Today's Tip: Web Browsers

Working online, I'm probably looking at my web browser window for most of the day - especially now that I'm using a web based email client.

Therefore, it is important that my web browsing is not unnecessarily slow or distracting. My web browser of choice is Opera.

Searching

One of my favourite features in the new version of Opera is the "create search" function. Right click and form field and press "create search". Opera will set this up as a search engine within the browser (so you could right click the search field on MSN search and you would then have access to MSN search right from the browser) - it also allows you to set up a "keyword" for your new search engine - I set up the URL input box on prchecker.info with the keyword "pr", so now I can type:

pr http://www.osworld.biz

In to my browser's address bar to get the Page Rank of this blog!
Or Maybe

kwa Adsense

To search the Keyword Avalanche forum.

This saves a suprising amount of time each day!

RSS

Opera has an integrated RSS reader, which is useful to me as I read quite a few blogs - so it makes sense to have them all in the actual browser.
There is also an integrated email client, but I have never used this, but have heard many good things. The RSS reader takes the style of an email client (inside a tab)

Speed

Opera is pretty unmatched when it comes to speed (without tweaking the settings to turn off features ;)), and time is money

I'm sure that other browsers have plugins available for these kinds of features - I like the fact that with Opera, there's no time wasted hunting around for them, hoping the authors keep them updated for the latest software version etc.

This, like my last post, was not meant as any kind of sales pitch - just an explination of why I do things how I do - Now have a think about how you can improve your web browsing experience - do you really need that Adsense balance plugin, or a built in Tetris game…?