While the default browser for Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8 may not be the best of the browsers, it is still equipped with a number of interesting features. One of the key features of Internet Explorer is the presence of Accelerators. While the traditional method of performing online tasks such as mapping an address, emailing, blogging, social networking or translating a word can be a time consuming and tedious tasks, Accelerators provide a short cut to your day to day functions. You no longer need to navigate to other websites for routine activities. In fact there is no dearth of activities that you can speed up using this tool.

For example if you need to map an address found on a web page using this tool, you simply need to select the address and click on the blue Accelerator icon displayed next to your selection. Select the option “Map with Live Search” as your default accelerator for mapping addresses. So with a single click of the accelerator icon you can have your address mapped. Although this tool is not made available for Google maps, you can add your Yahoo local search to the list of Accelerators.

While mapping addresses is one of the tasks that can be performed easily with Accelerators, it is certainly not the only one. In fact you can add a whole lot of tasks to be accelerated with a single click. To include Accelerators, select “Tools” and click on Manage Add-ons. Select the Accelerators tab and then right click on All Accelerators. Select Manage Accelerators to change the default Accelerator and add new ones by opting for the “Find More Accelerators” option. Visit the Internet Explorer Gallery to customize the browser with a lot more Accelerators from sites such as eBay, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, Facebook, and others. Similar to Add-ons like Toolbars and Extensions or In-Private Filtering Accelerators can be easily managed.