➟ Personalization:Browsers offer different levels of cus-
tomization for the browser appearance, such as color
schemes, themes that include graphic symbols, style
and size of font choices, backgrounds, and so on.
Many users never personalize their browsers; others
swear by it.➟ Tools:Download managers make downloading files
easier. Viewing tools make it easy to zoom in and out
or show the browser in full screen (making toolbars
disappear and filling your screen with the browser).
Tabs allow you to have several sites open at one time
and use tabs to move among them. Thumbnails pro-
vide visual access to your most visited sites.Identify Secure and Trusted Web Sites
You’re much safer online if you go to only those sites with good reputa-
tions. These may be sites of companies you already know and trust, or
sites that your browser or a third-party program indicates is trustworthy.There are several tools to help you identify trusted Web sites:➟ Check before you click.All the major browsers we
mention in the preceding section provide a feature
that advises you on the trustworthiness of Web sites.
Products such as McAfee SiteAdvisor (see Figure 4-3)
do this as well. These are fabulous tools that let you
know, before you click a search result, if the Web site
is likely to be dangerous and might download mal-
ware or spam. Such tools place a rating next to sites
returned in a search to indicate how safe they are to
visit. We strongly urge you to use this functionality: It
will save you a great deal of grief.67