Better Amazon Userscript, User Friendly Amazon Product Pages

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 7, 2010
Updated • Jan 4, 2018
Amazon, Companies, Firefox, userscripts
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Many companies seem to add more and more information and features to specific pages on their websites. A prime example is Google Search which turned from a minimalistic page into a complex one with lots of elements on each search results page. Another example is Amazon and its product pages.

These pages are filled with information, ads and other information related to the product - or not. That's a lot for users who simply want to read the product description of a product on Amazon, or who want to read a few customer reviews but do not see ads, what other customers have bought in addition to the item, or which items get frequently bought together.

While some Amazon customers may appreciate the information, others may prefer a more streamlined page on Amazon that provides them with only the information that they are interested in.

Better Amazon is a userscript for Mozilla Firefox (with the Greasemonkey add-on installed) and Google Chrome that turns the Amazon product page into a user friendly version. The userscript works on all localized Amazon shops, including Amazon.com to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.

Better Amazon

It only does its magic on product pages. The three most notable changes are the following:

  • Displays the average product rating of the product in big letters next to the item name.
  • Removal of ads on the Amazon page.
  • Collapsible sections so that only the most important information are displayed right away. The collapsed sections can be expanded when necessary.

Collapsible items can be expanded with a simple click. This way it is for instance possible to expand the customer reviews to read the reviews. Collapsing the items puts them all above the fold or near the fold to access them directly without having to scroll down to the desired section on the page.

Sections can be collapsed again with another click. Firefox and Chrome users find the Better Amazon userscript at the official Userscript repository.

Update: The author of the script has posted instructions on how to make the userscript load in the Opera web browser. The feature set of the script has been improved as well, like the automatic removal of fixed sections like Feedback on Amazon, or the related external websites listing.

New features have been added to the script in recent time. Among them an option to define which content groups you want open when you open pages on Amazon and which you want collapsed. Another interesting feature is the added gray background to the user review section to improve its readability.

Update 2: The script is only working partially at the time of this update (March 30th, 2014). While the average score is still display and ads appear to be removed, the option to collapse parts of the product page appears to be broken.

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Comments

  1. The Dark Lady said on July 9, 2023 at 11:19 am
    Reply

    Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.

    Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).

    For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.

    You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.

    If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.

  2. KeZa said on August 17, 2023 at 5:58 pm
    Reply

    AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI

  3. Database failure said on August 18, 2023 at 5:21 pm
    Reply

    Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.

    Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.

  4. Howard Pearce said on August 25, 2023 at 12:24 pm
    Reply

    Don’t tell me!

    Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!

    Bring in the dictatorship!!!

    And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe

  5. Howard Allan Pearce said on September 7, 2023 at 9:13 am
    Reply

    GateKeeper ?

    That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!

    But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!

  6. owl said on September 7, 2023 at 9:50 am
    Reply

    @The Dark Lady,
    @KeZa,
    @Database failure,
    @Howard Pearce,
    @Howard Allan Pearce,

    Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.

    The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
    >> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
    Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
    >> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
    As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
    How to display only articles by a specific author:
    Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
    >> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033

    By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
    RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
    >> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme

  7. Anonymous said on September 14, 2023 at 6:41 pm
    Reply

    We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.

  8. Anonymous said on September 18, 2023 at 1:31 pm
    Reply

    “Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”

    Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.

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