Here’s a confession. I am a selfish consumer. Instead of sticking to one brand, I like to try out what different products offer and then decide what suits my needs best. Often, it’s a combination of products by different companies. I use a variety of Apple, Android, and Windows products; things have improved a lot on the compatibility front so it has become much easier to juggle between different devices and operating systems.
Here’s an example. The other day, I connected a Dell mouse to Macbook just for fun. I was pretty sure I would have to install something or at least change some setting to make it work. But nothing happened. At first, I thought that the mouse was not working so I lifted it but the red laser light was on. And as I was putting down the mouse, the cursor on screen moved! It was working and I did not have to do anything to make it work!! Imagine connecting a Dell mouse to an iMac in the early 2000s. It would have a required a computer wizard to make it work. This is how far we have come in terms of compatibility. It’s incredible!
Opting for one or other operating system or device requires longer commitment but there is one area where one can readily try out different products no matter what device you are using – browsers. All major browsers are now available on all major platforms and it has become easier than ever to try them out. I regularly try out every browser available from Brave and Opera to Arc and Vivaldi. What I have come to realise through trial and error is that a combination of browsers works best for me, each one for a specific type of browsing activity. What follows is my experience with the browsers that I regularly use. Please note that this is not a systematic review of browsers. The features I describe in one browser may also be present in others. Also, this is a highly personalized way of using browsers, that may or may not resonate with you depending on your requirements. Moreover, I am only writing about the desktop experience. Mobile browsers are a different ballgame altogether.
Google Chrome
Whenever I have a problem with a website not opening or loading slowly, I open it in Chrome. In my experience Chrome always solves the problem if it’s solvable. I also use Chrome for a range of Google products ranging from Google Search Console and Google Drive to Gmail and Google Keep. The Google ecosystem along with Chrome works great both on laptops and on Android. If you own a website, various Google products like Site Kit or Google Search Console are indispensible. I like to use Google account on Chrome. Similarly, I use Outlook account for Edge and other Microsoft products.
Bye Bye Bookmarks menu?
For over 10 years, I diligently saved bookmarks in every browser and exported them whenever I changed devices. One day, I looked at the list and realized that I had not visited those websites in years. In Chrome for instance, the websites I use regularly are either on shortcuts or in toolbar directly beneath the address bar, readily accessible. I never open the bookmarks menu and scroll down to reach a website. So do I really need the bookmarks menu?
If it’s a blog, I read it through RSS feed. Or I may set up a Google Alert for the page. If it’s a website that changes its content everyday, I prefer to go to the website. Pro tip: Never subscribe to a website that posts lots of new content everyday. Miss a couple of days and you come back to (247+) unread posts.
There are websites – some of them news websites but others are research websites like the American Physical Society website that I visit almost everyday. I don’t want to do this by opening the bookmarks menu, scrolling down and clicking. That is too much work if you have to do it everyday. I want to access these websites in a single click. The solution was shortcuts. Opera has a great scheme calld Speed Dial where all shortcuts are right there on the front page. However, you can’t sync these so Opera could not be used. Chrome and Firefox were two options. Chrome needed a seperate extension to increase the number of shortcuts while Firefox required a simple hack in about:config. (Change the value of browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.topSiteRows to the desired value of rows you want. I have set it at 8.)
I had another peculiar requirement. I wanted the colour of visited links different than that of unvisited links. When you are browsing issues of research journals, this is a must to keep track of your progress. What finally made Firefox my ‘reading browser’ was a small add-on called visited link enabler that changes the colour of visited links. Not only that, it also preserves it across sync and devices, even if you clear browsing history. The vast ecosystem of add-ons is one of the great benefits of using Firefox.
Microsoft Edge
Recently I became interested in topological insulators. These are materials whose interiors are insulators while on surface they behave as perfect conductors. The reason behind this strange behavior lies in a famously difficult branch of mathematics called topology. Topologically speaking, a coffee cup and a donut are same because both have a hole but they are both different from a cupcake that has no hole. Don’t ask me how, I am still learning.
While researching this topic, I used Collections in Edge. You can store all kinds of stuff in Collections – webpages, images, links. First, I asked ChatGPT some basic questions about topological insulators and stored the conversation in a Collection. Great thing is if I continue this conversation, it will be added automatically to the Collection.
Next I found some explanatory vidoes to add to the Collection. As I research the topic, the Collection will keep growing.
Ever since Evernote put a cap on maximum number of notes (50) in the free version, I have been looking for an alternative. I found that you can also add short notes in Collections. While this cannot be an alternative for a note taking app, it will serve very well as preliminary version of notes before I transfer the final version to the app.
One of the most valuable piece of real estate in the virtual world is space on browser front page. Edge has made great use of a small strip on the right – a sidebar – where you can store shortcuts to websites, a toolbox that contains calculator, dictionary etc. When clicked these first open in the sidepane with an option to open on full screen. Similarly, a website open in full screen also has an option to open in side pane.
Another great feature of the sidepane is search. You can set Google as your default engine here. So when you search a query in Bing in main screen, you can also compare the results with Google search in the side pane. This is a win-win for users.
Browsers today have become much more than just tools used to surf the internet. Our needs differ not just because of our requirements but also because we, as individuals, also change over time. Irrespective of the company, there are many incredibly smart and creative people working on these browsers. The onus is on us to make full use of these tools to enhance our own creativity and productivity.
As a coda, I love photography and I love nature. Naturally, I love nature wallpapers. But I don’t want to search or select the wallpapers and I don’t want to be bothered with any settings. (Just show me some nice images.) So I was really happy with the option in Windows 11 where your screen shows beautiful wallpapers all day long without you having to lift a finger. (Personalization > Background > Windows spotlight).
I mean who wouldn’t want to see scenes like this one all day long?
About the title
Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland is one of the books in a series of popular science books written by Soviet and American polymath, theoretical physicist, and cosmologist George Gamow. Much like Alice wondering off in Wonderland, Mr. Tompkins goes off to farway places to uncover secrets of quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear physics, or cosmology. A delightful read for experts as well as non-experts. A great idea as a gift for children.
For a great introduction to topological insulators, here’s a video by Prof. Charles Kane. This is one of the most lucid introductions to the topic that I have come across. Knowledge of undergrad level physics is required.
