Must-have on a browser

Here are some useful tips to improve your web experience on any browser. Enjoy and share comments.


Capture a full-page screenshot: Ever need to snag a screenshot of an entire Web page? Three utilities designed for specific browsers -- Screengrab for Firefox, IE Screenshot, and Talon for Google Chrome -- are perfectly suited to the task.

Try IE-in-a-tab: Even if you typically don't use Internet Explorer, you should have a copy of it handy for special situations. You might need to see how your site works in IE, for instance, or a site you use might not support other browsers. For maximum convenience, IE Tab for Firefox and IE Tab for Chrome let you keep the Microsoft browser in a tab so you don't have to juggle multiple browsers at once.

Bring back the bookmark: If you got out of the habit of using the humble bookmark because synchronizing different sets of bookmarks was too much of a hassle, install Xmarks. It lets you sync your bookmarks across different PCs and across different browsers.

Verify sites' trustworthiness: The Internet can be a dangerous place, but the Web of Trust browser add-on promises to make your excursions there a little safer by telling you how the sites you visit rate in terms of privacy policy, vendor reliability, and child safety.

Save eight keystrokes from every URL: You no longer need to type "www." or ".com" in most URLs. Instead, merely type the unique part of the domain name that you want to visit -- say, pcworld -- into your browser's navigation bar, and press Ctrl-Enter. Your browser will automatically fill in the "www." and ".com" parts of the address.

Middle-click to open a link in a new tab: Middle-clicking a link (that is, clicking it with the scrollwheel) will cause it to open in a new tab. Middle-clicking a folder containing multiple bookmarks will cause all of them to open in new tabs.

Improve a site's printer friendliness: At most Websites, the "printer-friendly" versions of the content are pretty awful. So head over to PrintWhatYouLike.com, and pick exactly which page elements you want to keep in your hard copy.