Pimp your browser

These days you don’t have to content with the browser that Microsoft (Internet explorer) or Mozilla (Firefox) makes available to you. You can make your browser an extension of your life by adding extensions or add-ons. These are small add-ons that add new functionality to your browser and can  range from a simple toolbar button to a completely new feature. Many of the newly developed web 2.0 services, such as blogging services and social bookmarking sites have extensions that allow you to use their services quite easily.

Firefox and Internet Explorer each has its own collections of extensions. To start you off here are also a list of some popular extensions and add-ons. But there are plenty more out there.

N.B. Firefox has extensions and Internet explorer has add-ons.

Diarmuid

Alternative to Endnote?

Power Firefox users may be familiar with some of the vast range of extensions that are available for this program. These extensions allow third parties to add new functionality which the Firefox developers may not have thought of or considered important. You can find out about the range of extensions here.
An extension that definitely has use in is the Zotero extension. This Extension allows you to collect manage and cite your research sources. It doesn’t offer the full functionality of Endnote, but its list of features include:

• Automatic capture of citation information from web pages
• Storage of PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages
• Formatted citation export (style list to grow rapidly)
• Integration with Microsoft Word
• Runs right in your web browser

It currently only supports a small number of the major citation styles, such as MLA and Chicago, but this should improve with time. Also as it’s an Open Source product it’s free.

Diarmuid