Optimize Your Browser
Back to the GAME PAGE
Don’t Think, Just Do!
- Save your three most used web pages to your browser bookmarks.
- Take a look at your browser bookmarks and clean them up a bit. (Delete some)
Simple Setup for Optimizing your Browser
Choose and log into your primary browser profile
Chrome and Edge use email addresses to organize the online tools associated with them. (Google Apps and Microsoft Web Office). Logging into your browser with the same email account you usually use will help prevent account confusion.
Turn on your Bookmark bar
If you don’t show a list of bookmarks near the top of your favorite browser you may not have the bookmark bar turned on. You can turn it on in settings, see instructions below.
Create a few bookmark folders to keep things organized
- Temporary Research
- Business Tools
- Personal
- Shopping
GUIDE VIDEO: Join me as we work on this Game Challenge together
Deeper work and Strategy for Optimizing your Browser
Your browser is the most useful program on your computer.
When your browser is fully optimized it will open to the webpage or pages you expect and you will be able to access all the online things you need with no more than a click or two.
No matter how many online tools you use, your browser can keep them all in one central location.
GAME SPACE Prerequisite
What do you need to know to successfully complete this GAME challenge?
- You need to know what a browser is and what it does
- You need to know the important parts of your browser
- You need to know which browser you are using and why
Visit the BLOG POST: Optimize Your Browser Prerequisite for more information about the how and whys for this GAME SPACE.
LEVEL 1: Set up your browser foundation
Which browser are you using? Chrome and Edge are usually the best options to balance security with ease of use. The features discussed in this GAME challenge will be available with both these browsers. Safari and Firefox are fine but are missing some useful features.
Visit BLOG POST: Optimize Your Browser Prerequisite for more information on choosing the browser that is best for you.
Log into your primary browser profile (Chrome, Edge, Firefox)
Access to your browser profile (except Safari) is usually located in the upper right corner of your browser dash.
Examine the Dash and notice what is there
NOTE: You may see 2 profile images; your browser profile will be the one on the top, on the Dash, not in the Window. Click the Profile image on the dash to log in using your associated email and password. (Google email for Chrome, Microsoft email for Edge)
- Navigation Field: for entering website addresses and search topics
- Backward and Forward arrows: for going back to a page you were visiting and then forward again.
- Refresh: To force your browser to fetch the website information again.
Notice the Tabs across the top of your browser
You can open several web pages at once in your browser and toggle easily between them using tabs. This is a wonderful productivity feature.
NOTE: The more tabs you have open the more resources your computer will use and the slower and more glitchy your computer/browser experience will be.
Set up your bookmarks/favorites
There are dozens of things you can do to optimize how you navigate the internet. Let’s keep it simple for now. One of the most useful things you can do is set up your favorites bar, also known as your bookmark bar. Getting comfortable with this feature will allow you to quickly access the things you use every day and have a place you can store the web pages you will need to access regularly and “eventually”.
- Turn on your bookmark/favorites bar. (Visit Settings)
- Create top-level category folders in your bookmark/favorites bar. (Rt. Click/Secondary Clickon the bookmark bar)
- Add a few of your most important web pages to your bookmark bar and it’s folders. (Look for the star)
- Turn on your bookmark/favorites bar. (Visit Settings)
- Create top-level category folders in your bookmark/favorites bar. (Rt. Click/Secondary Clickon the bookmark bar)
- Add a few of your most important web pages to your bookmark bar and it’s folders. (Look for the star)
Creating folders will give you more room to organize your favorites so they don’t fall off the bar.
For more detailed instructions on how to implement these tasks visit See KB ARTICLE: Browser Adjustments
Here are a few folder ideas:
- !IN-PROCESS or TO DO – for pages you are working on temporarily (you can delete them or move them to another folder when you are done)
- BUSINESS – Sites you use to run your business
- TRAINING – Sites with educational material
- PERSONAL – Sites not related to your business
- RESEARCH – Sites you visit when you need to do research
Tour your browser settings
Usually found in the upper right corner. Look for a Settings symbol.
