🌎 Update on the Subject Specific Browser

Since I made comment about Subject Specific Browsers, I’ve made half a dozen I use daily. I have a browser for:

• Amazon and Woot
• Multiple Wiki sites
• YouTube
• QA and automation sites (Katalon, Stackoverflow, Tutorialspoint)
• Blogging
• Godville
• Online Wiki’s for games
• Streaming

And the more I make them, the more I find uses for them. I recently added the Blogging and Wiki browsers to the toolkit. When the WordPress app flaked out on me, using a dedicated browser was a simple solution.

Wikipedia is a daily visit, so to try out it’s features, I set it up using Webcatalog. This creates a more app-like feel. I have multiple “accounts” in the browser, then added that to a Space. I’m not entirely sold on the concept yet, but I like the way it’s working. If I find a couple more uses, I’ll add it to the toolbox. Webcatalog is a more application feel, versus full browser experience. By default the address bar, tabs, and navigation buttons aren’t displayed. It doesn’t support bookmarks either.

Using Keyboard Maestro, setting up and maintaining a modified browser is a piece of cake. Whenever Waterfox updates, my custom files copy back over. It’s the icon and the modified plist file. I launch a shell script from a keyword.

Webcatalog doesn’t have the issue as it creates maintains those files. Still, it’s a simple command.

So, why set up browsers in this way?

It’s silos the browser and slows down the company spying. Sure, YouTube knows everything I’m watching, and so does Amazon, but they don’t know about each other.

Amazon can track what I look at, that’s the way it goes, but they aren’t getting out of their walled garden. What happens on Amazon stays on Amazon.

This also creates a more focused browsing experience. When I’m doing automation, I want to focus on code. I don’t want to be drawn away to other tabs. I really can’t, since I only have two or three open anyway.

I can also tailor my browsing experience. I can add and remove plugins as needed. I want this tool to help with this process, but I don’t need it in other places. It makes for a cleaner toolbar and faster browsing.

With my process in place, creating a new browser only takes the time for Waterfox to install. If using Webcatalog, it’s even shorter. Either way, it’s now my preferred method of working online.