Ten Tips for Better Web Surfing

With the vast amount of online content, the biggest difficulty is finding specific information. Although dozens of search engines are available, pick two, then take the time to learn them well. For more on this read Searching the Web. In case you're interested, our top choices are Google and Yahoo!.

If you want to begin surfing by reading a daily newspaper or better yet, Learn the Net, why not start there first? Here's how to select the home page of your choice.

While you are downloading one web page, you can access another by opening a second browser window. With Internet Explorer 7.0 under the File menu select New Window. With Firefox 2.0 under the File menu select New Window.

Both Internet Explorer 7.0 and 8.0 and Firefox 2.0 and later have a feature called tabbed browsing. Instead of opening a new window, you just open a new tab with a new window. You can have multiple tabs open at the same time and easily switch between web pages.

A word of caution: Although you can open multiple windows or tabs, this can slow down your computer, so don't go overboard. Remember to close the additional windows to free up disk space.

Commuters experience rush hour, when highways bog down with traffic. The same phenomenon happens occasionally on the Internet--although not nearly as often as in the past--usually in the late afternoon and early evening, when people log on to check e-mail, chat and play games. If you want to avoid the slowdown, go online in the morning or late at night, when traffic is lighter.

Sure, web designers spend a great amount of time creating wonderful graphics, but it can take quite a while to download large graphic files. If you only have dial-up and you want to speed things up, turn off the images in your web browser.

With Internet Explorer 7.0 and 8.0, under the Tools menu, select Internet Options, then click the Advanced tab. Now uncheck Show Pictures.

Thoughtful designers include something called an ALT tag, a written description of the image. If you want to see a particular image, click on the tag with your right mouse button and select View Image. For Mac users, just hold down the mouse button over the graphic.

Last update: Jan 8, 2010