Do you ever curse, rail and scream at your computer for wasting your time… more specifically, at the internet? Every time I find that I’ve been following links in Youtube ‘Related Videos’ for more than half an hour, every time I forget to change my status in Skype and get hassled with messages, and every time I sit through 45 seconds of pointless pictures loading on a front page, I let rip! Then I slink back into the room shyly, put out my arms, and tell the internet … ‘I’m sorry … let’s never fight again!’.

Curse you, internet, for wasting my time again!

You don’t have to go through all of these constant relationship highs and lows with the web, though. Here we give you some handy hints for making your web surfing faster and more efficient.

The best way to save time on the internet is to discipline yourself not to be distracted by extraneous links -or use a tool to control your unnecessary browsing. However, even when you are your most focused, Terminator-like self, there are still ways you can make your netsurfing more efficient. So, “Come with me, if you want to live” … more efficiently!

Disabling Auto-Load Images

This is a great  bandwidth and time-saving tip. If you get to a site that you do want the images for, you can always click the Images button to load them. In both Firefox and Internet Explorer, you can disable auto-loading images by going to the Tools-Options area, and looking for the images options in the content tab.

The only time this will take you more time than it saves is when an insane font color, like pink or light blue, has been used, on the assumption that it would be viewed against a background color.

Options dialog in Firefox - Use to control image loading and Java preferences

Disable Javascript

You can disable Java in the same place on your browser that you disable the auto-loading of images. If you have ever spent three times as long as you should have to read a page because of one of those horrible jiggling advertisements that you have to click instantly to win a new house because you are the 100,000^th visitor, you will really appreciate this.

Some sites need Java, of course – and it only takes a few seconds to change your preferences and refresh the page.

Using tabs in Firefox and Internet Explorer

Surfing the web becomes much more efficient when you use tabs. They make the ‘Back’ button almost redundant. Instead of clicking directly on links, get into the habit of right-clicking links and choosing ‘Open in New Tab’. You can open several pages at once, which will load while you are deciding which others are worthy of your attention.

Bookmark Deep Links Instead of Front Pages

So many sites have annoying flash intros or old-fashioned entry screens. Don’t bookmark these for future reference – bookmark the link that you will actually need. If this changes, just bookmark a random page – it will save you sitting through slow-loading large images on a front page.

Using Offline Pages

This tip is great for those of you that are easily distracted on the internet … as well as the few of you out there that are still on dinosaur dial up. It is also good for those of you that need web resources to be available in an area with no web connection – like on trains, and isolated country areas. Save your frequently used pages (that aren’t often updated) for offline viewing. Under the File menu in your browser, click Save As – you can then choose to save it as a complete web page, or the HTML only (the gobbledegook only!).

The internet will look a whole lot different if you implement all of these suggestions. Soon enough, it should be unrecognizable as the beautiful distraction it once was … like a pretty girl or guy passing by your office window! But you’ll certainly have more time for the things that you really want to do.

Thanks to Charles Kelly for most of these ideas! And…

Hasta la vista, baby!