Category Archives: Google

Readable GMail svn diffs

Reply

If you have to read SVN diffs in GMail then the display is as ugly as it gets. So you then find and use the SVN Colorizer but that still leaves the print you really need to read in GMail’s default stupidly small:
GMail idiocy

So take that original script – it’s in ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions/some-random-sequence/1.0_0/script.js and alter line 14. Mine now says

var css = "ins { background-color: #cfc; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;}\n\n  del { background-color: #fcc; font-size: 14px;}";

and I can now read what I need to faster.

Google propaganda

Reply

Google’s mission is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Company Link

Google has expanded its search blacklist to include many of the top file-sharing sites on the Internet, including The Pirate Bay. The changes were quietly processed and appear to be broader than previous additions. Google’s blacklist prevents the names of sites appearing in their Instant and Autocomplete search services, while the pages themselves remain indexed. TorrentFreak

Google knows best though. Oh yes.

Reply

So Google stops you seeing their stuff but they’ll suck up every damn thing you ever put on the net – or someone puts about you – and they’ll never ever delete it. But hey, it’s Google and we all love them to fuzzy little bits don’t we.

Google-

3

I’m slowly changing details from my now unused gmail account to my live.com email. I have deleted all feeds in Google Reader and am now using Fever – I’ve had this for ages and determined this time to get the most from my purchase. My Youtube lists are deleted. My default search engine in Firefox is Bing. I have no financial details in Google Checkout. Google Chrome is here but unused with the preferred 3rd browser being Opera or Stainless. While I cannot remove history because they won’t have deleted my details for real, they just hide it what I can do is not give them more information. Oh – and the Google+ thing? I have no intention of posting there. I am days away from my facebook account being removed, I have stopped tweeting – why write on twitter and facebook and circles when I have a perfectly decent blog here? After all if I do use those 3 services what else can I put here? Here is mine and while it is of little value it’s about time I rediscovered writing.

Reply

Well I do sometimes if absolutely necessary…but not that far.

Google getting evil

2

Google:

“Using a pseudonym has been one of the great benefits of the internet, because it has enabled people to express themselves freely – they may be in physical danger, looking for help, or have a condition they don’t want people to know about,” she wrote in February on Google’s public policy blog.

“People in these circumstances may need a consistent identity, but one that is not linked to their offline self. You can use pseudonyms to upload videos in YouTube or post to Blogger.”

The Register

From 31 July, people who have created private profiles in, say, the ad broker’s free email service Gmail will be deleted by Google unless individuals switch it to public view.

It’s no longer possible for individuals to simply log on to YouTube with an anonymous username.

and they still are not open about what they do with all your data. Why in hell do people not see Google as being part of the problem? And you did see that it’s the email privacy that will get you nuked?

A worse Search

1

“The real hypocrisy here is that Google has started attacking vertical search services by suggesting that this perfectly legitimate form of copying is somehow illegitimate for all vertical search services other than its own.”The Register

The Register
After the huge amount of investigations that Microsoft went through and that I continue to hope that Apple have to experience (unbundle Safari? iTunes? Would OS X even work?) I really really would like Google to be sliced and diced repeatedly in the EU. I honestly do not believe Google is any part of the solution for the internet which therefore makes it part of the problem.

A little better Search

1

Google’s search is polluted and it’s really annoying. It’s annoyed me before and I made a big long list of the crap sites but lost it. Over the last couple of days I’ve started it again.
I find these to be spammy, junk and a waste of time looking at let alone visiting:
-wikihow.com
-twenga.co.uk
-squidoo.com
-shopzilla.co.uk
-shopwiki.co.uk
-shopping.com
-pricerunner.co.uk
-priceinspector.co.uk
-pixmania.co.uk
-nextag.com
-mahalo.com
-kelkoo.co.uk
-hubpages.com
-hotukdeals.com
-fixya.com
-findarticles.com
-ezinearticles.com
-ehow.com
-dealtime.co.uk
-buzzle.com
-bidbroo.com
-articlesbase.com
-answers.yahoo.com
-answers.com
and I don’t want to see them in any search results ever for anything. YMMV. But it’s a PITA to enter those before searching. Firefox has the answer though. (Chrome might, didn’t look).

From the search dropdown in the top right choose to add another search engine. I chose Google-UK. Then (on a mac), go to /Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/searchplugins and open up that new xml file. (It’s somewhere here depending on Windows version). Near the bottom it has this:

1

<os:url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={searchTerms}&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&meta=cr%3DcountryUK|countryGB"></os:url>

and what you need to do (after making that list above into one long line and keeping those minus symbols) is put a + after {searchTerms} then paste the line. In the end it looks like this (slide to compare):

1

<os:url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={searchTerms}+-ehow.com -wikihow.com -ezinearticles.com -articlesbase.com -shopwiki.co.uk -hubpages.com -squidoo.com -shopzilla.co.uk -twenga.co.uk -kelkoo.co.uk -pricerunner.co.uk -pixmania.co.uk -nextag.com -answers.yahoo.com -priceinspector.co.uk -dealtime.co.uk -shopping.com -findarticles.com -answers.com -fixya.com -mahalo.com -buzzle.com -hotukdeals.com -bidbroo.com -.info -.biz -.cn -.co.cc -affiliate&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&meta=cr%3DcountryUK|countryGB"></os:url>

and now when you search using that engine in your browser you will avoid all the crap. But no, it’s not that easy.

Google limit searches to 32 words and if you use all that then depending on the number of words you input too you will see:

“nextag” (and any subsequent words) was ignored because we limit queries to 32 words.

This makes it slightly more difficult because although I never want to go to answers.com I would like to see someone’s post about the answers to my problem. So I edited mine down:

1

<os:url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={searchTerms}+-ehow -wikihow -ezinearticles -articlesbase -shopwiki -hubpages -squidoo -shopzilla -twenga -kelkoo -pricerunner -pixmania -nextag -priceinspector -dealtime -findarticles -fixya -mahalo -buzzle -hotukdeals -bidbroo -.info -.biz -.cn -.co.cc -affiliatee&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&meta=cr%3DcountryUK|countryGB"></os:url>

Still, the results when I’m after reviews or purchases are much better.