Optimizing Week, Day 4 – Wikipedia
First of all, Wikipedia is one of the best research utilities on the Web today. I use it all the time and I’m sure you do too! Well, today, I’ll be showing you how you can make this Web site even better. When you’re ready, let’s go!
History – If you’re often researching something on Wikipedia and browsing through several articles at once, wouldn’t it be nice if you could close out some of them, but still be able to go back to any one of them at any given time? If that sounds good, you’ve got to check this out, because that’s exactly what this Firefox extension does! It adds a little history box to Wikipedia, allowing you to see the last six articles you read. The link to install this extension can be found here.
Googlepedia – This next add on makes it so that whenever you search Google, a relevant Wikipedia article is displayed on the side as well. If you want to read more of the article, just click Expand or to hide it, click Hide. Also, clicking on the links in the articles will trigger a new Google search for you right then and there. Pretty useful, huh?! This extension is an invaluable research tool. The link to install this one can be found here.
GWikii – Sometimes when you search on Wikipedia, no relevant articles will appear. Most people would then search Google, but this simple script makes all of that just one step easier. How? Well, by placing a Google link right there for you. The link to install this script can be found here.
Inline Article Viewer – Wikipedia articles are filled with links to other articles, but it would take hours to quickly read over all of those items. So, this Greasemonkey script is here to make your life so much easier! It does so by adding a little icon next to each link. By clicking on that icon, a little pop up box will appear, enabling you to skim through the article. You can then choose to close out the pop up box or go to the full article. The link to install this script can be found here.
Presentation – Sometimes when you click on an article, it can be way too long and that can make it very difficult to read. Well, this Greasemonkey script turns a normal article into a presentation. It presents one heading at a time and in large fonts. Also, by pressing the arrow keys, you can make the slides go forward and backward. I’m know you’ll just love this one! The link to install this script can be found here.
LookItUp 2 – I’ve mentioned this Greasemonkey script as my favorite before, but I have to tell you about it again, because there’s a brand new version! Here’s what you do. Install this script, highlight any word and hit the W key on your keyboard. The Wikipedia article for that word or phrase will then open on the side panel. Cool, huh?! Not only does this script work for Wikipedia, but you can also press other keys, such as D for dictionary, etc. Along with that, the new version of LookItUp features tabs that allow you to easily switch between the Web sites you want to search on. There’s many more features to this Greasemonkey script as well and you can experiment with them yourself. Just give this script a spin! The link to install this script can be found here.
There you have it. Tomorrow, we will finish up Optimizing Week by covering two shopping giants: Ebay and Amazon. So, stay tuned and as always, have fun!
~ Neil Patel