Thought I'd do a post on the tools of the trade - the web browser.

A lot of my day is spent surfing the web looking for good quality one way links, and to help me on my quest I have certain tools to make the job easier.  My web browser needs to be fast, functional and show useful information on screen.

First of all - web browser choice.  I personally use Flock, a Firefox re-skin with extra social media customisation.  I like it for its handling of RSS feeds, which it integrates in its "about:myworld" homepage - it also keeps track of which of your bookmarked sites you have recently visited.  Flock also integrates social bookmarks which means posting to Del.icio.us is a one click process, and you can directly post to your blog (like I'm doing now).  If you decide to use it, bear in mind the first time you open Flock it spends a lot of time synchronising to your various accounts so will seem slow and jerky compared to Firefox, but once its finished it works just as smoothly.

A little side note here - I usually have Opera open as well since its by far the smallest and quickest browser - if I didn't need to use Add ons or Flocks features I'd use Opera exclusively.

But I do need Add-ons, and this is where Firefox/Flock stands head over shoulders from IE - the range of add ons are incredible and allow a great deal of freedom in what the browser can do.  The best I recommend are:

StumbleUpon - Does everything StumbleUpon related.  My favourite networking website, this is always the first to be installed.

Google Toolbar - Not really used for PR (Search Status is quicker) but almost mandatory for a link builder - its Auto Complete is also useful.

Smart Digg - Shows if a webpage has been dugg and with how many - great for finding stories not yet submitted and very fast

Mouse Gestures - Fantastic once you get used to it (the documentation isn't too hot) but once you're into it you can control most browser functions by just mouse direction.  Borrows heavily from Opera, and luckily uses the same gestures.

SearchStatus - Very useful for linking, this displays no-follow links on screen highlighted a disgusting pink, which changes the whole web browsing experince a little (you see how the webmaster regards his outgoing links) - it also allows easy access to backlinks and other SEO features.  The backlink feature needs updating at the moment but still very useful Add on I wouldn't do without.

SEO Link Analysis - Once you've used SearchStatus above to look at a site's back links, this great tool by Joost shows the links attributes such as no/do-follow, PR and anchor text.

IE Tab - This tool is handy for those annoying websites that don't work in Firefox - it renders the page in IE instantly.

Live HTTP Headers - Useful for tracking redirects

Smart Bookmarks - This add on shrinks bookmarks down so you can fit more in your toolbar

Mr Wong - Functionality for the well designed social bookmark site

Faviconize - This enables you to shrink tabs to just their icon (accessible via a mouse gesture) - useful when you have lots of tabs open

Blogged with Flock

Tags: browser, linking, add-ons, flock, firefox, digg, explorer, seo, smo