Slashdot Mirror

Since Firefox has started their crazy version numbering, I've given up on upgrading. I use 27 different addons and perfectly configured to make my web browser do what I want. It is near impossible to do an upgrade without spending hours reconfiguring the addons, some of which need to be manually downloaded and have their "MaxVersion" incremented so they will install. Maybe in 6 more months when we reach Firefox 50 I'll give it a try, but until then. Firefox 8 all the way!

Application: Firefox 8.0 (20111104165243)
Total number of items: 27

- Active Stop Button 1.4.10
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/active-stop-button/
- Adblock Plus 1.3.10
http://adblockplus.org/en/
- BetterPrivacy 1.68
http://nc.ddns.us/extensions.html
- ColorfulTabs 7.1
http://www.binaryturf.com/free-software/colorfultabs-for-firefox/
- Cookie Monster 1.1.0
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-monster/?src=api
- Copy Link Name 1.3.2
http://www.captaincaveman.nl/
- Download Statusbar 0.9.10
http://downloadstatusbarapp.com/
- DownloadHelper 4.9.14
http://www.downloadhelper.net/
- DownThemAll! 2.0.8
http://downthemall.net/
- Export Cookies 1.2
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/export-cookies/?src=api
- Find Toolbar Tweaks 3.0.0
http://homepage3.nifty.com/georgei/extension/ftt_en.html
- Firebug 1.8.4
http://www.getfirebug.com/
- Greasemonkey 0.9.13
http://www.greasespot.net/
- HeaderControlRevived 1.1
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/headercontrolrevived/?src=api
- Hide Caption Titlebar Plus 2.4.1
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/13505/
- Menu Editor 1.2.7
http://menueditor.mozdev.org/
- Movable Firefox Button 1.4
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/movable-firefox-button/
- NoScript 2.1.7
http://noscript.net/
- OptimizeGoogle 0.78.2
http://www.optimizegoogle.com/
- RequestPolicy 0.5.27
http://www.requestpolicy.com/
- Screen Capture Elite 2.0.0.23
http://www.grizzlyape.com/
- Searchbastard 1.5.5
http://searchbastard.rosell.dk/
- SkipScreen 0.6.1.2

Yeah, they are called eyeballs, expensive but by far the most effective anti-SEO method. SEO is only meant to align your site with people likely to search for it, any more than that and you end up doing nothing but pissing people off. When using google there is this http://www.optimizegoogle.com/ and when combined with stylish https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stylish/ , those crappy SEO sites disappear all together.

Now if google were less invasive and more polite and sought the output from OptimizeGoogle and all those annoying filtered website, it would go a long way to providing a far cheaper algorithmic method of clearing out SEO cheats.

Hopefully you didn't think your google clicks were anonymous before you discovered it recently ;) You can take a look at google web history to see just how much they've tracked. In theory you can turn it off, but there's no way of knowing how reliable/honest they are in doing so -- you only know that you can't see the history anymore yourself.

Hint, I use the following searches, Google, Ask, AOL, IMDB, Wiktionary, Wikipedia, Creative Commons and I don't bother with Bing because I feel I have searching pretty well covered without bothering (plus it avoid getting stuck in silverfish dead ends, as I haven't bothered to install it) I use the same search drop list on windows and on Linux.

So each search has it's place, most of the time I swap to the most appropriate search site for the information I am after sometimes I'll just which ever last one I used (Ask, Aol, Google, Wikipedia). Overall best performing for me is Wikipedia, more often than not the page that comes up has all the info I was after, AOL provides more compact results and, google as default only because of http://www.optimizegoogle.com/ in conjunction with stylish http://www.optimizegoogle.com/ because it lets me filter and a disappear search engine optimising arse holes (hmm, a black list of dead end search engine optimised sites in association with optimize google would be cool).

As for anti-trust a huge stretch especially in a country where it is legal for Fox not-News to regularly lie when presenting advertising as news but, then rumour has it justice is pretty much for sale to the highest bidder in Texas.

