If you use Mozilla Firefox you may want to check out some of these Add-Ons:
AdBlock Plus - Keep distracting ads to a minimum.
Featured - Useful choices from Mozilla to help your productivity.
Personas - colorful browswer backgrounds always make research a little bit more fun.
Advanced Google - limit searches by domain (such as .gov or .edu), file type, exact phrases, and more.
BugMeNot - when you need to register for a site but don't want to.
Other Search Engines - Google isn't always the answer. . .
Wayback Machine - cached older versions of webpages.
If you need more detail, try looking at some of these books in the library's print collection.