Webupon

The Internet is already a revolutionary technology. It has allowed instant messaging, emailing, social networking, gaming, shopping, and more. What could be improved?

How about the features of the internet that follow you everywhere? Of course, there’s your internet browser (e.g. Internet Explorer), but even a bad browser can be improved. It can be added to, or extended by something else. Something called, add-ons.

Browser add-ons, also known as browser extensions include toolbars, download optimizers, and script blockers. In this article, I will go into detail about what I consider to be the top three best add-ons.

Before I do, however, do know that add-ons are only available for Firefox and Internet Explorer, although Google Chrome will offer add-ons in the near future. Opera also allows mini add-ons, known as widgets, but only very basic add-ons can be made into widgets. None of the add-ons mentioned in this article work with Opera.

Here’s my list, from the third best to the best.

3. Cooliris

What it is: An add-on that turns a website into a gallery of images that can be scrolled through with ease. It also allows you to add pictures to favorites, email them, and more.

Cooliris may be one of the most unique add-ons ever designed.When you click on the Cooliris logo in your browser, it turns the browser into a gallery of pictures. Just search a website, and the images on it are shown in a large gallery of images.

You simply click the logo to be taken into a new screen. Then, select a search engine, and type the address of a website. The add-on will browse that search engine for images that match that website query, that are then displayed in an interactive fashion.

Click on any of the images to get a zoomed shot of it. Upon clicking an image, you also get the option to add an image to favorites, email it, or view the web page it’s based on.  

Although it sounds somewhat useless, it really is an amazing experience. Try it on a website with lots of pictures, like the Buchart Gardens website for an amazing experience: www.butchartgardens.com

And believe it or not, it’s really one of the most unique add-ons I’ve ever seen.

Check it out at cooliris.com

2. WOT (Web of Trust)

What it is: This is an add-on all about human knowledge. If you have gotten a virus from a website, or found a website to be safe, you can rate it from very unsafe, to very safe, so that others in the future know that. It displays the overall rating in a simple to understand, red light green light color coded system.

 
If you’re like 99% of people, you hate viruses. So do I, but WOT has really helped me not have to worry about them nearly as much.

Don’t get me wrong, you should still always have a firewall and the latest updates on all your programs and your computer, but WOT is great at stopping you from even visiting a dangerous website, let alone download from it.

Let’s say I went to a website with a virus. I can click the wot circle in my browser, and click on a color coded scale, ranging from dark red to dark green, what my experience on a website was. Like a stoplight, the scale is green for go ahead, yellow for slow down and be careful, and red for stop and don’t enter.
To avoid troublemakers, WOT is a meritocracy. This means you can earn and lose trust. The first rating I make will have no effect. If I rate ten websites that others agree with, I will have gained trust. But if I use this trust to rate 10 more websites falsely, I will have then lost trust, and I will no longer be able to change ratings in the future.

You can rate a website in four categories: Trustworthiness, privacy, vendor reliability, and child safety.
The best part about WOT is the customization. You can customize whether it should warn you about dangerous websites, block you access from them, or neither. You can also decide when the warning should come up (e.g. yellow or red)

The WOT circle is also shown next to search results.

Download WOT at www.mywot.com/download

Or, visit the developer’s homepage at mywot.com

1. Savvy Collector Toolbar

What it is: It’s a toolbar for an art gallery that also offers some great features, such as calculator, notepad, searchable world clock, Wikipedia search, easy Twitter access, and more. It also allows the option to add a weather forecast, radio player, and email notifier. The description is pretty long, but there’s a LOT of features. And don’t worry, it’s simple to use too.

One might wonder why I would pick a toolbar of an art gallery as the best add-on. But in addition to the great art it links to, I also love the features the toolbar provides.
The toolbar offers three prime features: A “savvy” calculator, notepad, clock, and currency converter.

The calculator may be the biggest time saver for me. Especially for XP users having to go to start, all programs, accessories to find the calculator, a small calculator that can is displayed right above the page you are currently on is really helpful.

Anyone who uses a computer a lot likes to write notes down. Saving the time of opening a whole program is really helpful, since again, you can open a small notepad right above the page you are on.

The clock at first sounds somewhat generic. Everyone has a clock already on their computer screen. But it’s not just any clock. It uses Google’s Time: command.  Let me try and explain this.
If you didn’t already know, by typing “Time:” followed by a city name in Google, you can see the current time in that city. This clock opens a small window of Google, with the words time: Phoenix typed in. It is cut off right after the time, so you aren’t distracted by search results. The original purpose of the clock is to let people know what the local time is where the founder is at. That way, people know when to call.
But, since you already have a computer clock, if you want to know what time it is in another state, province, or country, you can simply type in the city of your choice.

The currency converter does exactly what it says. It’s a pretty neat function if you work in international business. The idea was to provide people out of the US easy access to convert how much a painting would cost in their own currency.

All of these functions were designed to aid in visiting the website (e.g. calculating how much it would cost to buy two items with the calculator) but also help in every day situations as well.
And inadvertently, the toolbar also offers several other very helpful features.

The toolbar offers a link to the Savvy Collector Twitter. But Twitterers will get excited by this little secret: By clicking that, all you then have to do is click one link, and you’re at your own personal twitter.

The search box also offers the ability to search Google News results, weather, stocks, and more.

AND, when you first install the toolbar, three icons with check boxes will appear below the logo. Although they aren’t on by default, if you check the boxes, you can also get an email notifier, radio player, and weather forecast.

The toolbar also of course is a gateway to the website, and offers links to different parts of the gallery, a login feature, and RSS feed of the blog. And you know what? A great as the features are, the art is great too. I ended up following their twitter, and even bought a piece of art after using the toolbar a while. Now and then, I also read the blog as well.
The only problem I had is if you check the three boxes once you install it, you usually cannot fit the radio, email notifier, and weather forecast all on the toolbar. Instead, there’s a little arrow at the end, that when clicked, shows a menu of the function(s) that don’t fit on the toolbar.

Overall, it’s a great toolbar, and I highly recommend it.

Download the Savvy Collector Toolbar at savvycollector.ourtoolbar.com

Or, visit the developer’s homepage, at savvycollector.com

Savvy Collector toolbar