Although there would be little online research without the web browser, few people appreciate its importance. Not only does the right browser improve your online experience, some can be customized to provide awesome research support tools. It is probably the most important tool in your digital research toolbox and chances are good that you may use more than one.
The browser is your window to the Internet. Every computer comes with a browser application installed. Windows computers have Internet Explorer. Macs come with Safari. Like automobiles, all browsers have the same basic features. And, like automobiles, it’s how things are arranged and styled that make it the right one for you. While the browser that came with your computer is quite functional, you may want to add another browser to your toolbox.
First, let’s take a quick tour of the basic browser components. In this example, you are looking at the Safari browser installed on a Mac computer. The application’s menu shows two things common to all browsers: bookmarks and history. As you browse the Web, you will find sites you want to return to regularly. You can bookmark a site, then later just click on that saved bookmark to return to the site whenever you wish. And, as you browse, your browser maintains a history of the sites and pages you visit. Should you decide you want to go back to one of the pages you visited earlier in your browsing session, you can look at the history list to help you find it, then click on it to return to that page.
Microsoft Edge.
Gives you tools to protect your privacy online with features like tracking prevention, AdBlock Plus, and InPrivate browsing.
Features
Your favorites, passwords, collections and other saved data are securely synced across your devices.
Tracking prevention blocks trackers from sites you haven’t visited.
Collections makes it easier to collect and organize content you find on the web across your signed-in devices - including your mobile device.
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser
The Safari browser (Mac) doesn’t offer as many whistles and bells as Firefox or Chrome, but those it has are quite impressive. For example, the Safari Reader feature presents the current page’s article as continuous text without the clutter of the site’s design or distracting advertisements. The extensions gallery offers search tools, social networking functionality and many other tasks. Bookmarks can be synchronized with iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) via iCloud.
The page title is an important reference point when browsing. It tells you the site – and frequently the page – you are viewing. In this example, I’m viewing the home page (front page) of the Moultrie Journal site. That name appears in the browser window's title bar. Notice, too, that the title appears on the tab just below it. Most browsers allow you to have more than one site open at the same time and use tabs to make it easy to navigate between them. The titles make it easy to identify which is which. A change in the tab’s color generally identifies the site currently displayed. Here I have several sites open. Firefox allows me to "pin" sites in the tab bar so they're always available. The tabs for pinned sites are much smaller and only display a site icon. Here you see them to the left of the current tab. To move between sites, just click on the appropriate tab. Tabs are a researcher’s friend. Among other things, they mean you'll never lose a screen of search results once you get in the habit of opening the links you want to explore in a new tab.
Most browsers display the address bar and search bar next to each other, as you see in this example. The address bar is used to manually enter a URL (web address) for a specific site. You can use the search bar to enter a search word or phrase for a particular search engine. Most browsers let you choose your primary search engine, but make others easily available. In this Firefox example, Google appears as the default search engine, but there is a small down triangle next to the Google icon. Clicking on it will display other search engine options for you to select.
Often you'll find additional tools in line with the address/search bars. You’ll probably see two buttons with triangle icons facing left and right. These are the back and next buttons. If I click on a link to visit a new section of a site, then decide I want to return to the original page, I would just click the back button – the triangle pointing to the left. A click on the next button – triangle pointing to the right – would take me to the new section again.
Every browser has a home page. This is the first page that appears when you start the browser app. You can choose the site you prefer as your home page. For example, if the first place you want to go when you get online is your Facebook page, you can make that your home page. Look at your browser’s toolbar and you should see an icon that looks like a house. This is the home button.
Click it and you’ll be taken directly to your home page. This button may be located in a different spot depending on your browser, but it usually appears as some kind of house icon.
Earlier I discussed the ability to create a bookmark to make it easy to return to a useful site. (Reminder: Internet Explorer users work with favorites instead of bookmarks.) Many browsers have a bookmarks bar like the one you see here so you can easily access your saved pages. In this case there are so many bookmarks that most have been arranged within folders. The titles with the down triangle icon immediately after them indicate it's a folder. Click on the triangle icon to display that folder's contents.
Last stop on our tour is the scroll bar at the far right side of the browser window. Web pages operate more like ancient scrolls than paged books. The scroll bar lets you “roll” the text up and down to read. You can drag the highlight up or down to adjust your view. You can also use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through a web page.
Just because a browser comes with your computer, it doesn’t mean you are stuck with it. Like most applications, each has its own idiosyncrasies and you may want to “test drive” different browsers to find the one that best fits your research style. It’s not unusual to have more than one browser installed on your computer. I currently have three installed on mine. One works better for research, while another has features I find handy when I’m building web sites. The third makes my “social” browsing a lot more fun.
Here’s a look at several popular browsers so you can see for yourself.
Firefox [Windows, Mac & Linux - free] is an open source browser created and maintained by Mozilla. Released in 2004, it broke the Internet Explorer monopoly with a browser full of new and useful features. It introduced tabbed browsing, security features, design themes and add-ons for additional functionality. There are add-ons to help your research efforts, share your finds with others or organize your social networks.
Firefox also has a mobile browser available for iOS and Android phones. A sync feature keeps bookmarks synchronized between your desktop and mobile versions of Firefox. Although there isn’t a browser available for iPhones, there is a free Firefox Home app that make your Firefox desktop tabs and bookmarks available to your iPhone browser.
Safari [Mac, iOS & Windows] As Apple’s desktops and mobile devices gained popularity, so did their Safari browser. Safari doesn’t offer as many whistles and bells as Firefox or Chrome, but those it has are quite impressive. For example, the Safari Reader feature presents the current page’s article as continuous text without the clutter of the site’s design or distracting advertisements. The extensions gallery offers search tools, social networking functionality and many other tasks. Bookmarks can be synchronized with iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) via iCloud.
