Series: Web 2.0 - part 1: Browsing

First of all, to surf the internet and to make use of the different services, you need a browser. But nowadays, browsers are more than just html-translators, they come together with build-in or additional features such as mail-clients, feed-readers, pop-up-blockers and so on.

Basically, there are three major browsers in use today: Microsoft Internet-Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari. There are others like Opera, Google Chrome and lots more - each with advantages and disadvantages. Rather than introducing all the different solutions, I'd like to tell you about what I use and why.

Nowadays I am using Firefox with several plugins (commented on below), but have also been using Opera for a long time. I do not make much use of IE, although Microsoft finally managed to introduce "tabbed browsing" and more. I do not use Safari as I do not use a Mac (nowadays, Safari is also available for PC).

Just one more thing about not using IE. As it still is the most popular browser in the world, it is also the most popular target of malware and hacker-attacks. That's why I recommend to use a less popular browser with at least the same features. This would lead you to Opera or Firefox, whereas Firefox's growing popularity makes it potentially less secure.

First of all, I was very happy with using Opera, as it really is a fast browser with very nice onboard-features. For example, it uses mouse-gestures, smoothly supports very intuitive drag-and-drop-features and comes together with a build-in mail-client capable of pop3, smtp, imap and more. In fact, this mail-feature is what made me switch to firefox, as I only use webmail-services and do not want to generally download emails (and potential malware). I will give information on mailing later on.

Now Firefox 3.0.3: When using Firefox for the first time, you might want to regret your decision as it doesn't look as nice and polished as other browsers. But don't turn away - there are lots of interesting plug-ins to check. Of course, each plug-in slows down the browser and your system, so only install the plugins you really want to use.

12 recommended Firefox plug-ins
(Let me stress that these are just my personal preferences. I linked the plug-in's HPs, but can not guarantee functionality. Please backup your files before using them anyhow. Some plug-ins might cause incompatibilities. All the following work together just fine on my system though.)

A. Security
1. "NoScript" - a very powerful and reliable script-blocker with easy to understand behaviour. Makes it possible to generally block all scripts; allow specific/all scripts for certain domains (using a "whitelist"). Configureable via button or context-menue. Why? Often there's no need to run all (possibly harmful) scripts to make use of a service.
2. "Cookie Whitelist with buttons" - adds two buttons to easily access cookie-permissions and firefox's own whitelist. It is also possible to temporarily allow cookies for certain domains. Why? Apart from identification and session-control (i.e. webmail, ebay, amazon), there is no reason to allow cookies.
3. "Ref-Control" - allows you to decide whether or not to send your actual "referrer", or even set up a fake referrer for all/certain sites. Why? Apart from authentication, there is no reason to give away information about your browsing-habits.

B. Comfort
4. "All-In-One-Gestures" - gives you acces to almost all functions via "mouse gestures". Why? Allows me to keep eyes focussed on content rather than looking for the right button. I only use "open new tab", "close this tab", "close all other tabs", "delete this site's cookies" and "switch to fullscreen-mode" - balancing speed and overview.
5. "Easy Drag-To-Go" - enables Opera-like "Drag-and-Drop"-support. Why? I can now grab any content (like links, images, etc.) and drop it wherever I like, i.e. a new tab or the desktop. For example, this feature makes it easy to open several search-results in seperate tabs in the backgound without leaving the actual result-page-tab.
6. "SearchBox Companion" - this adds a search-and-highlight-button right next to firefox's build-in search-bar (i very much recommend to use the searchbar and to add more engines to it!). Why? This one is really fantastic. Searching something with -let's say- Google and then switching to the page linked in your results, you might find it difficult to identify your querie there; or you might simply want to search a page for a certain term. Just enter the searchterm and hit the SearchBox Companion-button. It will highlight all results!
7. "Plain Text To Link (PTTL)" - allows you to paste any highlighted text within any website to the address-field via context-menue. Why? This makes it much easier to follow information through the web (as sometimes there are adresses without hyperlinks). You don't have to first copy, then open a new tab, paste and hit the go-button anymore. PTTL does all that for you.

C. Customization
8. "All-In-One-Sidebar" - adds a sidebar to your browser within which you can access your bookmarks, downloads, add-ons, etc. quite quickly. Why? I got used to a sidebar when using Opera and didn't want to miss it afterwards. You don't really need it...
9. "TabMix Plus" - Gives you more control over hidden customization-features of Firefox. Why? I just like to give the browser the appropriate look-and-feel.
10. Themes - there is a broad variety of themes making it possible to completely change the design of the browser. Depending on the theme, you get different colours, backgrounds and buttons. But be careful: some themes might be incompatible with certain plug-ins. I am using "Chromifox Basic" as it gives you a smooth design with accurately sized buttons and is compatible to all mentioned plug-ins.

D. Communication and Liaison
11. "E-Mail this!" - adds a button and a context-menue-entry which sends any marked text in any website to an eMail-Program or even to certain webmail-accounts (Y-Mail, G-Mail, MSN) Why? Whenever there is information I'd like to share, this one just makes it very easy.
12. "Google Gears" - gives you the possibility to synchronize some Google-Services and to use them within the browser even when not connected to the internet. Why? As I use several G-Services on a daily basis, I like to access them offline i.e. when travelling with my laptop. (I will comment on some of these features in the future. Until then you might want to check my opinion on Google)

So far for now. Hope you like my recommendations. Check out the upcoming posts and feel free to comment anytime. Up next: Part 2 - Mailing


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