Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn - you name it, I've got a toolbar for it. Come join in the fun!

I'm a bit of an old curmudgeon when it comes to newfangled web applications. Yes, I know it's my job to know about what the cool crowd are doing online (ie "the geeks"), but I'm a reader - I like reading stuff - I want to sit in front of my screen and be entertained by witty bloggers writing funny stuff about funny things. I don't want to spend my days logging into 400 different user accounts to broadcast one-sentence status updates to a group of strangers, or signing in to a social bookmarking site so I can spend five minutes adding a new bookmark.

Which is where my love for toolbars began... (stay with me people - this is useful stuff, honest!)

See after the turn for the toolbars that are making my life a happy one (and give me your suggestions for more lovely toolbars I can add!)

OK, first things first, in order to make this recipe you will need:

1 Firefox Browser (you can use Explorer if you really must, but it may end up all a bit half-baked)
1 Copy of Outlook (2003 or later)
1 Firefox Theme - this is purely decorative, but if you pick a compact theme, you will be able to squeeze more stuff in without creating a mess
Assorted online user accounts
A rainy Tuesday afternoon when you can't be bothered to do any more work

Once you've got all that, you will need to decide which sites you use most frequently and which ones you'd use more if they weren't so fiddly to access. The things I use are: Wists, Digg, Stumble Upon, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Delicious. I'm also experimenting with CoComment, but it's early days there.

Now it's time to get them all so that you can work with them as quickly as possible.

Facebook

I love the Facebook Toolbar for Firefox. This adds a new row to your toolbars, allowing you to update your status, see how many new annoying app invites you've been sent, and share weblinks without having to visit the site. It also flashes up all your friends' status updates as they happen, or you can open a status update sidebar and read them all in one go.

It's customisable, so you can switch off alerts to suit your needs. Totally addictive, yet somehow time saving as well. [Add Facebook Toolbar!]

Twitter

Twitter was, for a long time, something that I just couldn't get excited about. I simply cannot be bothered to sit and text from my phone, or login to a site in order to tell people what I'm doing. However, download OutTwit and not only can you read people's Twitter updates in your Outlook inbox, you can also update your own Twitter account by simply filling in the Twitter box.

Brilliant - although now I'm addicted. [Add OutTwit Toolbar!]

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great resource for anyone who wants to do a spot of networking without having to change out of her pyjamas. Download the LinkedIn Toolbar for Outlook and it suddenly becomes a whole lot more useful. Not only can you search for LinkedIn users who have emailed you recently, you can also create new contacts by highlighting their email signatures and hitting the "grab" button. [Download LinkedIn Toolbar!]

Delicious

The Delicious Bookmarks Toolbar is a great way to keep track of your bookmarks on multiple computers. Susi swears by the Google Bookmarks facility, but I think Google already knows more than enough about me.

You can add thing to Delicious by pressing the Tag button, and view all your bookmarks along the Delicious Toolbar, or open up a sidebar. . I use Delicious a *lot* more now that I can actually access it easily. (Note: this is better than the standard Delicious button) [Download Delicious Toolbar!]

Digg

The Digg This! Toolbar makes adding stories to Digg a bit simpler, but I still think Digg is way too clunky to use regularly. [Download Digg This! Toolbar]

StumbleUpon

If you don't have this, download it here. It's a great way to find new sites that will interest you when you're bored.

Wists

Wists is easy - you just need to add the "Add to Wists" button by dragging it onto your Firefox Toolbar. It can be hard to find though, so I've added it in for your convenience because I'm right nice [Download Wists Button!]

CoComment

This lets you track all the comments you leave littered about the web in one place. You can re-read your witty comments, and check out what witty things people have said in reply. All from one central page. Handy! It's still pretty tricky to use, though. But give it a try and let me know what you think. [Download CoComment Toolbar!]

Bake in the oven for a day or two and you'll suddenly find all that data you're digesting leaves you feeling a whole lot less bloated and fretful.

That's all!

Katie Lee is Shiny Media's head geek and is feeling a bit like the all-knowing Wizard of Oz thanks to all these clever buttons and bars she's controlling.

PS. I *LOVE* Toolbars - did you catch that yet? Please please please, tell me what lovely toolbars you use and why they will make my life easier. Leave me a nice comment - I'm tracking them in CoComment!