Frankly speaking, as Internet speeds continue to increase, the loading times of webpages are becoming increasingly less of an issue.  The time saved simply by having a better, more user friendly and clear interface outweighs most gains garnered from a browser which simply loads faster.

Here are 5 excellent tips to make browsing even smoother and faster on Firefox.

1. How to save time by automatically loading the next page

Autopager is a Firefox extension which automatically loads up the next page of a series of web pages and displays it at the bottom of the screen, when you scroll to the end of the page.

For example, if you were to load up a Google Search, and you were unhappy with the page one results, you previously had to click on a link to take you to page 2 of the results.  With Autopager, all you do is scroll down – saving you the extra click.  Google’s page 2 results would now be appended at the bottom of the page 1 results.  Keep scrolling downwards and you’d see page 3, 4 and so on.

By default AutoPager works with a ton of sites, including the New York Times, Digg, and, of course, Google. If you want to add your own custom autopaging to unsupported sites, the site wizard feature makes it easy to so.  This extension is a true time saver.

2. How to use keyboard shortcuts to get instant results

Firefox comes with a whole range of keyboard shortcuts so you can really speed things up if you’re a power user. Mozilla lots of different shortcuts on their support page, and here are 5 cool keyboard tricks which would come in handy for all Firefox keyboard newbies:

• Back/Forward Navigation: Alt Left Arrow / Alt Right Arrow
• Complete .com Address : Ctrl+Enter (When you’re in the URL bar)
• Zoom In / Out: Ctrl + / Ctrl -
• Bookmark all tabs: Ctrl Shift D
• Undo closed tab: Ctrl Shift  T

MakeUseOf now gives away a printable Firefox chet sheet nicely summarizing the “need to know” shortcuts. Apart from Firefox, there are cheat sheets for Gmail, Windows, Mac OS X and several other.

3. How to NOT get bogged down by 404s

Your favorite website down? Rather than visiting it later, or hitting the refresh button incessantly, you can try installing ErrorZilla, a firefox extension which will add Try Again, Google Cache, Coralize, Wayback, Ping, Trace, and Whois buttons, when a website isn’t found or a web server is down.

Think of it as a much more useful 404 error page where rather than just telling you the page doesn’t exist – it allows you to search and visit cached versions of the page.

4. How to load up web pages faster

Fasterfox is an extension which dips under the hood to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.

Previously, these were tweaks which you had to manually adjust – but now they work right out of the box once you use this handy extension.

5. How to download files faster

Originally skeptical when I first tried this out, I have been completely blown away by how effective this software is. DownloadThemAll is a free extension which acts as a download manager (meaning you can pause and resume downloads), and download files faster by having them simultaneously download.  This is quite possibly my favorite extension out of all five.

So there you have it, 5 speedy tips which will helpfully make your browsing on Firefox an even faster, more powerful experience.

What time saving browsing tips for Firefox do you have?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

Photo credit: LaiHiu

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• It Takes only 7 SHORTCUTS to Become a Lightning Fast User (51)
• Give Firefox an Adrenalin Shot with Preloader (25)
• Welcome to My Firefox: Extensions, Themes, Setup (14)
• Three Firefox Security & Privacy Add-ons that can Co-exist (23)
• The Ultimate Guide To Speeding Up Firefox 3.5 (131)

The premise of how DealBase works is simple. Just search for a destination and you’ll be presented with a set of hotels which are currently running promotions. From there, you’ll be able to find the deals that make the most sense to you, and you’ll even get to compare that rate with the regular rate so you know exactly how much you’re saving. You can also of course apply filters to narrow and refine your search.

DealBase currently only works with destinations in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean, but it does a pretty good job in that area. It crawls over 3,500 different sources to track down deals for you and delivers them in a consistent format which is organized but hotels, tags, or destinations so it’s easy to find. According to their website, they currently serve up over 15,000 deals with an average savings of each deal working out to around USD$271, so it does seem pretty comprehensive.

