The Need 4 Speed Online

I am sometimes amazed at how we expect the internet and our computers to be FAST! Anyone remember the "3 fingered salute" that you'd give your PC when you encountered the "Blue Screen of Death"?

Stop whining and try these tips from the DLM Blog:

9 Power Tips To Speed Up Your Web Browsing

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 09:04 AM PDT

Although the internet has been mainstream for over a decade now, high speed internet for everyone is still a distant dream. A huge number of users are still on dial-up. Those on broadband aren't always satisfied with the speed either. Everyone desires a faster web. Google wants that too. Having said that, there are always certain workarounds which could add some swiftness to our web browsing. This article talks about nine such tips. Some of the tips help to increase the speed of your internet connection while others are productivity hacks which help you to get things done on the web quickly. The end goal is to help you become a more productive internet user.

1. Use Google Chrome
   Google Chrome is without a doubt the fastest browser on the planet. It opens up quickly, doesn't crash often and brings up web pages faster than other browsers.
   
   Although it is still relatively new and doesn't boast of features like Firefox, you should definitely use it as often as possible. I personally use both Firefox and Chrome and have found Chrome to be much better performance wise.
   


2. Set up OpenDNS
   OpenDNS is an excellent free service which not only speeds up your internet connection but also provides an extra layer of your security to your connection. Apart from that, it has some other cool features like parental filters, opening pages from keyword shortcuts, auto-correcting mistyped urls and more.
   
   Here are the detailed instructions for setting it up on your computer.
   


3. Learn Keyboard Shortcuts
   Keyboard shortcuts could speed up your internet browsing by a great deal. Be it your email, your feed reader or your browser, using only the keyboard to navigate will always save time.
   
   Here is an excellent website called Keyxl which is like an online database for keyboard shortcuts. Just search for the app and you get the corresponding keyboard shortcuts. Be it Gmail, Google Reader, Firefox, Google Chrome or any other app you could think of, you'll find the keyboard shortcuts for that app on this site.
   


4. Use a Download Manager
   If you frequently download stuff from the web then a download manager could save you loads of time. A download manager usually comes with many advanced features which could make downloading files a breeze for you.
   
   There are many good download managers out there which you could try. Lifehacker has a list of five best download managers. Go, take a look.
   


5. Prefer reading in your feed reader
   RSS feeds are a great way to consume lot of information at one place. It also saves the time you would take to visit all those sites separately. Hence try to get into the habit of using it more often to read content on the web.
   


6. Use Tidyread or Readability Bookmarklet
   If RSS is not your thing and you love visiting websites and blogs then you might consider using Tidyread or the Readability bookmarklet to speed up the rendering of web pages.
   
   Both these apps strip the web pages off the heavy things like scripts, images etc and present content with better readability.
   


7. Use the Hyperwords Firefox extension
   Google Chrome may be faster but my love for Firefox isn't gone yet. And it will remain my browser of choice until Chrome has extensions like Hyperwords.
   
   Hyperwords adds loads of things to your right click inside the browser which provides easy access to a lot of information, thereby saving time and helping you become a more productive web surfer.
   


8. Make Firefox faster
   Staying with Firefox, those using it would know that it tends to become slow and nagging over time. But there are ways to make it faster. You could consider creating a new profile, uninstalling useless add-ons or clearing preferences of installed add-ons.
   


9. Use a Password Manager & Form Filler
   I have written about some awesome password managers before. Most of them come with built-in form fillers. Apart from securing your passwords, they save you time by filling web forms and quickly generating secure passwords for your new online accounts.

Cheers,

Abhijeet

Written on 7/9/2009 by Abhijeet Mukherjee. Abhijeet is an internet entrepreneur who loves writing about tech, productivity, blogging & making money online. Catch him at Jeet Blog and also subscribe to his weekly newsletter.

Photo Credit: star5112

How Much Does it Hurt?

This morning, I was at the Firefly Coffee shop, which is where you'll find me nearly every Sunday from 8:30 to 10:30am.

But it was pretty quiet inside today. And they are not the only ones that have been slow this week.

Most restaurants in Fort Wayne that I have stopped in or talked with have been slow. Why?

Well, we are smack dab in the middle of summer which means vacations and trips out of town. But we are also wrapping up the final weekend of the 10 day long Three Rivers Festival.

I went to 2 events this year, a concert sponsored by one of my radio stations, and the Bed Race, also sponsored by one of my radio stations. At the Bed Race Wednesday, I spoke with the Executive Director of the 3RF and she told me that the food vendors are very happy, they were about a day and a half ahead of last years sales. I grabbed my dinner downtown that night from some of the vendors, from the area known as "Junk Food Alley", and was disappointed in what I ate. I'm not sure what I should have expected, but I was cheap and the food was not worth the price I paid.

I was looking for food that I could not get at a regular restaurant, so I avoided the pizza, hot dogs, and the like. I also avoided the stand set up by Bandidos because they are local and I can go there anytime I want.

But back to my original question.

When we have an event like this in our town, how much does it hurt the local restaurants and business owners because money is spent on out of town vendors at Junk Food Alley, instead of with our neighbors who are here 52 weeks a year?

I'm not suggesting we stop the Festivals, but does anyone have any good ideas on how to stop the hurt?

Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day

Click here to go there