MakeUseOf Directory » Browser

Enhanced History: A Better History Page For Google Chrome

Israel Nicolas — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:01:57 +0000

If you like shuffling through your browsing history, you’d be surprised just how stale Google Chrome’s history page looks. Sure, you can search through your history and view the listed websites sorted by date, but it is not enough to call it a polished feature of an otherwise awesome browser. Fortunately, there is an extension for it. Enhanced History is one such extension that modifies the default history page to make it more useful, easily readable, and searchable.

Enhanced History shows a list of websites you have visited, the numbers of times you have visited the URL, and the record of your last visit. You can also filter through your list by using search terms and by setting the date range – handy if you want to go back to a website you read from two weeks ago, but can’t exactly remember what it is. Enhanced History also lets you delete all history or your history from a range of dates.

Enhanced History is a good add-on for keeping track of stuff you visited. It has made my browser much more useful since now I can trace back articles and tools that I liked but forgot to bookmark.

Features:

Provides a better history page for Google Chrome.
Search by date range.
Filter by keyword and date range.
View most visited URLS.
Quick link to delete browser history.
Similar Tools: History Calendar, Decreased Productivity, and HistoryTree.

Check out Enhanced History @ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ocfblifjfffcokdoocoopcnaooljncbh

kikin: An Excellent Web Browser For iPad

MOin — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:01:25 +0000

Although the interfaces of smartphones and handheld devices are paid close attention, native web browsers often lack many important features. Here to remedy that for the iPad is a web browser called kikin.

kikin is an iOS application compatible with iPads running iOS version 4.1 or later. The browser is sized at only 3.4 MB yet it packs numerous useful features which are reflected by the excellent user reviews provided. kikin makes web browsing on the iPad faster.

While you might have problems searching for stuff on a webpage in other browsers, kikin makes it extremely easy. The search and magnification tools simplify finding what you want. Another noteworthy feature is long-pressing on an address in the browser to view its location on a map.

All of these features along with integration of social networks and support for multiple tabs make kikin an excellent browser for the iPad.

Features:

A user-friendly application.
Compatible with the iPad.
Lets you browse the internet faster.
Can display addresses on a map quickly.
Provides better search tools to find material on a webpage.
Also read related articles: Three Great Study Aids for iPad Users You Didn’t Know About and 4 Free iPad Browsers To Replace Mobile Safari.

Check out kikin @ itunes.apple.com/us/app/kikin-browser/id453866150 (by MOin from Urban Savior)

Kidoz: Full Screen Internet Browser For Kids

Israel Nicolas — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:01:00 +0000

Being a parent in the age of the Internet and social media brings a new set of challenges not experienced by those who came before us, and while using the Internet is a powerful educational tool, you also need to be confident enough to protect your children from its dangers. Kido’z is a media-rich browser for kids that can be both used as an educational tool while providing powerful parental controls.

This Adobe Air app also goes beyond the usual kiddie-browser by creating a safe environment for your children, integrated with pre-loaded websites, videos, virtual places, and even an intuitive e-mail client.

Kido’z provides a fence for children to play around the Internet without parents worrying that they might stumble into something unsafe. Users can browse the kid-friendly interface with ready-made moderated content. You can also go in and create your own whitelist of websites if you find the default list to be too basic for your child.

Kido’z also lets you create time restrictions, lock the browser to the desktop on startup, set up email accounts, and a lot more. They also offer a fully functional 7-day trial, after which you can choose between a monthly, yearly, or lifetime subscription. This app definitely shows that a child-friendly browser is serious business.

Features:

Child-friendly browser.
Set up whitelist of websites.
Lock browser to desktop even on startup.
Ready-made content ready for your kids.
Also available in East Asian version.
Works as a full screen app.
Requires Adobe Air.
Similar Tools: Bin Weevils, or read the 10 Search Engines For Kids.

Check out Kido’z @ www.kidoz.net

BT-Engage: Create Custom Browser Themes For Firefox & IE (100 Invites)

Umar — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 03:01:48 +0000

Personalizing the computer applications you use gives you a working environment you are more comfortable with. This in turn will please you and increase productivity. Like many other applications, web browsers can be personalized through custom themes. While numerous websites offer browser themes, to create your own themes you should visit BT-Engage.

BT-Engage is a wonderful web service by brandthunder that lets you create browser themes for Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. After you have registered for an account with the site, creating the themes is made extremely simple by the site’s intuitive interface. Under a preview of the theme you will see choices for the theme’s background, logo, and buttons. If you do not want to use the images available on the site, you can upload images from your computer if you want.

You can save your progress as you customize the design. When done, you can finalize your design and make it available as a downloadable theme for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

BT-Engage is currently in beta and is letting people test their service via invitations. They have generously offered the 100 invitations to MakeUseOf readers. Just use “makeuse” as your invitation code while registering for an account on the site.
Features:

A personalized browser creator.
Lets you create browser themes.
Themes are made for Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Lets you customize background, logos, and buttons for theme.
Also read:

Check out BT-Engage @ www.bt-engage.com (By Umar from TechCityInc)

Browser Cleaner: All In One Browser History Clearing Tool

abhijeet — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:01:10 +0000

If you often use multiple browsers for work then you might want to check out this tiny browser history clearing utility called Browser Cleaner. As the name suggests, it can clean up your cache, temporary files, cookies and other such data from all the browsers that you’ve got installed on your system. It also has other functions like the ability to clean instant messaging and file sharing programs, wipe free space and remove any traces of deleted data, clean windows files and more.

The tool is free and for Windows computers only.

The good thing about this tool is that it is portable. Hence you can carry it on your thumb drive and use it on a public computer (like in a cyber cafe) after you are done working on it.

