6 Apps To Browse Web Productively

Browsing Speed Up The idea of this post is to go through a bunch of tools that add to your browsing experience. Nothing extra ordinary but a handful of simple useful apps that solve common web problems: slow website loads, 404 errors, tab overloads, never ending signups, phishing, etc. Enjoy!

(1) OpenDNS – A quick way to add to your web speed. In simple terms, OpenDNS allows you to speed-up domain detection process which is normally handled by your ISP. There is nothing to download or install, but a couple of changes to your connection settings. Among other things, also includes domain typo correction, phishing protection, and domain blocking. Demo video.

(2) KeyXL – One of the best ways to make the most from your favorite web apps is by utilizing available shortcuts. Almost all popular apps come with its own shortcut set. Whether it’s Firefox, Gmail, or Google Reader, they all have shortcuts. And KeyXL is the place to get them, it provides a huge database of keyboard shortcuts both for web and desktop applications.

(3) MrUptime (Firefox) – Simple Firefox extension that comes in really handy when you come across a website that’s experiencing down time. It allows you to add such websites to the watchlist and will alert you as soon as the website is back online. Demo video.

MrUptime

(4) Read It Later (Firefox) – I learned about this one from Mark. ‘Read It Later’ allows you to add webpages to a reading list so you can follow-up on them later. Far better alternative than keeping ‘to read’ pages in tabs. Once installed, it will add ‘Read This Link Later’ option to your right click menu. See how it works and some of its other features below

(5) Mintemail – So far the best disposable email service I have seen. No need to register or create any kind of account. When you need a quick one-timer email address just visit the mintemail.com and a random email address will be instantly generated and copied to your clipboard. Even better, it will confirm all ‘verify your account’ emails automatically.

(6) PassPack – Finally, there is a PassPack is, a feature-rich online password manager. PassPack can be accessed from any browser and from anywhere (work, school internet cafe, etc.). As long it stays open in one of your tabs you get a one-click access to any of you web accounts. See full feature list here.

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Aibek Esengulov

The guy behind MakeUseOf.com. Follow him and MakeUseOf on Twitter @MakeUseOf. For more details check out MakeUseOf about page.

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  • http://www.mensandwomenshealth.com Wen

    I’ve installed the Read it Later on my Firefox browser. It’s really handy, especially for me who surf heavily each day on the day. Sometimes, simply had too many sites opened up but not sure what to do with them yet.

    This little plug-in is really useful. Thanks for sharing.

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      Thanks, dlad you liked it. Although Mark is the one who discovered it.

      • http://www.mensandwomenshealth.com Wen

        O, really, who’s Mark btw?

        Just a little favour to ask u, do u understand what’s “Trackback”? I saw a lot of bolgs have got that thing next to each post. How does it work?

        • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

          Mark is one of our main authors, the favorite one ;-) .

          Trackbacks: Basically if someone wants to link to the current post an make sure we know about it that s/he needs to link to the Trackback link.

  • http://www.carehart.org Charlie Arehart

    In case anyone else tries to use the KeyXL’s search feature, note that you CANNOT leave that “program search” field empty. I did, with several combinations of category and platform, and it consistently returned no results.

    I finally noticed that it offered some links to specific programs below the search box, and choosing some of them of course worked (and filled in the “program search” field.)

    But it seems silly that I should *have* to put in such a value, for some kinds of tips (like ones that work for all programs in Windows, or all programs in OS X). I was hoping that leaving the search field empty would show me what ones it had for given platform/category combinations.

    The site offers no means to comment, so I’m leaving this hear for fellow MUO readers..

    • http://makeuseof.com Aibek

      Thanks for pointing it out.
      I am sure several users experienced problems with that. I was one of them :-)