There are a lot of things you can do with Firefox. You can change the look of it with Themes and Personas (these can be configured for you at the Firefox website), and for me the biggest advantage in using Firefox: Add-ons.

There are so many add-ons that it can certainly feel rather bewildering to look through the thousands of add-ons that are at their site. There are some simpler short cuts, for instance, you can look over Firefox add-on collections, which might give you a chance to see collections of add-ons that create a more coherent browser experience. In that regard I have a couple additions to the Firefox add-ons collections: My collection of add-ons for my laptop, and my smaller collection for my NetBook.

With a suite of add-ons and a theme that you like, there still things you can add… Bookmarklets, these ‘bookmarks’ can be simply dragged to you bookmarks toolbar, and they are installed… (To find your bookmarks toolbar, simply click on the pull down menu: VIEW, at the top of the Firefox frame, the top of the list is Toolbars…click on it and then click on Bookmarks. This will add a number of bookmarks as a toolbar at the top of Firefox. Once again, with this in view, you merely have to drag the bookmarklet to the toolbar and you can then use it! It is that simple.

Beyond this list of Bookmarklets I’ve hyperlinked, there are lists out there, such as:

http://www.labnol.org/internet/guide-to-useful-bookmarklets/7931/

I have only two Bookmarklets I currently use:

Readability, and Read it Later (although I am using the Add-on for read it later these days…). The net result to all of these customizations is that you can get your browser, to work in a manner that you choose instead of how it is presented to you (like it or not…).

Nothing is ideal… this is a link to one of the many blogs I check on (on a daily basis), and this post presents an interesting discussion about how we all deal with information glut (how to deal with too much, regardless of how much work you do to winnow it down…)

http://writetodone.com/2010/01/08/are-you-drowning-in-interesting-things-to-read-on-the-net-heres-how-to-cope/

And it suddenly occurred to me – my entire life is flagged-for-follow-up. I’m one big backlog of informative material waiting to be attended to. If only there were a rainy Sunday long enough to get through it all, I might finally … get on top of myself.

I hang onto articles because I’m scared of what will happen if I need them one day, and they’re not there. This fear binds me to my stuff. Like many people, I buffer myself with my just-in-cases.

Ironically, it is this overflowing of the banks, kind of information glut that makes  these customizations to my browser most useful. I think almost anyone would agree that there is literally too much out there, these adaptations allow you to start to take a bit of control over what you can deal with on the internet.

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