Features

Free browser history cleanery.
Works for all the browsers.
Also wipes free space, cleans windows files, file sharing programs and more.
Portable tool, hence can be carried in a thumb drive.
Similar tools: History Deleter, Historytree and About:me.
Also read related articles:

Check out Browser Cleaner @ tcpmonitor.altervista.org/browser-cleaner-browser-cleaner-erase-history-of-visited-websites/ (via Ghacks By Abhijeet from Guiding Tech)

SlowAdd-Ons: See Which Add-Ons Slow Firefox Down

TehseenBaweja — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:01:45 +0000

Add-ons or extensions are a great way to enhance your browser’s functionality, but this increased functionality comes at a cost of decreased performance. For most browsers, the impact on its load time is negligible, but some can affect it as much as 75%. Mozilla recently analyzed the top 100 add-ons that slow Firefox down and published a list of ones that slow you down the most.

This list of add-ons also provide the percentage impact of each add-on on your browser’s load time. FoxLingo and FireBug top the list with 74% and some really popular ones like FoxyTunes and GreaseMonkey are also above the 15% threshold. The page lists around 50 add-ons that have some impact and also lists some tips for developers to optimize their add-ons for eliminating the slowing-down factor.

Features:

See which Mozilla add-ons are slowing firefox down.
List of 50 add-ons along with impact.
Optimize your browser by replacing with lighter add-ons.
No registration required.

Visit SlowAdd-Ons @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/performance/#addon-11 [Via LifeHacker]

SlickScreen: Multi Pane Browsing Interface For Large Screens

TehseenBaweja — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:14:30 +0000

If you have a large computer screen, you would know that most of the web pages and browsers waste a lot of your screen real estate. SlickScreen is an application that changes things by letting you be more productive and make use of every bit of your screen.

Once you download the free SlickScreen client for your Windows OS, it works with most of the popular browsers. You can instantly cascade your browser windows in one of the 6 pre-defined layouts. Each panel (cascaded window) is a separate browser instance but interacts with each other seamlessly. You can drag content from one browser window and drop into another without losing any productivity. Each panel can have its separate tabs just like traditional browser and can be resized to your desire.

You can create a custom layout of the panels and save it for future use. SlickScreen lets you zoom in and out of content and basically do everything within a panel that your regular browser lets you do. It is also a great tool to compare two webpages side by side without needing to switch from one window to another. You can also set each panel to auto-refresh and auto-rotate at your specified intervals. Over all, SlickScreen provides a non-overlapping multi-paneled interface that can let you be much more productive than just using your traditional browsers.

Note: Slickscreen is designed for high resolution displays (think monitors 15″+ and good graphic cards).

Features:

View multiple browser windows at the same time.
Choose one of the 6 layouts or create a custom one.
Drag and drop content from one panel to another.
Compare websites side by side efficiently.
Set panels to auto-refresh and/or auto-rotate.
Works on Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Download SlickScreen @ www.slickscreen.com

What Browser?: Check The Browser You Are Using (& Learn More)

abhijeet — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:01:36 +0000

You may find it hard to believe that an extraordinary number of internet users don’t understand what a browser is and don’t know how to utilize its features. Next time you come across such a person, just direct him to the What Browser? site.

It’s a simple website created by Google to help people check the browser they are on and also learn more about it. It’ll show you the name and version of your browser, a short video explaining what a browser is and options to try a new browser, or learn a few tweaks about the current one.

There’s also an option called “Under the Hood” which contains some geeky data on browser performance, graphs and diagnostics tests. Other than that, this is a really simple site and is worth sharing with your mother or grandmother.

Features

Check the browser you are on currently.
Also shows the version and the date when it was released.
Try a new browser and learn some tweaks.

Check out What Browser?@ www.whatbrowser.org/en (By Abhijeet from Guiding Tech)

20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web: A Book By Google on Browsers and Internet

abhijeet — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:27:08 +0000

20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web is the name of a new book that was recently released by the Google Chrome team. It’s an online book (not exactly an ebook though) and built using HTML5 with illustrations by Christoph Niemann. It’s a newbies guide to the internet, how it works, how browsers and web apps work, privacy and security on the web and many other such concepts. A nice site to share with non-geeky friends and family members.

As you would expect with any Google product, the design of the book really stands out. The pages turn like they do in a real book, and there’s a cool bookmark tag too to help you mark a page for reading later.

Features

An online book by the Google Chrome team explaining browsers and the internet
Great design, makes reading fun
Built on HTML5, illustrations by Christoph Niemann

Check out 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web@ www.20thingsilearned.com (via GT Cool Stuff )

TryAgain: Reloads pages that are not loaded on first try (Firefox)

Israel Nicolas — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 17:01:59 +0000

Do you ever encounter an inaccessible webpage? Sometimes, these hiccups happen and you only need to refresh the page to get it loaded and running again. TryAgain is a cool tool that does this automatically. This Firefox extension will instantly reload pages when the server cannot be reached.

This addon runs instantly after installation, but you can also configure the number of times it will try to load a webpage and the length of time between each try. You can also have it appear in the tools menu or automatically check website status. Additionally, it lets you quickly check if the site inaccessible because of local network. The links to Google Cache and Wayback Archive are also included.

TryAgain is especially useful for users with an intermittent connection since it can try as much as possible to load a page in the background while working on other tabs.

Features:

Free; no sign up required.
Works instantly with minimal configuration.
Mozilla Firefox addon.
Includes links to quickly check if the site inaccessible because of local network
Google Cache and Wayback Archive links are also listed.

Check out TryAgain @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2462