How to make Google search results safe forever

Make Google search safe forever

Do you dread "inappropriate" content in your Google search results? For example, a kid searched for pussy, expecting to see some cute kittens (four-legged). But Google would return results quite inappropriate for a kid expecting to see cute cats.

If you wish to avoid such a circumstance, you can turn the "Safe Search" option for Google by ging to the Preferences page in Google and choose appropriate options and save. But this option relies on cookies. So whenever the browser's private data is cleaned, you are back to square one. Can't we delete all cookies other than the Google Preferences permanent? Yes we can. There are a few add-on for Firefox Web browser that allow you to manage cookies. Use cookie managers to delete other cookies without harming Google Preferences cookie.

  1. Install CookieCuller Firefox add-on
  2. Open Google preferences page, select appropriate options and save
  3. If you use Google.com as well as other local Google, you will have to save preferences for all Google search sites
  4. Now open CookieCuller. It should be present under the Tools menu
  5. Look for a cookie by google.com or by the local Google search address with cookie name "PREF". This is the cookie which contains your Google search preferences.
  6. Select this cookie and click on "Protect"

Manage cookies in Firefox

Now whenever you need to delete cookies, go to CookieCuller and delete the desired cookies.
The cookie will stay in your browser till you use CookieCuller to delete other cookies. If you choose the browser's option to delete all cookies, the protected cookie will also get deleted. So always use CookieCuller to delete all other cookies, while keeping Google Preferences cookie.

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How to hide your Web adventures?

Anonymous web browsing

Want to hide your visits to some selected sites? Yeah, most of us have some secret adventures on the Web that we don't want to reveal to others. Not necessarily adult content, maybe any blog or site that others might make fun of you if they know or a private journal online.

History Block Firefox add-on allows users to create a list of URL that will not be logged in the browser's records--history tab, recently closed tab and download manager. If I have opted to keep Google out of browser's memory (Google is innocuous? Really),whenever I search for something on Google, it won't be recorded by the browser, though other sites that I visit after clicking on search results will be logged in. However, History Block may divulge the secret by letting others see the cookies saved during your adventure trip.

If you wan't a complete secrecy of your Web browsing, try Stealther firefox add-on. It adds a stealth mode to the Web browser, quite similar to that availabel in Google Chrome. Turn on stealth mode, and jump from on site to another without worrying about someone getting to know what sites you visited.

To make change to Stealther settings, go to Tools->Add-ons->Extensions and click on "Preferences" tab next to Stealther. To turn on Stealther, use the short-key or go to "Tools" menu and select Stealther option. You can also get Stealther in status bar.

Blu: clean Wordpress theme with support for ads

Blu wordpress theme, minimal, adsense-ready, SEO-ready, customizable
Click to enlarge the image.

Blu is a free Wordpress theme (being released by Nyutech under GNU public licence, without any need for attribution) designed with focus on simplicity. It is a minimal Wordpress theme which come loaded with lots of features. This two-column Wordpress theme has a lot of white space giving a sense of expanse to the blog.

Blu homepage

The homepage uses just texts to list blog posts, no thumbnails. This helps in avoiding clutter. The homepage will show posts excerpts if available, else it will show the complete post, of course, breaking at "more" tag.

Sidebar

On the right, there is a sidebar which includes a box showing featured posts. This can be enabled or disable through Blu Options page under the "Appearance" tab in the Wordpress admin area. The sidebar also has a customizable "About Me" box, which can also be turned on or off from Blu Options page.


The sidebar has been created to allow easy integration of ads. If you wish to add some code for showing ads, say, Adsense, you can go to Appearance->Widget and paste the code in a text widget in the sidebars prepared specifically for ads. There are five ad widgets that allow placement of ads on desired places.

Adsense-ready

Apart from pasting ad in sidebar, the theme allows you to show ads in posts pages as well. The Blu Options page has textareas where ad codes can be pasted for ads to be shown under the title of the post and alos at the end of the post. If the blogger wants t hide ads on certain pages while showing it on all other pages, this can be easily done by checking appropriate boxes in the write panel of Wordpress. It's also possible to turn off just one of the two ads on posts pages.

Customizable footer

It's your blog, so footer should also be your. Blu allows you to set your own text and links in the footer. Just go to the blu Options page to customize footer.

Featured Posts

As mentioned earlier, the theme has a provision to show featured posts. Any post can be set as a featured posts from the writing panel. The blogger needs to select a checkbox and insert the URL of the image to be used as thumbnail. The theme accepts only those images that are uploaded on the local Wordpress blog. So first upload an image in the post, create an excerpt for the post and then click on the image to open image settings. Now go to the advanced option page and copy the URL of the image. Now this URL has to be pasted in the space for URL of the image to be used as thumbnail.

Better navigation

The theme uses a modified WP Pagenavi plugin for creating an elegant looking page navigation. It makes the blog look a lot better without the default page navigation that provides very limited navigation.

Blu wordpress theme, minimal, adsense ready

Reading room

At the end of every post in a post page, there is a box that lists the headlines of the previous and next posts. More the options available to the reader, more the chances of his staying longer on the blog.

Search engine optimized

The theme has been prepared considering optimization for search engines. Every blog needs to make use of the ethical practices of search-engine optimization. Even search engines recommend following those rules. This theme also adheres to those basics for a better visibility on the Web.

Blu is being released under GNU public licence without the need for any attribution or linking. Just have fun with Blu. Use it any ways. Just enjoy.

Demo of Blu Wordpress theme (sadly, without featured post box)
Download Blu Wordpress theme

Install Firefox 3.5 in Ubuntu, the easy way



Do you want to install the latest version of Firefox 3.5 on your Ubuntu system? Of course, you want to see how the video and audio tags function. If you don't want to see an error message on visiting The Pirates Bay's new video-sharing site, The Video Bay, you will need a browser that supports video and audio tags.

Ubuntu's official update will include Firefox 3.5 only after some time. You can download and install it manually using a few Terminal commands. Just copy-paste (Ctrl+Shift+V) them in the Terminal.

1. Go to Applications-> Accessories->Terminal.
2. Backup your profile to save all your customizations for use with the new Firefox version.

This will save your current Firefox profile the firefox_backup directory in Home Folder.

What does this command do?

"cp" is the Terminal command to make a copy of a file or folder. To make a copy of a file called FILENAMEand save it as NEWNAME, the command will be:


If you want to copy a directory, you need to use:



3. Now, download and install Firefox 3.5 using the wget command.

This will create a folder called firefox in you Home Folder.

4. Go to Home Folder-> Firefox folder and look for a file called firefox. Double-click it to run Firefox 3.5. Before doing this, close your existing Firefox. The new Firefox will get updated according to your user profile.

But there is a problem. If you click in the menubar entry for Firefox, it will start your older version of the browser. We need to tell it to start the new version.

5. Go to System->Preferences->Main Menu. Find Firefox Web Browser and highlight it. Click on "Properties" tab on the side. Now set the "Command" option to new Firefox by browsing to your Home Folder (the folder with your username), then to the firefox folder and then select the firefox folder. Now, whenever you will click on the Firefox menu, it will start Firefox 3.5, not the older version. If you have Firefox launcher icons in the panels, right-click on the icon and select properties. Now set the command to the latest Firefox as before.

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