Improve & update your browser search function with Inquisitor
The Internet is huge, so finding relevant web pages isn't always easy. There's also an over reliance on one particular search engine, from Google, for our results. One interesting plugin for Safari has recently been ported to work across Firefox and Internet Explorer and will enable you to quickly enter a search term and see instant results that are most relevant to your requirements.
Inquisitor is an free add-on that used to be Safari-only and is now available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. It was recently bought by Yahoo and, as a result, is now based around the Yahoo search platform, meaning search results are restricted to this network. It's currently only in beta - and you have to login to the Mozilla add-ons website in order to download - and we couldn't get it working on our main desktop-based Firefox 3. Simply never appeared in our Add-ons manager.
Inquisitor link.





Working for a large organisation means you'll also have to abide by their rules and regulations. These often stipulate that you can't use your work email for personal matters, such as trying to organise a vacation. The problem is, you can't install another email client and you can't keep opening your browser to check whether you have received new email.
Web browsers aren't geared up for serial downloaders. People who spend their time downloading multiple files from the Internet. For this reason, it's better to integrate a more established download manager in to your browser and let this handle your files, resume files that have not download to your system and even speed up the process of obtaining files from a website.
The addition of web browser tabs was a major feature that has since been implemented across all browsers. Rather than open multiple windows, you can simply open a website in a tab instead. Recently browsers have also had the facility to move tabs around on your interface, which can be useful if like working with your websites in a particular order. However, the problem with any tabbed system is that you can't easily see the open website, especially when you have pages from a site open in multiple tabs. It's not always easy to remember which page is open in which tab.
Apart from being a modern and updated browser, Firefox is a wise choice simply as so many third-party developers are busy producing various add-ons. In the last week, we've put Cookie Swap, Mini Map Sidebar and Weave online. All fantastic and worthwhile add-ons. Everyone likes a customised experienced, which is why one persons idea of interior design differs widely from another. The problem with life is finding the time to experiment. Who has time to download various themes and then worry about whether they'll be compatible with their machine?
When you browse the Internet, visit a commercial website, order products online and take advantage of a promotional offer, you'll be leaving your personal information on your computer in the form of a cookie. Next time you visit the page, the information that was stored and purchasing information will be extracted from the cookie. If you share your computer, this means that you'll need to delete your cookies each time you end your web browsing.
If you spend most of your day browsing the web, your web browser is going to be the application you end up using the most. In some ways it makes sense to make this the hub of all your computer activity, rather than having a separate tool for storing passwords, setting task reminders and so on. If you could handle everything within Firefox, surely it would make life far easier?
Notebooks sees Google continuing to provide us with useful
and straightforward web surfing applications. This extension for Firefox doubles
up as a bookmark manager and a clipboard for specific content you wish to copy, paste and store in one place. Located in
the bottom right hand corner of your browser, you can choose to expand your
notebook to full size, where it will then begin to resemble something more like