Seconding the person who gave you semagic -- it's invaluable, I don't know how I lived without it -- firefox, and del.ic.ious. The last two are godsends, and there are plenty of neat tricks you can do to combine both. Lemme know if you're having issues, if you use them, and if I can't help you, there are probably tons who can :)

Friending ... *sigh*. There's always debate over the term 'friending' because while I am and can be friends with plenty of my flist (pronounced similarly to 'flick', tm crazydiamondsue) there are lots that I'm simply reading cause they're interesting or post good fic, whatever. There's no interaction, or if there is, it's limited to the point where we are being friendly, but we're certainly not friends. It's annoying.

Filters are really useful for some people, although I can't take it -- I'm horrible with things like that, I either read what's in front of me, or I don't read it at all -- but I know a whole lot of people who use them effectively. Particularly those who friendlock -- I think yin_again does, if you want to chat with her about it. Locking really is arbitrary -- I'll lock things I don't want the whole world to know from me being grumpy and therefore inflicting it on only a few people, or stuff about my personal life that could get my introuble if lots of people knew about it. I know others who are more rigerous, too. It's a crap-shoot :)