Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex • Hacker News Board

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#31

Post by mook » Sun, Jun 01, 2025, 7:34 PM UTC

nileshtrivedi wrote: post #24

I find it annoying when people share direct URLs to PDFs at arxiv.org instead of the the abstract. However, if I were to use a redirect extension like this one, then my own click on the PDF link would get redirected back to the abstract page. To handle this, the redirect rule needs to consider the referer page too, with a possible exception if the referer is the same site as the destination.

For something like that, on Android I find it fine to install the URL Forwarder app from F-droid and share the link to the app. That way you opt-in to the modification (I use it to load things with Archive.today from HN).

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#32

Post by kmfrk » Sun, Jun 01, 2025, 7:35 PM UTC

Been using this for a long time, and it's fantastic.

I also found out that Kagi (the paid search engine) supports rewriting results, which is probably where you'll see a lot of the links you follow.[1]

For instance, if you get some Fandom results, you can change them to antifandom that is part of the BreezeWiki project[2], if you so prefer: https://forgottenrealms.antifandom.com.

[1]: https://kagi.com/settings/?p=redirects

[2]: https://antifandom.com

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#33

Post by userbinator » Sun, Jun 01, 2025, 8:03 PM UTC

I use a filtering proxy to do this. Much more control, and as someone who regularly uses several browsers simultaneously, no need to configure each one separately.

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#34

Post by spookie » Sun, Jun 01, 2025, 8:47 PM UTC

MallocVoidstar wrote: post #22

aspenmayer wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is available for Chromium, though. https://libredirect.github.io/download_chromium.html https://libredirect.codeberg.page/download_chromium.html

Chrome has disabled support for MV2 extensions (unless you set an enterprise policy) and is entirely removing support for MV2 extensions in v139: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/develop/migrate... It releases in August.

Hope those Google guys fix it! Would be bad not having half of the appeal of the browser.

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#35

Post by Bluestein » Sun, Jun 01, 2025, 9:00 PM UTC

kmfrk wrote: post #32

Been using this for a long time, and it's fantastic. I also found out that Kagi (the paid search engine) supports rewriting results, which is probably where you'll see a lot of the links you follow.[1] For instance, if you get some Fandom results, you can change them to antifandom that is part of the BreezeWiki project[2], if you so prefer: https://forgottenrealms.antifandom.com . [1]: https://kagi.com/settings/?p=re…

> Kagi (the paid search engine) supports rewriting results

This is such a value-add! Pretty smart guys.-

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#36

Post by Bluestein » Sun, Jun 01, 2025, 9:02 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #33

I use a filtering proxy to do this. Much more control, and as someone who regularly uses several browsers simultaneously, no need to configure each one separately.

There used to be this nice proxy-thing for windows called the "Proxomitron" (or such), peculiar one-eyed pyramid icon and everything! Wonder if it's still around. Been a while.-

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#37

Post by userbinator » Sun, Jun 01, 2025, 9:48 PM UTC

Bluestein wrote: post #36

userbinator wrote: post #33

I use a filtering proxy to do this. Much more control, and as someone who regularly uses several browsers simultaneously, no need to configure each one separately.

There used to be this nice proxy-thing for windows called the "Proxomitron" (or such), peculiar one-eyed pyramid icon and everything! Wonder if it's still around. Been a while.-

That's what I use.

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#38

Post by neodymiumphish » Sun, Jun 01, 2025, 11:56 PM UTC

kmfrk wrote: post #32

Been using this for a long time, and it's fantastic. I also found out that Kagi (the paid search engine) supports rewriting results, which is probably where you'll see a lot of the links you follow.[1] For instance, if you get some Fandom results, you can change them to antifandom that is part of the BreezeWiki project[2], if you so prefer: https://forgottenrealms.antifandom.com . [1]: https://kagi.com/settings/?p=re…

I’m a Kagi subscriber and didn’t know about this… thanks!!

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#39

Post by out-of-ideas » Mon, Jun 02, 2025, 2:13 AM UTC

rdmuser wrote: post #2

Sadly late 2021 the original dev passed away. Someone has taken over stewardship of the project but it is currently moving slowly and they are seeking more contributors (javascript skills are a plus). He was a bit of a hn user and seemed good natured and pleasant. Though I didn't know him I was sad to hear he'd passed both as a Redirector user and a fan of good people doing good things. I know he'd mentioned being ha…

for firefox, i use `request-interceptor` ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/request-inter... )

though sadly it has not had an update in a while (a dark mode would be great) (and rarely, a page-url match does not always match a request-rule where i believe some javahell shinanigans take over and somehow get their way)

Re: Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex

#40

Post by godelski » Mon, Jun 02, 2025, 2:15 AM UTC

The first example makes me wonder: why is Wikipedia so... bad?

It can redirect mobile users to the mobile site but still serves desktop users the mobile site. Why is this reverse direction so hard?

What the fuck is up with the light/dark theme feature? I'm really happy they implemented it, but why is the default 'skin-theme-clientpref-day' (light theme)? Shouldn't the default be 'skin-theme-clientpref-os' (automatic)? What's the point of having "automatic" if it isn't... you know... automatic? It's literally a one liner (setting default value). Am I missing something much more nuanced?

I see stuff like this all the time, not just on Wiki. Stuff drives me nuts. Just adds needless extra work. I know it is kinda petty to complain about having to click an extra button or two, but I thought the whole point of programming was to automate stuff. Hell, how often do we automate stuff that doesn't need to be lol. Isn't the classic programmer problem that we spend more time automating and optimizing than would be saved by the automation? I mean the theme issue is 5 seconds of work and saves a billion users 2 seconds, each. That one seems worth it if there isn't some other issue.