My Most Wanted Browser Accessories. Review on Five Best Browser Accessories

The shapes of those shout-after headgears astonished me when I show few video clips of fashion show in Mumbai. You can see much more funny gears in fashion shows in some other channels. I will be surprised if a lady wearing such a gear is not appreciated by some Tapoori or Chased by a Bull or Condemned by self-appointed caretakers of our society. They call it matching fashion accessory. Similarly, there are accessories for surfing net and some of these are spies or create many other problems. Some are even smart enough to crash your computer. However, there are many useful one.

Decided to write one to share my opinion after reading the evocative review of Kalil on this topic. Guys, there is nothing like those headgears(I mean accessories) in my opinion so you may use all of these. My most useful accessories are to make life comfortable. Here I go -

Yahoo Messenger with Companion

I am very dependent on these two. I think I need not write much about Yahoo!. most of you must be using these utilities.

Yahoo! Messenger - Yahoo messenger has overtaken all competitors and seems to be the best messenger as of today. You have the choice to include even bookmark in Yahoo! Messenger. You are also linked to Yahoo!, Address book, Weather, Stock, Email alert etc. Its icon is embedded in IE and from there one can navigate.

Yahoo Companion: A very useful application from Yahoo! The Yahoo Companion is a browser bar that gives full access to Yahoo applications from IE. You can choose applications that need to be visible in the browser bar. This is really very helpful like one-click access to My Yahoo!, Bookmarks, Geocities, Mail, Briefcase, Search etc. Configuration of the browser bar is saved and maintained by Yahoo. So, one can use it from anywhere if the software is loaded in the computer.

2. Search Engines of Copernic Agent Basic

Copernic is a versatile Internet Search tool. Recently I have upgraded it to Copernic Agent Basic – it is simply the best. It is free. In my case 17 search engine search for me simultaneously.

Downloaded it from https://copernic.com/en/products/agent/download.html

File size: 3.33 MB; take about 15 minutes to download. Version 6.1 released on April 29, 2003. Compatible OS is Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP & IE. Do not know much about its compatibility with other Internet Browsers.

Latest version of Copernic Agent adds a toolbar in IE. So now one can launch the Copernic Agent Search component for a selected word or group of words directly from Internet Explorer.

One may also lunch Copernic Agent in a separate window from the Button of Copernic Agent from IE toolbar. Availability of a Result Explorer window that allows user to browse found documents in an integrated browser window and to use almost all Internet Explorer features.

It's my favorite search engine because Copernic stores all search results that I can refer afterward.

3. Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat becomes most essential tool to exchange documents by electronic media. With its small file size and independent of platform, PDF is a perfect system for distributing documents. Added advantage is its compatibility with online navigation. PDF documents can be sent by Email to other users directly from Acrobat, as attachment of Email or one can distribute the documents through the Internet.

Many WebPages or E-books are in this format. So, it is must to install this very useful tool. Freely available – latest version is 5. Acrobat Reader(Size: 8.41 MB) is free software available in most of the CD of IT magazines and installation is easy. Or may be downloaded from Adobe Web site at https://adobe.com. With the free Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0, one can view and print Adobe PDF files across a broad range of hardware and software.

4. WinZip

More often than not files available on the Internet are distributed as archives. Archives usually have file names ending with ZIP, LZH, ARJ etc. Archives make it easy for grouping files and compress. It is also faster in transferring, so download is faster. It is very useful to send a group of related files rather than sending individual files.

If the downloaded file is not a self-extracting file than you need software to unzip. Self-extracting Zip file is an executable program file(.exe), which comprises of a Zip file and software to extract or UnZip the Zip file.  WinZip does it better. It is freely available and most of you must be using that.

5. Norton 2002

Norton AntiVirus 2002 introduced access to Norton AntiVirus tools through Windows Explorer, better support to Email, Improved automatic repairing of infected files and it supports Windows XP. You can scan both incoming and outgoing emails because Norton AntiVirus 2002 supports email programs that use POP3 and SMTP communications protocols.

This version is easily accessible from Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher because Norton AntiVirus 2002 adds a button to the toolbar that allows viewing protection status, managing the Quarantine, viewing Activity Log & Encyclopedia. It is also possible to start scanning for viruses from the same button. According to my experience updates is quicker.

Other useful accessories:

1. Windows Media Player / Real are must for the music lovers. With this plug-ins, you can view all the content within the browser. I prefer Window Media Player.

   
   




2. Shockwave Flash & Macromedia Plug-ins is essential because more and more websites are using these applications.

   
   




3. Web accessories from Microsoft may be downloaded from

   
   

https://microsoft.com/windows/ie/previous/webaccess/default.asp

1. Internet Explorer 5 Toolbar Wallpaper - tired of gray colour of IE5 than add some colour to it by downloading toolbar wallpaper from Microsoft site.

https://microsoft.com/windows/ie/previous/webaccess/ie5wa.asp

1. Alexa is a free Internet navigation service. May be downloaded for above link of Microsoft. Its toolbar(radio) helps users surf the Web and learn more about any Web site. It can block popup. This is from Amazon.

There are hundreds of such accessories but it is better to know about such accessories before installation.

~

Enjoy Surfing