If you have a wheel mouse, here’s a handy browser navigation tip. Hold down the Shift key and scroll the nav wheel backwards to return to your previous web page. Scroll two clicks, and you are two pages back in your history. Moving forward in history is just as easy: hold down Shift and roll the wheel forward.
Many people do not realize that their browser address bar can act as a search engine. For example, instead of a URL, you can enter a search query, such as “Who is Barbara Feldman?” Here are instructions from Google on how to change your default search engine. Of course, these instructions assume you are changing your default to Google (http://www.google.com ) . To change to MSN Search (http://search.msn.com ) or Yahoo! ( http://www.yahoo.com ) just use their URL instead.
The free Firefox browser with tabbed browsing, and integrated Google search is my browser of choice because it is so extensible. To get a feel for what can be done with it, peruse Peter Butler’s ten favorite Firefox plugins in Optimizing Firefox.
Pop-up blockers that stop most of those annoying popping ads are built into the newest versions of the Internet Explorer (Windows Service Pack 2) and Firefox browsers. If your browser doesn’t include pop-up blocking, you can get good pop-up blocking from the Google or Yahoo! toolbar. When using a pop-up blocker, there will be times when you will need to disable it for a particular site, so be sure to learn how to turn it on and off. Learn more at this training page from the University of Wisconsin.
To close multiple Internet Explorer windows at once (useful for getting rid of dozens of pop-up windows), click on one of the window tags in the XP taskbar. Then hold down the Cntrl key while clicking on each of the remaining IE windows. Right-click to open up the group dialog menu, and select Close Group.
Cookies are small text files saved on your computer by websites. Some are used to remember your website preferences (such as your login username, or local zipcode for weather or movie listings.) Others are used to track your surf patterns between websites. These are also known as “tracking cookies” or “spyware cookies.” When choosing a spyware program, find out if it detects and removes tracking cookies. For more, read Walt Mossberg.
When spyware takes control of your browser by changing the start page and the default search engine, it is called a browser hijacking. To thwart most hijacking attempts, many experts advocate using Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. If you are already are infected, HiJack This is a free tool that will list all your browser plug-ins. Learn more browser hijacking at Spyware.info.
Online dictionary definitions are just two mouse clicks away with the free Dictionary.com toolbar . Once installed, you can look up any word on any Web page in either Dictionary.com or Theasurus.com by simply highlighting the word in question, and then right clicking. The toolbar requires Windows and Internet Explorer.
The status bar is an optional horizontal display at the bottom of your browser window. You can turn it off (look under View) but if you get in the habit of watching it, you’ll find it a useful tool. When you hold your mouse over a link, the status bar will display the linking URL. And in most browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Netscape Navigator) the status bar displays a progress message when loading a new page that lets you know when the page is fulled loaded.
In many browsers, users with a scroll mouse can move forward and backward through their browsing history by holding down the Shift key and rolling the navigation wheel on the mouse. Scroll two clicks, and you are two pages back in your history. Moving forward in history is just as easy: hold down Shift and roll the wheel forward. This tip works in Internet Explorer, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox, but not Netscape Navigator.
