Vertical Forest

Source Code Released

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

I have now released the sourcecode for YouTube5 and FaceBlock on github. Feel free to extend and or modify these extensions (or port them to other browsers). I only ask that you maintain the original license information in the source code.

YouTube5 Update – HTML5 Anywhere

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

The first update to YouTube5 has just been released! It includes several new features and bugfixes. First of all, the extension will now work on YouTube videos embedded anywhere, not just on YouTube.com.

Also, the occasional issue that would cause a video not to load has been fixed, and a graphical indicator is now shown instead of just a black rectangle while the video is loading.

Hopefully the extension will update itself automatically for most users, but if it doesn’t you can download the updated extension manually.

Update 1.2.5 The issue with the new YouTube video URLs has been fixed.

YouTube5 – HTML5 Converter for YouTube videos

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

This information is outdated, please see the post on YouTube5 Version 2.


Update 1.2.5 The issue with video’s not loading due to the change in the YouTube video URL has been fixed.

This extension removes the need to use flash on YouTube by converting all videos to their HTML5 video tag equivalents. It also has the added benefits of decreased CPU usage compared to flash, and the removal of in-video ads.

Screen shot 2010-06-09 at 6.10.56 PM

Before installing, be sure to enable extensions. Download the extension

Update: A few of you have asked why this is better than the YouTube HTML5 beta, and the reason is very simple: YouTube will only display an HTML5 player for videos without advertising in them, so videos from Vevo or many other popular sources will still use flash. As a side note, this extension will not function if you are a member of the HTML5 beta, as the page formats are completely different.

Also, many people have been asking about viewing HD video with this extension, and I’m happy to announce that this is already possible, I just failed to mention it before. Simply go to Preferences -> Extensions -> YouTube5 and you will be able to select your desired video format (360p, 720p, or 1080p). If your selected format is not available, the next largest will be used.

FaceBlock – Safari Facebook Ad Blocker

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

I have stopped maintaining this plugin as Facebook made some changes to their page layouts that made it very difficult to remove the advertising. I recommend AdBlock for Safari or Facebook Cleaner instead.

For quite some time, the most popular post on this site has been my user stylesheet for blocking facebook ads. With the release of Safari 5 yesterday, I finally have a more elegant way of implementing this blocking system, extension. Introducing:

FaceBlock

FaceBlock will remove the sidebar ads on the Facebook homepage, as well as the ads on user profiles.

To install, you will first need to enable extensions, since for some reason they are disabled by default.

  1. Go to Preferences -> Advanced and enable the develop menu.
  2. Close preferences and then click on Develop -> Enable Extensions.
  3. Download FaceBlock.

Enable Extensions

Goodbye ads!

Update 1.1: I’ve added rules to block ads in several other areas of the site. Hopefully Safari’s automatic update system actually works since I haven’t been able to test it. If anyone could let me know if the update shows up automatically I’d appreciate it!