The only realistic complaint is if google falsely misrepresents the quality of the searches provided. As for stacking search results, that is what wiped out MSN (Live/Bing/???) searches massive lead over google in the first place, truly horrendous search results with paid for placement searches that had nothing to do with your search terms kept popping up as the first results. In the end the default when using MSN search was to start looking at results from page 3 on and not even bother to look at the first two pages of results (alta vista was no better at that stage and infoseek was screwed over by M$).

Hint, I use the following searches, Google, Ask, AOL, IMDB, Wiktionary, Wikipedia, Creative Commons and I don't bother with Bing because I feel I have searching pretty well covered without bothering (plus it avoid getting stuck in silverfish dead ends, as I haven't bothered to install it) I use the same search drop list on windows and on Linux.

So each search has it's place, most of the time I swap to the most appropriate search site for the information I am after sometimes I'll just which ever last one I used (Ask, Aol, Google, Wikipedia). Overall best performing for me is Wikipedia, more often than not the page that comes up has all the info I was after, AOL provides more compact results and, google as default only because of http://www.optimizegoogle.com/ in conjunction with stylish http://www.optimizegoogle.com/ because it lets me filter and a disappear search engine optimising arse holes (hmm, a black list of dead end search engine optimised sites in association with optimize google would be cool).

As for anti-trust a huge stretch especially in a country where it is legal for Fox not-News to regularly lie when presenting advertising as news but, then rumour has it justice is pretty much for sale to the highest bidder in Texas.

The only realistic complaint is if google falsely misrepresents the quality of the searches provided. As for stacking search results, that is what wiped out MSN (Live/Bing/???) searches massive lead over google in the first place, truly horrendous search results with paid for placement searches that had nothing to do with your search terms kept popping up as the first results. In the end the default when using MSN search was to start looking at results from page 3 on and not even bother to look at the first two pages of results (alta vista was no better at that stage and infoseek was screwed over by M$).

If only the Mozilla Foundation had the balls to include an ad blocker which dealt with Google Adwords

Something like http://www.optimizegoogle.com/ ?

Optimize Google. Sorted.

I have been using this extension for Firefox called Optimize Google. http://www.optimizegoogle.com/ It has the ability to disable click tracking and Google's ad services as well as a bunch of other features. Whether it works is up for debate. Personally I would not have used Scroogle since they can still track my usage and I don't really care if Google knows what I've been searching.

Wish there as an easy way to make google remember my minuses.

a plugin for firefox does that: OptimizeGoogle

(it was forked from the older CustomizeGoogle plugin because CG hadn't been updated for a few years)

i currently have scribd.com, swik.net, and experts-exchange.com in my filter list. IMO they're all worthless crap that turns up in google search results and make it HARDER for me to find what i'm looking for....they're noise drowning out the signal. AKA spam.

maybe now scribd won't be a completely worthless waste of space on google searches and i can reconfigure my firefox Optimize Google plugin to stop filtering out scribd.com search results.

Optimizegoogle
NOT
Customizegoogle

Same code base, except customizegoogle is no longer updated.

OptimizeGoogle for Firefox has a filter option to remove certain websites from results. I personally use it to remove experts-exchange and a few other sites.

OptimizeGoogle does this for Firefox, at least on a domain by domain basis. It would be nice if Google would do it. Another thing I've found useful is to minus out the spammy search terms (e.g. -"direct download" -"full version" -keygen).

Try Optimize Google instead. It's a far more actively maintained fork.

I should probably add http://www.optimizegoogle.com/ which is more relevant to everyday privacy than say TOR.

If you are a Noscript user, be SURE to un-whitelist google.com otherwise the "remove click tracking" won't work.
Do this for your mother, father, sister and granny too. Not only does the click tracking give away to google which link you picked, but it adds up to 1/2 a second to each click-through.

The OptimizeGoogle add-on for Firefox has, among many other useful features, a filter function that lets you remove unwanted websites from Google search results. I recommend it.

As for experts-exchange, I share your disgust. Their business model is an abomination. Sometimes, however, I find the solutions posted there by poor ignorant souls useful. As long as you block their cookies you can see all the answers without registering simply by jumping to the bottom of their pages. Use AdBlock to make sure they don't get any ad revenue from your page views. This way you benefit from them and help to accelerate their death at the same time. It's a clear win-win!