Web Utilities
Written by: Steph Kendall, Published June 2007
There is almost an overwhelming choice of online tools, handy programs and neat gizmos around, so we have selected a few of our favourites to help you weed out the ones you're likely to use.
Browsers
Browsers are programs that are used to view and interact with various types of Internet and multimedia resources. They can be customized with your own preferences.
Many users seem to stick to Internet Explorer (IE), an old-favourite, but most of the Avatar crew prefer Mozilla Firefox. It's a free alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and it's quicker.
Search Engines
Search engines help people using the Internet to find information. Some of the most popular, influential and the most useful are listed below:
New Zealand
Other
- Yahoo!
- Windows Live (formerly MSN)
- DMOZ (Open Directory Project)
- Ask (formerly Ask Jeeves)
We all tend to use Google (NZ and .com versions) for the most part, though some of us, eager to escape from all things Google from time to time, will also switch to engines such as Alexa, All The Web and AltaVista.
Although it's easy to get stuck in a search engine rut, you may find that specialised search engines and directories give you more relevant and better results.
- For searching New Zealand Web space, we recommend NZS.com.
- For searching the blogsphere try Technorati
- For stumbling as well as searching around try, Stumble Upon!
Virus Protection
It's important to protect your machine and network from the nasties out there. We like these offerings:
Email Protection
Rocket Spam has been keeping Avatar's inboxes running smooth (virtually 100% spam) for over 5 years. We love it.
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