So you know how simple it is to use, here’s a quick walkthrough of finding a deal in DealBase.

1. First, search for your destination (eg. New York City, or Los Angeles).

2. Next, you’ll be given a list of best hotel deals you can choose from, sort or filter down the deals further.

3. Now let’s say I’m interested in booking this hotel for my parents since I want to take advantage of the ’senior rates’, I can see right away that I would be saving USD$127 per night, and get a 54% savings on my booking, which I can perform there and then.  If I want to check current rates in the hotel, it’s just merely one click away via the official hotel website, so everything’s pretty much transparent.

4. One more useful feature would be the tagging function. This deal for example, was tagged ’seniors’.  All I need to do is click on the tag, and it will display ALL senior discount rates on the site, so you know where else you can take advantage of your status. This function works for other classifications as well of course, for example club memberships. Who knows? You might even change your holiday destination if you get a really good deal elsewhere!

DealBase’s policy is to be the best at displaying deals, and being completely unbiased about that.  Choosing a hotel however, goes beyond just getting the best deal. Hotels are hardly commodities, and especially in the case of higher end hotels, you are paying for the experience more than anything else. Having ratings or at least tie-ups with rating sites would take DealBase to the next level, where currently you have to go off the site to do additional research about the hotel so you know you’re getting your money’s worth.

Shortcomings aside, DealBase is extremely simple to use, transparent and very functional site for finding best hotel deals from the convenience of your computer. Definitely worth a try.

Also check out Varun’s article on 5 sites to find the perfect hotel.

What other travel tools do you use to find the best hotel? Tell us in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• 6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites For Your Next Trip (4)
• 5 Review Sites To Help You Find The Perfect Hotel (18)
• Watch Online Products for Price Drops with ShoppingNotes (9)
• TripSay Brings Travel Recommendations From People Like You (6)
• Travel The World with Hello Backpacker (4)

Here are 5 ways you can help to decrease power consumption on your computer.

1. Tweak Google to Save Power

Blackle was created to provide a front end to Google, but with a black background.  Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black.  A given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen, so you get all the goodness of Google and with all the additional environmental benefits.

Yes, the difference a single computer makes is small, put together, this small tweak to Google has a potential to save 750 Megawatt hours a year.  As of now, they’ve already saved more than a million watt hours with this tool!

The whole concept of Blackle is slightly controversial though and it has its detractors.  This Wall Street Journal article claims that only older CRT monitors will see any benefit from the site.

2. Optimize Windows and Track How Much CO₂ You’ve Saved

CO2 Saver is a free toolbar released by Snap and is a lightweight application that runs in Windows. It adjusts your Windows power settings so that your computer, monitor and hard drive consumes less electricity when you’re not actively using them (similar to what you could do by adjusting your power options in Windows).

It then calculates how much power is saved, and converts it into pounds of CO₂ emissions prevented by having the toolbar installed.  You can see the amount of CO₂ saved by yourself and all toolbar users together so you can view the collective effort and what you have contributed to it.

At the time of writing, users of this tool have collectively saved more than 850,000 lbs of CO₂!

3. Use Energy Efficient Products

Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products.  When you buy electronics, look for the logo (pictured above) or ask for similarly certified products.  This ensures that you’ll get something which is pretty much efficient in its class.

4. Use LCD monitors rather than CRT

Some sources quote CRT monitors as consuming 250% more power than LCD screens of similar size.  So if you’re looking to cut down on the power bill, consider dumping that old monitor and moving on to a less power hungry LCD which incidentally would also be much sexier looking on the table, and deliver crisper sharper images than a CRT.

5. Adjust Your Computer Settings

Whether you’re using a Mac OSX or Windows, you can adjust your settings accordingly so your system can power down when you’re idle.  On Windows, go to Control Panel then power options to fine tune when you want your computer to turn down the hard disk, monitor, or go into standby mode.

On a Mac, go to System Preferences, then Energy Saver pane, and then Sleep to adjust your energy saving settings.

