Thing 6: Browsers: Interner Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox

Some NHS Libraries have Internet Explorer and Google Chrome installed on pcs, one or two librarians also have Firefox installed on their pcs.

Why do people want to use browsers other than Internet Explorer?

Azadeh Brown is a Library Assistant at the University of Southampton. Read Azadeh's reflections on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox –you may be inspired to use a new browser for searching at work or at home. 

There’s a lot you can do with browsers these days. Use the Browser help pages to learn more about using short cuts, tabs and favorites/bookmarks  more effectively
Internet Explorer Help
Google Chrome Help
Mozilla Firefox Help
When accessing Internet Explorer Help use the drop down menu to select help for the version of IE you are using.                                                                                                                                     

Keyboard shortcuts

Try clicking a link with your mouse wheel… you should find that this opens the link in a new tab, but keeps your focus on the current page – ideal for opening links that you want to investigate, when you’ve finished reading the text in front of you. Notice I didn’t tell you which browser to try this in…

Working With Tabs

All modern browsers allow you to work with several tabs, each containing a web page. See if you can find out how to:

•  Cycle forwards and backwards through the tabs you have open
•  Rearrange the order of the tabs
•  Pull out a tab into a new, standalone browser window
• Can you then drag the window back into the tab list for the original window?

Favourites & Bookmarks

One of the things I find most annoying about using a new browser is working out how the favourites or bookmarks system works – it’s probably the biggest factor in my own reluctance to change browsers more regularly.

To help you get over that hurdle, we’ll have a play with the bookmarking systems on our three browsers… of course, you’re probably quite familiar with at least one of these (most likely IE), so feel free to skip any bookmarking task that you’re comfortable with – but please do give the others a go.

For each browser:

• Bookmark a few of your favourite pages
• Organise them into a couple of folders
• If you’re feeling adventurous, try importing all your bookmarks from your current browser 

Trying New Browsers at Home

There’s not a lot we can do  to get the latest versions of browsers at work  – just bear in mind that if you keep your browser up-to-date at home, then you’ll get a slightly different (usually better and safer) experience than with the same browser at work.

[If you don’t do so already, make sure you keep your computer at home updated with all the latest patches for Windows and whichever browser you use. And make sure you have good, up-to-date antivirus software – the free versions of Avast and AVG are both popular and very good.] 

At home you will have the freedom to use whichever browser you like. Search Google to find free downloads of the browsers below:

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox (Mozilla Firefox)
• Chrome  (Chrome is the default browser on android tablets and phones)
• Safari: for Mac users only
• Opera: www.opera.com 

Reflecting

On your blog, write a post about your experiences with the different browsers: 

•  Which one(s) have you been using mostly until now?
•  What did you think about any of the new browsers that you tried? Are you likely to make a permanent switch to one of the new ones? 
• Did you try any different browsers at home? What did you think of these?