This Chrome extension kills website overlay popups

Have you ever wished you could just get rid of the annoying popup message on a site that is blocking the actual content? BehindTheOverlay is a Chrome extension that does exactly that. You can grab it directly from the Chrome Web Store.

If you’ve ever been bothered by a website that hides its content while trying to get you to register, fill out a survey, or some other nonsense, I highly recommend giving BehindTheOverlay a shot. Some sites may let you close the overlay popup, others force you to wait, but most simply don’t let you proceed. With BehindTheOverlay, you no longer have to close the tab in frustration: if you can see the content behind the message, this extension will let you get to it.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, head over to this article and try to read it. Unless you have an account, you’ll be prompted to register. BehindTheOverlay lets you get straight to the content with just one click:

There’s a running list of sites that BehindTheOverlay works on, but it is far from comprehensive. I’ve been testing the extension for a few days and haven’t hit a message it hasn’t been able to get rid of for me.

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Here’s the official feature list:

• Requires no special permissions.
• Extremely lightweight, relies on little known document.elementFromPoint browser’s function to find elements that are in front with the highest z-index.
• Non-intrusive. The extension activates only when you click its button, thereby it has no impact on navigation performance when you don’t use the extension. Doesn’t inject tons of CSS rules as AdBlock extension is doing for example.
• Supports hiding of multiple DOM overlay elements.
• Enables overflow auto of the body when overlay script hides it to disable the scroll of the page.

Best of all, the code is available for your perusal at the GitHub link below.

➤ BehindTheOverlay

Top Image Credit: Daniela Mochida