Browser Honey

Honey is sweet, especially when it can save you money. Honey is a browser add-on that automatically applies coupon codes at checkout, and now it also finds better prices on Amazon immediately.

Honey brings the best final prices to the forefront after automatically comparing every top-rated seller in the Amazon marketplace.

It also lets you know if you can save money just by waiting a couple of days for delivery. Quick shipping is awesome, but so is having options, especially if those options save you money.

Shop on Amazon as usual. If Honey finds a better deal, a little tag will appear showing you how much you could save by buying the same item from a different seller. It takes into account the final price of the item (including sales tax and shipping), seller rating, delivery time, and Prime status , so you can still get Prime deals. Here is the link to add it to Firefox. LINK  and Chrome LINK.

Browser Tip

Have you ever closed a tab in your browser and then wish you didn't?

Hold down Ctrl and Shift and hit the letter T, the tab will reappear. (This works in at least Chrome, IE, and Firefox.)

Browser Tip

If you accidentally close a tab in either Firefox or Chrome, hold down CTRL and Shift keys then hit the letter t. The tab will come back.

Of Internets and Webs

The Internet had been around for years before the world wide web and is the set of technologies beneath the web which enable the web to exist. The web cannot function without the internet, but the internet can function without the web.

The Internet technically began to exist the way we know it in 1983 when its predecessor, ARPANET began using TCP/IP. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the framework for the internet system of network communication still used today.

Other programs that use the Internet, but have nothing to do with the web are email, Internet Relay Chat, internet messaging programs, newsgroups, BitTorrent, telnet, FTP, etc.

The web was invented by an Englishman, Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 after years of effort. It did not come into wide-spread use for a few years after that. The World Wide Web is made up of servers, which serve the pages and clients, like Firefox, Chrome, and IE which display the pages. Hey man, I'm on the web tweet me.

Online Dictionary

If you use Firefox to read newspapers and other articles online, there is a great tool to help. Highlight a word that you do not understand, and a little question mark appears above the word. Just click on it and you will be taken to a dictionary with that word defined. Technology is great.

Tips to Make Your Browsing Easier

Here are a few tips that might help while browsing the web to get around your screen a bit faster without using your mouse.

Go directly to the Address Bar - (to type in a new site)
    Firefox: Control/Command + L
    Chrome/Safari/WebKit: Control/Command + L
    Internet Explorer: Alt + D
    Opera: Control/Command + L

 Get to your browser search box - (to search something)
    Firefox: Control/Command + K
    Safari: Command + Option + F
    Internet Explorer: Control + E
    Opera: Control/Command + E

Internet Cookies

Unlike the tasty morsels of real cookies, internet cookies are dropped in your computer from almost every site that you visit.

Sometimes there are good cookies, like those that let you log in to sites without always typing your password, but usually the cookies track where you have been so the web owner knows you have been there before. Anyone with a bit of coding knowledge can look at all your cookies and track where you have gone on the web.

I find cookies to be an invasion of my privacy, and luckily there is a way to get rid of those pesky space hogs on my disk. If you use Internet Explorer, go to the top line and click on 'Tools' then click on 'Internet Options', then click on 'Browsing History'. You are then shown options to delete temporary files, history, cookies, etc. Click on the boxes next to those items you wish to delete and click 'delete'. You may be surprised that it will take a few minutes if you have never deleted the files before. If you use Firefox, go to 'Tools', 'Options', 'Privacy' to do the same thing.

Both Internet Explorer and Firefox, also have a check box option to 'Delete browsing history on exit' and it will clean out your cookies and history each time you exit the program. This does not clean up all the temporary files, but it does help preserve your privacy. It's like cleaning your computer and protecting your privacy at the same time.

Web Viewing Tip

Here is a tip that I use all the time. When viewing a web page that has small print, hold down the CTRL (control) key and move your scroll button on your mouse forward. It increases the size of print for easier viewing. It is temporary and only lasts for the page you are viewing. Moving your scroll button back reduces the size of print. It works in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Firefox Browser

The open-source browser Firefox passed its billionth download on Friday, July 31 ahead of the release of its fourth iteration. The milestone includes downloads of all versions of the web software since its first release in 2004.

Figures suggest that Firefox now has nearly one third of the browser market worldwide, at 31%. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the field with around 60%, whilst Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari and Opera are all less than 5%.

Microsoft is currently in talks with the European competition regulators, which ruled in January that pre-bundling Internet Explorer with the company's Windows operating system hurt competition.

The browser, developed by the Mozilla Foundation, has quickly become a favorite with web surfers since its launch in 2004.

Last year, the foundation set a new Guinness world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours when the third version of Firefox was downloaded more than eight million times.

Mozilla developers are currently working on the fourth iteration of the software, and earlier this week, it showed off screenshots of the next version of the browser, Firefox 4.0. I have been using it almost exclusively since it came out. It is great and offers many free add-ons.