So there you have it, five simple ways you can help save power on your computer. What methods do you use? I’m curious to know. Tell us in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Save Printer Ink & Make It Last Longer (18)
• Use The Internet To Save The World (9)
• Save Energy and Go Green on Windows using Edison (6)
• How to Save Power with SetPower (Computer Power Management Tool) (3)
• 5 Must-know Tips For Safe Computing – Without Dying (18)

If you’re a blogger and you’re not convinced, here are 7 reasons why you should try out Windows Live Writer 2009.

1. Much faster than writing your post online

Being a blogger for several years now, I’ve had the pleasure of trying out both the Blogger and Wordpress platforms with my websites – and while they were relatively easy to update, just like most web services at this point – I’ve always felt that they just lacked the speed and smoothness of a desktop application.  Windows Live Writer fills this gap by taking everything blog related offline.  Tasks like inserting pictures into posts, and previewing posts, which used to take time to load up online, now happen instantaneously.  Not only do you speed up your work, but you can take more time to play around and edit your post without having to wait every time you make some changes.

2. Ability to import your blog theme so you preview your post as you write

Windows Live Writer has an excellent feature called ‘Edit Using Theme’ which allows you to download and incorporate your existing blog theme so that when you write your post, you’ll see it as it would appear in your real blog.  Think of it as a real-time preview as you write so you don’t  have to keep hitting the preview button to see how your post would actually turn out.

3. Extendible and Customizable

As most Firefox or Wordpress users would testify, having a community which builds up plug-ins and extensions which make a product better is very important.  Windows Live Writer allows for such customization and has a gallery for such plug-ins for you to browse.  Granted, the amount of plug-ins aren’t fantastic at this point, but with the release of the 2009 edition of the Windows Live Writer, you can see Microsoft making an effort to take this community up a notch by releasing official plugins for Twitter, Digg, and Flickr as well as tutorial videos on their blog.

4. Switch between blogs at a click of a button

Write for more than one blog?  With Windows Live Writer you can easily switch between blogs in an instant.  All login details are stored in the application so everything is incredibly snappy.  The picture below says it all.

5. Easily insert rich media

Inserting rich media like videos and maps are a walk in the park with Windows Live Writer.  For example, if you want to upload the latest video in your YouTube account, rather than copying and pasting large chunks of code, you can login directly to your YouTube account from Windows Live Writer, and pick your videos to insert.

You can also quickly insert maps from Live Maps (Microsoft’s equivalent of Google Maps) – again, no copying and pasting code involved – just point and click.

6. Immediate access to drafts

Windows Live Writer allows you to store post drafts either locally on the client side, and have them displayed on the sidebar.  This option of local drafts allows for instant access to any posts you’ve been working on so all your most recent work is only a click away.

7. Superior image handling and effects

When it comes to handling images, Windows Live Writer comes with a plethora of options so you can do all your image editing right there and then within the application.  You can handle everything from adding borders, and resizing images, and even adding watermarks to your photos.

…and there you have it, 7 excellent reasons why you should consider trying out Windows Live Writer 2009 to update your blog.

If you’re interested in finding out how to set up WIndows Live Writer, check out our previous post on Five Things To Do After Installing Windows Live Writer, and if you want to take at a close look at some of the finer details of Windows Live Writer check out another previous post which details how to Take Advantage of Windows Live Writer.

I’d be interested to know ‘How do you blog?’  Would you consider using a blogging client like Windows Live Writer?  Share your experiences with us in the comments!

Title Photo credit: Ravage

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Take Advantage Of The New Windows Live Writer (21)
• 7 Great Plugins For Windows Live Writer 2009 (11)
• The 4 Great Blogging Apps For The iPhone (12)
• ScribeFire vs DeepestSender: One Blogging Addon to Rule Them All! (18)
• Post To Your Blog With W.Bloggar (10)

Disposable services are incredibly useful when you just want a bit of anonymity online. Can’t trust a website that looks a little dodgy with your real email? Use a fake one which you can gain access to later.

