2 How to do it
2.5 Bookmarking websites
Most browsers allow you to keep a record of links to websites that you have found useful. These are called ‘Bookmarks’ in Firefox and ‘Favorites’ in Internet Explorer, and may have other names, such as a ‘Hot List’, in other browsers. For convenience I've chosen to call them bookmarks. Browsers usually offer the facility for organising the bookmarks into folders and sub-folders so that you can keep track of them as your collection grows.
You may well have a collection of bookmarks already. If not, try the activity below to collect some.
Activity 14
Use Google to find three websites that you would find useful. When you visit a site that you think you will find useful, create a bookmark in your browser using the drop-down menu. This will enable you to easily find the site again.
Comment
For instance, three sites that I regularly use are:
- Virgin trains – to book my tickets from Manchester to Milton Keynes;
- Jobs.ac.uk – for keeping my eye on the jobs market;
- BBC weather page.
2.5.1 Organising bookmarks
As you collect bookmarks in your trips around the Web you are likely to find that the list gets very long. Sometimes you may not be able to remember what a particular bookmark refers to, because its title isn't sufficiently informative. To make the use of bookmarks easier, most browsers offer some facilities for organising them. The commands you need will probably be on a Bookmarks or Favorites menu.
You can create folders to group your bookmarks, creating a hierarchy of folders within folders if necessary, just like the filing system on your hard disk. If the name of the bookmark is not clear, you can change it to something more informative.
Activity 15
Open your browser's list of bookmarks, and create a new folder called ‘Useful sites’. Put the three bookmarks you collected earlier into the folder.
Comment
To give you an example, I have organised my bookmarks into the following folders:
- Cinemas
- Theatres
- Travel
- Shopping
2.5.2 History
What do you do when you realise that you forgot to bookmark that really useful page and now can't remember its URL?
You may be able to find it again using the ‘History’ feature of your browser. This will list all the sites and pages you've visited recently and you may be able to retrace your steps using it.