With your browser, you will only be able to perform GET requests on a specific API. The good tools will make your developments much simpler. There are lots of tools to test a RESTful API. I will just list the one I use and love.
Often, you will just test the GET method and your first reflex will be to copy the address into your browser to check the result. In that case, you have the possibility to get more than plain text with extensions such as JSON Formatter for Chrome or JSONView for Firefox.
The browser is the natural tool for dealing with HTTP requests. However, using the address bar will rarely allow you to test your API in detail.
Postman is an extension for Chrome, and RESTClient is its Firefox counterpart. They both have similar features, such as creating and sharing collections of queries, modification of the headers, and handling authentication (basic, digest, and OAuth). At the time of writing, only...