Disposable services are also good for cases where you just need something to exist for a limited amount of time and not reside in cyberspace forever, for example files you want to share with your friend, or in this case – a webpage which expires after a certain timeframe. Below, I’ll show you how to create a disposable webpage in a matter of seconds.

Why would you want a disposable webpage?

The aptly named service is called DisposableWebPage and is completely free. What it does is that it creates an instant wiki for you to edit, share and perhaps collaborate with your friends. This also means you reap all the benefits of a wiki system with rich text editing and collaboration built directly into the system – plus you have version control so you can easily revert back to previous forms if something goes wrong.

These web pages can last up to 90 days or less, and can be very useful for event based discussions, for example, party or travel decisions – where it’s important to get everyone’s input but you don’t need to have the details stuck online after the event.

With this service, you don’t have to worry if all your friends use Facebook, Friendster, or whatever social networking service to organize and plan an event. Everything is on a single web page, accessible by all.

You can also put in photos, and even easily integrate sticky notes, and maps to make the page more dynamic.

Finally, you don’t have to worry about the site expiring without your knowledge. Every time you visit the page, a countdown timer to expiry is prominently displayed.

How to set up your own disposable page

What I really liked about it is that it’s pretty much quick and dirty. You don’t need to register in order to create a page, so your disposable web page can be set up in just a matter of clicks. To show you how easy it is, I’m going to walk you through making one for yourself.

Step 1: Go to DisposableWebPage, and click on the big red link, and name your page

Step 2: Your page is created! Now you can bookmark it right away, start editing it, change the timer, or send editor keys to your friends so they can edit this page as well.

Step 3: After you make the changes you want, send it to your friends so they can collaborate as well.

That’s all there is to it! Simple, and flexible for quick and dirty solutions where you need a web page which expires after a certain amount of time.

Do you use disposable tools? If so, tell us which ones you use in the comments!

Photo Credit : Wok

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How to Install a Wiki on your Website (17)
• Create Your Own Wiki Site Easily With WetPaint (7)
• ZIM – A Desktop Wiki / Note Taking App [Linux, Windows] (14)
• Wrike – Project Collaboration Tool (11)
• Work With Others Online Without Tearing Out Your Hair (8)

Not only does this mean you’ve got a wi-fi hotspot in your pocket – this also means you have less hardware to lug around if you want to use your laptop and connect to internet through mobile. No more Bluetooth/Cable/USB dongles. Everything’s now 100% wireless.

Joikuspot currently runs on the Symbian platform, which means it caters for the higher end Nokias (N and E series) as well as a few of Samsung’s higher end phones. Of course, all phones supported share the same criteria which is that the device has to support data transfer (eg. 3G, EDGE, HSDPA, GPRS), and the phone has wi-fi capabilities (needed to broadcast the wi-fi you create).

It’s extremely simple to set up and easy to use. All you need to do is run the program on your phone and voila – instant hotspot. You can even hide the mobile app in the background on your phone as you go about your daily business.

Some of my favorite features include:

Encryption support – Joikuspot is incredibly secure and supports WEP including 128bit key generator for your security. This ensures that you maintain control over who uses the wifi generated from your phone, and to ensure your session is fully secure.

GPS Compatibility – If you feel generous enough to operate your mobile hotspot without a password and you want to share it with the world, Joikuspot allows you to sync up with your GPS (if your phone has one) and broadcast your location to the world on Google Maps.

Battery threshold – This feature shuts down Joikuspot when the battery level is too low. As you can imagine, intensive 3G AND Wifi usage will drain the battery extremely quickly. You can set it up so that it shuts off at a certain battery level so you never have to worry about empty phone batteries when you need to make a call.

Multiple connections – Joikuspot allows you to share your bandwidth with others or multiple devices at the same time so several people can share a single connection.

Auto reconnect – Works in the background to automatically reconnect every time a data connection is lost. This is crucial for a seamless experience.

