Web Browsing Tricks Everyone Should Know

 

Web Browsing Tricks Everyone Should Know

Many reports estimate that we spend an average of 6 hours and 43 minutes every day on the internet. As our lives become more integrated with the virtual world, we owe it to ourselves to make the experience as efficient and comfortable as possible.

Using these browsing tricks, you can smoothly wind your way through the internet alleyways like a ninja and have fun while doing so!

Let’s get started.

Reopening All the Tabs

You’re vigorously pumping through your research. You have 20 tabs open as you type away happily. After checking out one of the links, you move to minimize the browser and get back to typing; but in your haste, you end up clicking the dreaded red X.

At this point, if you don’t know the right browsing tricks, you could be feeling quite awful. However, most browsers know that these things happen.

All you have to do to make sure your efforts are not in vain is press Ctrl + Shift + T and your tabs will return all at once. This tip also works for when you want to reopen singular tabs.

Increasing Browser Speed

There are a couple of ways you can do this. The first and easiest one is to clear your cache. In browsing terms, a cache is a temporary storage for all the images and web pages you load on your browser. Its main function is to help you reopen links faster, save bandwidth, and reduce server load.

Sometimes a cache may corrupt or become too full. This can cause browser lag and a lot of frustration. You can clear the cache of a page by pressing Ctrl + Shift + R and then continue whizzing through webpages!

One of our best browsing tricks to improve speeds is to change your DNS. The domain name system (DNS) is a core part of your browsing process. Simply put, it matches the website name (URL) to its IP address of the World Wide Web.

Your internet service provider assigns a DNS address to you by default. However, these are often slow and inferior in terms of security. You can change your DNS to a public DNS like Google DNS or Cloudfare for free.

You will get superior browsing speeds and better protection for your privacy.

Trying to Find Your Favorite Site That Went Offline

This is not common, but sometimes websites go offline or ‘die’ either because the domain is not renewed or due to the company going into administration.

Whatever the case, it can be a real bummer to find out that your favorite site is not loading anymore. Thankfully, nothing ever really goes off the internet.

All you have to do is paste the site URL in archive.org to access an old cached version of the site. 

Searching Something Quickly

If you do a lot of research or just love hopping between lots of sites, it can get a bit laborious to have to move your cursor to the address bar every time you need to visit a new website, search something or even copy the URL of the website you’re currently on.

To easily select the address bar, without touching your mouse or trackpad, press Ctrl + L. The whole URL in the address bar will be selected and you can do whatever you want with it.

Flicking Between Tabs Quickly

If you use ALT + Tab to switch between various open programs on Windows, you’re already learning how to be a true tech ninja.

But did you know that there’s also a way to flick between tabs on your browser? It’s quite easy: press Ctrl + Shift + Tab to move one tab to the left and Ctrl + Tab to jump one tab to the right.

Finding Where the Picture Is From

As far as browsing tricks go, this one is as useful as they come. Maybe you saw a great picture on Facebook or perhaps you found some cool images on your desktop. You love the photos but you’re not sure where they came from and you want to find that same site.

Well, Google (and many other services) can perform a reverse image search for you! It sounds a bit freaky and unbelievable at first, but it really does work.

Head over to Google’s reverseimage search and drop your image in the search bar. The engine will look for similar images across the internet and provide you with a number of matching links.

Securing Your Passwords

Weak passwords are a major reason behind most cases of cyberattacks and hacks. A lot of us just use the passwords that are easy to remember like “john123” or “password1”. As you can see, you don’t even have to be a hacker to crack these passwords.

Another problem is that we use the same passwords for every account. Once one is compromised, you’re basically a gold mine for cybercriminals.

So, what can you do? Obviously, we can’t remember all those complicated passwords. One of the most overlooked browsing tricks is that you can actually install a password manager that will do all the remembering for you. Many will often generate random passwords for you as well.

Protecting Your Privacy

If you’re like us, you probably love your privacy and hate other people snooping around in your business. Unfortunately, most networks are monitored by your internet service provider, the government and other parties.

To bypass this situation, you need to install a VPN (virtual private network). A VPN works by encrypting your connection to the internet so that your traffic is hard to read for anyone on the other end. Buying a trustworthy VPN is often a lot better than using free ones. 

Some Useful Shortcuts

Before we go, we wanted to bestow a final few browsing tricks upon you. Here are a few shortcuts that can be handy.

·         Ctrl + T to open a new tab

·         Ctrl + W to close current tab

·         Ctrl + H to see your history

·         Ctrl + B to bookmark/remove bookmark

·         Ctrl + Shift + N to open a new incognito window

The tools available to enhance your browsing experience are endless. This article was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to browsing tricks.

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Happy browsing!