If you could customise your browser to help you do online research faster and more efficiently what would you do? How about a tool that enables you to save and store whole sites that you could browse offline? Maybe a function that lets you investigate a link - before you click it? How about a research tool that lets you highlight a word and then it automatically gathers background information about that subject and posts that in a separate browswer column so you don't have to leave the page you're looking at?
All of these tools and more are easily available. For Firefox users they are only a click away. But even if you aren't using Firefox, some of these adaptations are available for other browser versions such as Safari and Exlorer.
Firefox is a great browswer but it is the third-party applications - the add-ons - that make it so powerful. Instal the best and you'll wonder how you got by without them. A few hand-picked add-ons that are tailored for serious online research can take your browsing to another level. The less time you spend opening new browser windows in new tabs, the more time you will save. If you can label and store your research quickly and efficiently, you'll save countless hours when you come to share that information with colleagues or complete your project. Here are some of best add-ons from several dozen I've tested over the past few years.
1: Interclue
is a serious time-saver. Once installed, you can hover your cursor over a hyperlink and the Interclue icon appears. Hover over that and the Interclue pop-up window appears with information about that link and a page preview. Interclue even gives warnings about dangerous links such as those to phishing sites and malware. I don't think I've switched Interclue off since I installed it.
UPDATE: Using Inerclue while browsing HelpMeInvestigate demonstrates just how helpful this add-on can be. When you click on an investigation you are taken to a page that lists "What's happened recently". Normally, you have to click on each entry to find out what someone has said in an update. But if you use Interclue, you can view updates without having to click through to each one. Browsing HMI with Interclue becomes much faster.
2: Scrapbook
is a tool that helps you organise your research but it does it in a way that is very powerful. Not only can you save web pages and snippets and organise them in file trees, you can also save whole sites. Scrapbook gives you the option of saving whole sites or chunks of sites by allowing you to save pages and then all the links from that page and then all the links from those pages - and so on. You can command Scrapbook to only save pages from a specific site. Crucially, Scrapbook saves the entire web page - not jus the link - leaving you to browse your saved pages offline. For sensitive research, your saves also represent important source material.
3: Juice
This is one of a wave of intelligent search tools that let you access content about subjects on the page you are browsing. This means you don't have to leave the page you're viewing. Once activated Juice, once you highlight a selection and drag it slightly, Juice then trawls for material related to that subject and posts the information in a separate Firefox column. Juice is switched on and off in your browser bar. This application also allows you to drag movies into the Juice column where you can leave them playing as you continue to browse.
4: Webnotes
Is another organising tool that lets you save and annotate page snippets. You can organise them directly within a browser panel or access them on the Webnotes website - leaving you free to access your notes from any computer with internet access. Webnotes also makes it easy for you to automatically share annotated web pages or snippets with colleagues if you are involved in collaborative research. Your colleagues don't have to be Webnotes users. Overall, it isn't as powerful as Scrapbook - but the toolbar is very easy to use and I still use it for projects where I need to store many small web 'cuttings'.
5: Customise your search bar
All Firefox users will be familiar with the built-in search bar in the top right hand section of the tool bar. This was once set to a Google default but now gives you a range of options including Yahoo, BBC and Wikipedia. You can customise the range of search tools available from this bar by clicking the icon on the left. You can also select from a range of other search engines here. I've added a range of alternatives including Oneriot which is one of a new generation of search engines that is focused on 'realtime' search - results trawled from blogs, twitter and news sites as they appear on the web - a source of breaking news that is leaving Google behind.
6: Groowe
Alternatively you can use this search tool bar which allows you to bundle search tools into different categories such as 'search engines', 'shopping sites', 'download sites' and 'knowledge base'. You can then add or delete tools from thos bundles and choose the search tools you want from drop-down menus. The toolbar also gives you the option of searching within a number of 'favourite' search engines at the same time.
7: Evernote Web-Clipper
You'll need an Evernotes account (free) for this. Evernote is an increasingly popular organiser that allows you to save web pages and clippings to your own Evernote application or to your Evernote account on the Evernote website. The beauty of the service is that wherever you save your clippings, Evernote automatically syncs your desk-top computer or laptop with your web-based files. The web-clipper adds a button to your browser allowing you to save pages and clippings more easily.
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