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Handy Tip for Browsing the Web on a Slow Internet Connection
If you are using a slow internet connection from a laptop or desktop computer, try this trick to use the lightweight “mobile” version of many popular websites. These sites are designed for small screens and lower-bandwidth smart phones, but they’re quite functional and perfect for computers with slow internet connections. Just follow these steps: You need to use the Firefox web browser. Download Firefox here (it’s free) and install it if you don’t already have it. This may take a while if you have a slow connection. You’re using Firefox to view this page now, right? Good… Click here, then click the + Add to Firefox button. Proceed through the steps to download and install the User Agent Switcher Firefox extension, then restart Firefox. In your Firefox menu, go to Tools -> Default User Agent -> and select iPhone 3.0 That’s it. Test it out by going to CNN. You should be automatically redirected to CNN’s lightweight, mobile site – the address is http://m.cnn.com/. This should work for the “major” websites like Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Facebook, etc. To turn this behavior off, go to Tools -> iPhone 3.0 -> and select Default User Agent. You can easily switch between mobile and full versions of websites by changing this setting. This can be useful any time you are using a slow internet connection including • using a dial-up internet connection • using a slow public wi-fi access point at a coffee shop, hotel, airport, etc • using internet tethering through … Continue reading
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Search Engine Round-Up
Google reigns as the undisputed king of the jungle, but there’s plenty of other critters in this zoo. Despite – or perhaps because of – its predominance and scope, Google may not be the best for every inquiry where personal privacy concerns or a particularly obscure topic is involved. What follows is a list – by no means comprehensive — of some current search engines. They are divided into two types: general or open in nature, and specialized or closed. The major difference is that specialized search engines are either dedicated to a particular topic, or limit the search arena to preselected categories usually from a drop-down menu or scrolling pane. These days, neither type of tool stands as alone as they once frequently did. If general in nature, they may be part of a huge content portal offering numerous other services, like maps and translating tools and email. Specialized ones are just as likely to be a feature of large sites, such as online department stores and libraries, but just about every merchant with a website has a some search capability available. We’ll only be able to look at a few samples of the most popular, useful, or offbeat ones.