FastForward is a cross-platform browser extension that will skip link shorteners, trackers and intermediary URLs automatically when enabled. It works on sites such as bit.ly, t.co, goo.gl, show.co, or adf.ly, and thousands of others.
Intermediary pages may be used for user tracking, the display of advertisement, or other purposes.
The browser extension is available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and other Chromium-based browsers. FastForward is a fork of the discontinued Universal Bypass extension, which we have reviewed in 2018 here on this site.
The extension is open source, and you may check out the GitHub repository here to get a look at the code.
Skip the intermediary page
Plenty of sites and services use intermediary pages. Some use them for tracking purposes, others to reduce the display of web addresses on their sites, or to earn revenue. Depending on the type of intermediary page, users may be redirected automatically to the destination, may wait before they may continue, or are required to complete an action.
FastForward bypasses intermediary pages automatically. The extension works automatically once it is installed in a compatible browser.
It is recommended that you check the preferences first, as you may want to adjust some of the settings before you start using it. To do so, left-click on the extension icon.
Crowd Bypass uses the wisdom of all users of the extension to enable bypasses for intermediary links that can’t be bypassed automatically. Basically, what it does is take the information from the first user who does whatever is required to reach the destination and hand it to all other users of the extension.
While that is useful on one hand, some users may not want the information to be submitted to the project. The team notes that the intermediary page URL, the destination URL, and a hash of the user’s IP address are recorded in the process.
You may uncheck “Crowd Bypass: Give and take destinations of unbypassable shorteners” to disable the feature.
Developers who use the extension may test custom bypasses and to submit these to the team so that all users benefit from them.
A list of example redirects is provided on the project’s website.
Closing Words
FastForward is a useful browser extension that skips intermediary pages. It speeds up the loading of the destination and may improve privacy in doing so. Internet users who encounter these intermediary pages regularly benefit the most from the installation.
Now You: how do you deal with intermediary pages?
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