Scholarly Life of a Committed Technofile

If you own your own computer, it is worth the time to personalize your tools so that you are more efficient and don’t have to remember where everything is. One of the easiest ways to do that with your internet tools is with your internet browser. First, let’s talk about your internet browser (and honestly, this is for you PC folks, if you have a Mac…email me on the side and I’ll prepare a separate rant for you). Most of you are probably using Internet Explorer (IE), the little blue “e” swoosh icon, for your internet browser. This is the program that comes default with windows. Good program, most internet pages and programs are designed to work well with IE; however, because it is Microsoft, it is the least secure. I suggest that you switch to Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/); it is a powerful free browser that does not contain as many security flaws (in other words, do your online banking in Firefox).

Now, some ideas on how to personalize your Firefox browser (and most of these can work in IE as well). At Firefox’s website there is an “add-ons” tab. Within that area is a list of  “search engines.” Add as many of those that are useful. They will all then be options in a drop down menu in your browser window. Since I use Google the most, it stay up there; however, I also like being able to drop down to IMDB (since I love movies), Wikipedia (it’s an encyclopedia!!), Webster for a dictionary, Weather Channel if I’m traveling, and Food Network if I’m actually going to attempt to do something in the kitchen. You probably also want to go download all the “plugins” so that they various tools work from within Firefox. After that, just browse the recommended add-ons and extensions. You’ll probably find a couple of tools that work for you.

Don’t stop at Firefox’s website. You’ll probably want to also:

• Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com)
• Social Bookmarking Toolbar, both Furl and del.icio.us have toolbars you can download. Check out their “tools” or “help” sections
• Other Google Tools (http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/) some are for your toolbar, others you will have to bookmark somehow. I’m personally a huge fan of gmail, google docs, and the calendar tool is coming along and I’ve bookmarked the “Google Scholar” search page so it shows on my browser window all the time.

As you find other tools on the internet (like Zotero, which is a Firefox extension for tracking research and helping with citations, http://www.zotero.org/), you will find many of them have browser related tools.