla page has the following comment in its HTML source about this passage:[7]

<!-- 31st March 1998: the Netscape Navigator source code was released -->
<!-- The source code is made available to the legion of thousands of coders of the open source community, that will fight against the followers of Mammon (Microsoft Internet Explorer). -->

Again, the "beast" is Netscape. The text probably refers to Netscape's hope that, by opening its source, they could attract a "legion" of developers all across the world, who would help improve the software (with the "din of a million keyboards"). The "legion" is actually a reference to the biblical quote Mark 5:9 in the King James Version (KJV) bible ("And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many."), since The Book of Mozilla is presented as a sort of "computer bible" with prophecies. "Mammon" refers to Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer browser was Netscape's chief competition. The word "mammon," in various Semitic languages, is related to money and riches; it appears in English translations of the Bible, and is sometimes used as the name of a demon of avarice.

And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

— from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15

In the HTML source of Book of Mozilla page, this verse is accompanied by the following annotation:[7]

<!-- 15th July 2003: AOL closed its Netscape division and the Mozilla foundation was created -->
<!-- The beast died (AOL closed its Netscape division) but immediately rose from its ashes (the creation of the Mozilla foundation and the Firebird browser, although the name was later changed to Firefox). -->

The "beast" falling refers to Netscape being closed down by its now parent company AOL. The "great bird" that rises from the ash is the Mozilla Foundation, which was established to continue Mozilla development. The bird rises from the ash like a phoenix – a reference to the original name of the Mozilla Firefox browser (known as Firebird at the time this verse was written). The bird casts down "fire" and "thunder" on the "unbelievers", which is a direct reference to the Mozilla Firebird (now Firefox) and Mozilla Thunderbird products, which became the main focus of Mozilla development a few months before the events of July 15. The fact that the beast has been "reborn" indicates that the spirit of Netscape will live on through the Foundation (which is made up mostly of ex-Netscape employees) and its strength has been "renewed" as the foundation is less reliant on AOL (who many feel neglected Netscape). Again, "Mammon" is Microsoft, Mozilla's main commercial competitor.

And thus the Creator looked upon the beast reborn and saw that it was good.

— from The Book of Mozilla, 8:20

The 8:20 chapter and verse notation refers to August 20, 2006, when the first internal email was sent mentioning the possibility of developing the next Netscape Navigator in house.

Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed crops unto the fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new world in their own image as promised by the sacred words, and spoke of the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was naught but a follower.

— from The Book of Mozilla, 11:9 (10th Edition)

<!-- 9th November 2004: Firefox 1.0 is officially released -->
<!-- The worldwide support of Firefox fans leads to its success, illustrating the power of community-based open source projects. -->

"Mammon" is again Internet Explorer, which "slept" for the 5 years between releases (between Internet Explorer 6 and 7). The "beast reborn" refers to Firefox, which gained supporters who self-organized through Spread Firefox and undertook publicity for the browser, taking out an advertisement in The New York Times and making a crop circle shaped like the Firefox logo. The "cunning of foxes" is a direct reference to Firefox's name. The "new world" refers to modern, standards-based dynamic websites and open source applications. The latter half of the passage links to the Mozilla Manifesto and the about:Mozilla newsletter. The last part, starting with "Mammon awoke," speaks of the release of Internet Explorer 7 and with "it was naught but a follower" describes it as a follower, copying several of the functions in Firefox that Internet Explorer previously lacked.[10] Additionally, "10th edition" is an allusion to the Mozilla Foundation's 10th anniversary, which occurred during the Firefox 3 development cycle.[12]

The twins of Mammon quarrelled. Their warring plunged the world into a new darkness, and the beast abhorred the darkness. So it began to move swiftly, and grew more powerful, and went forth and multiplied. And the beasts brought fire and light to the darkness.

— from The Book of Mozilla, 15:1

The "twins of Mammon" refers to Apple and Google, whose mobile operating systems, respectively iOS and Android, have taken a duopoly of the mobile OS market. The "new darkness" refers to the closed nature of traditional app stores. The beast moving "swiftly" refers to the new rapid release cycle of Firefox. The phrase "went forth and multiplied" refers to "Firefox becoming multiple things"[13] through Firefox for Android and Firefox OS. The verse number 15:1 refers to the code freeze of Firefox OS 1.0 (January 15, 2013).[14]

The Beast adopted new raiment and studied the ways of Time and Space and Light and the Flow of energy through the Universe. From its studies, the Beast fashioned new structures from oxidised metal and proclaimed their glories. And the Beast's followers rejoiced, finding renewed purpose in these teachings.

— from The Book of Mozilla, 11:14

It refers to the major changes that culminated in the Firefox 57 release with the Quantum project. "Time and Space" refer to Quantum itself, while "Flow" refers to the Quantum Flow project,[16] "new raiment" and "Light" refer to the UI refresh known as the Photon project.[17] The Quantum Project contained the first major piece of code taken from Servo,[18] the layout engine written in Rust, to which "oxidised metal" is a reference. The 11:14 chapter and verse notation refers to November 14, 2017, the day Firefox 57 was released.

The Beast continued its studies with renewed Focus, building great Reference works and contemplating new Realities. The Beast brought forth its followers and acolytes to create a renewed smaller form of itself and, through Mischievous means, sent it out across the world.

— from The Book of Mozilla, 6:27

<!-- 27th June 2019: Firefox Preview is made available for testing by early adopters -->
<!-- Firefox Focus, Reference Browser, and Firefox Reality all use the new GeckoView as does Firefox for Android which was rebuilt lighter and faster under the code name Fenix prior to release. -->

Emphasized words refer to Firefox Focus, Reference Browser, and Firefox Reality, all of which had switched to the Quantum-based GeckoView for higher performance.

Some of that focus involves adding features that have become table-stakes in other browsers.

Speaking of this, does anyone else feel like Firefox's lack of ability to wirelessly screencast is a major problem when it comes to convincing others to switch away from chromium browsers? I know chromecast and airplay themselves are both proprietary, and therefore counter to firefox's open source philosophy, but they could at least implement first party support for miracast (or DLNA?) A surprising number of smart TVs work well with those protocols. They just tend not to advertise it because most people don't know what they are.

I admit that I haven't looked much into this since some years ago when I first switched over to firefox as my main browser, but at the time I found that there weren't even any decent addons for screen casting functionality. I've learned to live without it, but I know a lot of people who use that functionality on a daily basis and could (quite justifiably) never be convinced to switch without an equivalent.