Surely, if you’re a dedicated Amazon user, you’ve seen advertised or used Amazon Smile, the Foundation that donates 0.5% of the purchase price to a charity of your choice with every transaction. I’ve been an Amazon Prime member for almost 5 years and an Amazon Smile user for 3. In those years only 8 of what is probably hundreds of transactions have counted towards Amazon Smile. Why? My blasted memory.
The catch to this wonderful Amazon service is that your browser must be directed to smile.amazon.com for the purchase to count. When you click a link from a Google search or shop from the app, amazon.com is the default, making it difficult to really make use of what the foundation is offering. There are solutions for absent-minded yet conscientious people like me though. To start, there is a bookmarklet that you can add, but you still have to remember to click it and then search for what you wanted. Amazon offers a more advanced assistant that will redirect you to Amazon Smile but this won’t help with links or Google searches. It’s not a bad tool for the frequent Amazon shopper, but you still have to remember it's there.
After a bit of searching, I’ve found browser extensions for each of the three primary browsers that simply redirect any link heading to amazon.com to smile.amazon.com without any further input necessary. To start, I recommend making sure you’re logged in to Amazon Smile, then follow the directions for each extension below.
Smile Always for Google Chrome
After waffling between Safari and Chrome again last year, I ended up in Google’s playpen once more. The best option for Amazon Smile redirects here is Smile Always by Josh Haimson and Dan Elitzer. Simply install the extension from the Chrome Web Store and you’re good to go.
KeepOnSmiling for Safari
Inspired by Smile Always, Craig S. Bosma created a similar plugin for Safari users with the same goal in mind. KeepOnSmiling is a small plugin that avoids the annoying page reloads of similar Safari extensions in just three lines of Javascript.
To install, visit Craig’s github and download the folder and proceed with the following directions.
- Go to Safari->Preferences->Advanced
- Check “Show Develop menu in menu bar”
- Go to Safari->Show Extension Builder
- Click on the “+” on bottom left and choose “Add Extension…”
- Choose the KeepOnSmiling.safariextension folder which you download from GitHub.
- Choose “Install”
Smart Amazon Smile for Firefox
This add-on for Mozilla’s browser is as simple and direct as the name. Download Aaron Papp’s extension from Mozilla’s add-on directory and you’re ready to go.
Note: Smart Amazon Smile replaces Smile Redirect, which is no longer maintained.
If you don’t have a charity in mind, but like the idea of donating through your purchases at Amazon, consider donating to HHT Foundation International Inc. as I do. This mission of this foundation is to find a cure for Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia while saving the lives and improving the well-being of individuals and families affected by HHT. I chose this foundation before losing a friend to HHT a few years ago. More information about the disease and the foundation can be found here.