Joikuspot comes in two different flavors.  Joikuspot Light supports HTTP and HTTPS protocols, which is enough to handle most casual users covering basic browsing, web based email as well as Instant Messaging. It doesn’t however support some of the more enterprise and businesslike features like Outlook and corporate email.

Joikuspot Premium however supports ALL protocols allowing users to use Outlook, YouTube, Web radio, FTP, VPNs, Skype and other programs requiring specific protocols that practically covers everything anyone would ever want to do on the web.

The premium edition costs 25 Euros ($35) once off (which is incidentally still cheaper than paying for wireless laptop broadband), and also has special bulk licensing options for corporate use, but for most users (like me) – the free light edition is good enough.

This software has also been making waves in the international arena having recently been voted by Forum Nokia as 2008’s Star Developer, an award handed out to recognize the most unique and innovative applications developed for mobile phones based on the Symbian OS.

Of course before you use this to turn your cell phone as a wireless modem, ensure that you’re on an unlimited data plan because the data usage is understandably intense for this application. As for me, I wirelessly hooked up my iPod touch to my phone, so I’ve now got a device which gives me the internet experience of an iPhone 3G… at a third of the price.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Set Up Your Own Secured Wi-Fi Hotspot (16)
• How to Set Up Laptop Wireless Internet Access Through Your Cellphone [Windows] (36)
• 6 Cool Downloads for Your College Kid’s Windows Mobile Phone (1)
• 5 Wi-Fi Hotspot Finders To Find Free Wi-Fi Spots Near You (16)
• Using Yahoo Go to Stay Connected On Your Mobile (8)

…Right?

Look a little closer and you’ll see a very different story.

How much of the money you spend really makes it to the maker or artisan who created the item? Let’s see – the store will take a cut, so will the wholesaler, and don’t forget the agents who source the crafts directly from the villages. In the end, the maker – arguably the most important person in this process is left with next to nothing, sometimes getting under 10% of the final sale price.

Elevyn changes all that.

Through the help of local partners, Elevyn helps to connect poor artisans and villagers directly to customers around the world. The result? By cutting out all the middle men and their bottom lines, the maker now gets close to 85% of the final sale price.

You may have heard of Etsy, a community specialized in selling hand-made items directly on the internet. Think of Elevyn as Etsy for the poor. Elevyn stocks everything from belts, baskets, and jewelry to coasters, music instruments, and key chains. All beautifully handcrafted by village artisans.

Sustainable Development

Both Kiva and Elevyn works on the basis of sustainable charity i.e. engaging in charitable activities which help these people lift themselves out from poverty in the long run.

Kiva works on the basis of microloans helping small business owners in poor countries. Elevyn picks up where Kiva leaves off by connecting these people to the world and giving them a pool of demand which would otherwise have never existed for these villagers.

Engaging the community

On top of direct contributions to the maker, a certain portion (around 5%) is also donated to a charitable cause, ranging from tree planting to women’s groups.

Elevyn also organizes artisans so they can get together to achieve greater economies of scale and specialization as well as raise awareness about the value of the goods they produce. Working with field partners to help out with the orders and dealings on the internet, Elevyn is also committed to capacity building in terms of electricity and internet access via satellite in these villages.

Yes you can make a difference

People get jaded when the money they donate goes into a giant fund, never knowing who they helped and what their impact truly was.  Elevyn offers complete transparency where you will be able to see where all the money goes to the exact cent when you make a purchase. You will also be able to see how much money any particular villager has made in real time, and the impact your purchase had on their life.

Thinking of giving someone a truly meaningful gift for the holidays? I can’t think of a better place to start.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Buy Used Stuff For Cheap On Facebook (1)
• ChipIn – The Easy Way to Raise Funds Online (7)
• 10 Ways To Donate Your CPU Time To Science (26)

One way to get your message across in a more effective manner is just to simplify what you’re trying to say. Cut the jargon, use simpler words, and you’ll be surprised how much more receptive your audience or readers may be. This is often simpler said than done, and for that reason I introduce to you… one of my favorite pieces of writing freeware – Bullfighter.