Settings often hold new features you didn’t know you wanted (or needed).
Useful browser settings to investigate are:
- Privacy and Security: The default settings try to balance ease of use with security. The more secure something is the more trouble it is to use. Think unlocked door vs. locked door vs. alarm system vs. gated bunker vs. underground fortress. The information your browser collects (cookies) about you makes it easier for you to find things you like and need (even if it is creepy).
- Search Engine: This is the search engine that your browser uses when you enter something into the Navigation/URL field. This does not need to be the same brand as the browser, and other search engines are always trying to get you to use theirs. Common ones are Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo (there are 1000’s)
- On Start-up: Specific pages or where you left off are most common.
- New Tab: This is the page that opens when you start a new browser tab, it is usually defaulted to the browser preferred search engine page.
- Downloads: Save to the downloads folder or “choose” where you save downloads. Deciding between these two options depends on how diligent are you when you are in a hurry. When you require your browser to “ask” you where you want to save something it will default to the last place you saved that sort of thing (PDF, program, photo, etc.) if you are not always paying attention to where something is being saved…
LEVEL 2: Maintain Quality
Once you feel confident with how you have managed the first level of this GAME SPACE you will want to keep it maintained. Check back every so often and complete these tasks.
Tidy up your Bookmarks
Over time you will collect bookmarks you no longer need. It can be really satisfying to delete outdated bookmarks. Take 10 minutes and just get rid of some.
HOT TIP:
If you create a designated bookmark folder to save your temporary bookmarks then cleaning them up will be much easier. You can call it something like IN BOX, IN PROCESS, TO DO, or MONDAY REVIEW.
Regularly clear your cache
A cookie is a little bit of custom website information shared with your browser. It is used to interact with you as you navigate the website in that session and in future sessions.
You can manage your cache in settings. Look for history, cache, cookies, and browsing data. Clearing this out on occasion will keep your browser in good shape. If it misbehaves, clearing the “cookies” from your cache will often solve the problem.
See KB ARTICLE: How to Clear Your Browser Cache (cookies) For information on clearing your browser cache.
Initiate Browser Updates
To keep you safe your browser will occasionally need to update, it will try to notify you when this needs to happen.
How this notification will show for you can up vary. Sometimes your browser will say “Update” in the upper right corner of your browser dash, or you may see a red exclamation point appear somewhere. As you pay attention to your browser you will recognize the notification and deal with it (click it).
When you get notice that your browser has an update available you should initiate it as soon as you can. This will give you the latest version of privacy and malware protection, bug fixes and the newest features.
While updates cause changes in your browser that you may not be excited about, they are important. The good news is that big changes are not as common as they used to be, and most changes are small and gradual, allowing you to get used to them.
Troubleshooting Steps
Things go wrong and knowing the steps you can take to fix them is a huge part of maintaining a well-functioning browser.
Common things that cause browsers to go wrong.
- Poor connection to the internet.
- Cache is full
- Browser is out of date
- The website you are trying to reach is down or cranky
Things you can do
- Refresh the browser
- Clear Cache
- Check for a browser update
- Reboot computer
- Reboot your internet
- Wait and try again later
See BLOG POST: Internet Troubleshooting for more detailed information.
NEXT: Spiral Upward Post for Browser Optimization or go to the next GAME SPACE: Master Your Passwords
SPIRAL UPWARD
Things change and improve all the time and while completing this game space will dramatically improve your productivity there is, even more, you can do. No matter how well you know something there is always something new to learn. Please feel free to leave us a comment below with the fun browser tricks you have discovered and visit the Spiral Upward Post for Browser Optimization to discover new things to try.
Resources associated with this GAME SPACE:
PREREQUISITE: Optimize Your Browser Prerequisite
SPIRAL UPWARD: Spiral Upward Post for Browser Optimization
