Sure, your Web browser is your window to the Internet. But to really improve the view, you need browser add-ons.

From tab management to media-player control, browser add-ons enhance the way you experience the Web. Here are a few to dress up Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox.x 

STUMBLEUPON

(Explorer and Firefox; stumbleupon.com) Want to channel-surf the Web for stuff you'd actually like? With StumbleUpon, you'll discover Web sites matched to your interests. It's like controlled chaos, planned randomness, jumbo shrimp. Dig it.

CLIPMARKS

(Explorer and Firefox; clipmarks.com) Rather than bookmark a Web page and spend forever scrolling it for that one little item, Clipmarks lets you clip and save just the bits you want: text, photos, whatever. You can also see others' clips, embed clips into your blog and e-mail clips to others.x 

FOXYTUNES

(Explorer and Firefox; foxytunes.com) For those who like to browse with a beat, FoxyTunes controls iTunes and other media players straight from the browser. It also offers album art and info, as well as artist bios, lyrics and videos.

COLORFULTABS

(Firefox, addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1368) Firefox and Explorer have tabbed browsing, which lets you open several Web pages in one browser window and flip between them via tabs. But too many tabs gets confusing. That's where ColorfulTabs comes in. This add-on gives a different color to every x  Firefox tab to help differentiate all the data.

IE OPEN LAST CLOSED TAB

(Explorer, muvextoe.com) Here's a tab-ulous add-on for Explorer. Say you accidentally close one of your tabs. With IE Open Last Closed Tab, just hit “Alt-X” and the tab returns. “Alt-Q” gives a thumbnail view of closed tabs you can reopen.

René A. Guzman | 210SA contributor