Bullfighter was released in 2003 by Deloitte Consulting, to help with better writing but has since been released for free to the public. What it is really, is a Microsoft Office add-in for Word and Powerpoint which will analyze your work, tell you how complex it is, and potentially help you simplify and make it better.

For example, after I had recently finished a report, I ran the Bullfighter add-in which then analyzed my work and confirmed that my document had no jargon (bull-free).  In case you’re wondering – yes you can add your own jargon to the list of words Bullfighter will mark down as ‘bull’, so its really quite flexible in that respect.

Bullfighter also analyses sentence length, and syllables per word to help ensure waffling is minimized.  On top of that, it also gives you something called the Flesch score. This famous test was designed in the 1960’s and is still relevant today, and is used to indicate comprehension difficulty when reading a passage of English. Higher scores indicate material that is easier to read; lower numbers mark “more difficult to read” passages.

• Where a score of 90–100 means that it is easily understandable by an average 11-year old student
• 60–70 would easily be understandable by 13- to 15-year old students
• and 0–30 would be best understood by college graduates

To give you an idea of what that means, according to Wikipedia:

Reader’s Digest magazine has a readability index of about 65, Time magazine scores about 52, and the Harvard Law Review has a general readability score in the low 30’s.

So as you can see, a low score doesn’t necessarily mean a bad score – it just means that it’s better understood by a wider audience, which in most cases – is a good thing.

Finally, Bullfighter also comes with a nifty online tool called the ‘Mystery Matador’ which helps you to analyze and anonymously send scores by email to some of your friends or colleagues who just love to ramble on and on. All you need to do is copy and paste their letter or any other document text in the mystery matador. Bullfighter will measure the jargon and verbosity, and send an email with a link to their score for free.

Do you use other cool writing tools? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Make Microsoft Office 2007 Look Like Office 2003 (7)
• 9 Must-Have OpenOffice Extensions (65)
• 6 Free Office Suites That Are NOT Microsoft (40)
• Where To Research Material For Your Homework (8)
• Websites For Students: 10 Online Learning Tools (82)

Search Color Schemes (Use Words)

Picking out a color scheme for your website? Not sure how to describe the actual colors you need? Try out ‘Instant Color Schemes’.

This excellent free service makes it easy for anyone to find an entire matching color scheme simply by typing in a word. For example, just search for ’sunset’, and color schemes related to ’sunset’ will be made available on the spot.

“Instant Color Schemes” makes full use of Yahoo’s image search API. How it works is that they take 5 related images from Yahoo Image Search and then show the most prominent 6 colors from each image and then find related colors to come up with the color schemes.

After some testing, it does work out pretty well in most cases. It did give me abnormal results once in a while (along with yellow and orange, pink and grey colors were displayed to me when I searched for ‘curry’!), but it looks to be a good product overall.

Search Color Schemes (Use Images)

Lost for words? If you are, you can let your favorite image do the talking. Sometimes words don’t cut it. This is especially true when you’re trying to pick colors to match certain objects, a painting or a statue for instance. Just upload a picture to Color Palette Generator and it will break down the key colors from within that photo and allow you to obtain a color scheme from that image.

Also of note is the fact that the source code for this project is available for free which means you can grab it, change and modify the code and put it to good use as well.

So there you go, two tools which will help you make the right decision about colors – all the time.

You might also want to check out The Best 3 Tools to Search for Images Online by Color by Ann.

How do you pick color schemes? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• The Best 3 Tools to Search for Images Online by Color (26)
• Instant Eyedropper Drops The Pain From Color Matching (12)
• 6 Excellent Mac Apps for Graphic & Web Design (9)
• Yahoo Searchmonkey Expands with Playable Music Tracks (3)
• Write & Develop HTML Offline with First Page (12)