Cyprus-Forum.com

[andytandreou]

We all know that Google is the best search engine already! The other search engines just follow in Google's footsteps! There are few things you can do to make Google better and a lot more personalized!


Step One: Add preview images next to Google results. (Firefox only)

This add-on installs on your browser and will enhance the Google results page by adding small icons next to each result. See an example here, when I searched for "Cyprus".

- Go to the Firefox extension page and download the add-on called "Better Search 1.9". The add-on is 28Kb so it will take 1-2 seconds to download even with a 56K connection. Click here to go to the "Better Search 1.9" download page, click "Install" then simply restart Firefox. Perform a search and see the difference!


Step Two: Google Personal Homepage. (All Browsers )

This step is only available to people with a "Google Account". Getting one is easy and it allows you to Personalize the Google Homepage with your Bookmarks, News, RSS feeds, How Two? Guides, Question of the day, Famous Quotes and much more! See an example here of my homepage.

- Go to www.google.com and click on the "Sign-In" on the top-right hand corner of the page which will take you here. Create a "Google Account" and sign in to your "Personalized Homepage". In order to see your homepage when you start your browser set the following link as your homepage www.google.com/ig

- To set www.google.com/ig as your homepage click on Tools > Options and you are there.

- Now that you have a Google Account and a Personalized Homepage you can start to add features to your homepage like RSS feeds from sites like chatCyprus. You can also add Quote of the Day, Your gmail account, News and more! Click here to see a screenshot!



Step Three: Personalize your Search results (All Browsers)

This feature, (when activated) gives Google the ability to personalize your search results according to your search history! If for example you search for "chocolate" or "sweets" and one day you happen to search for "Cadburys", Google will know that you are looking for the company which makes chocolates and not the cadbury train in Northern Argentina! This feature is especially important as Cyprus is small and its websites tend to be crowded-in with useless junk. Let Google learn what you want to see!

- Once at your homepage (google.com/ig) and signed-in, click on the "Search History" link in the top-right corner to activate the service. [url=http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/3813/searchhistory4bv.jpg]Click here to see how "Search History" looks.
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* You can remove "naughty" searches that you've done or simply pause the indexing of your searches for while.


Step Four: Get Gmail and link it to your Google Personal homepage

Gmail is Google's Email service which comes with 1GB of storage so you will never run out of storage like Hotmail users do CONSTANTLY!! Send and receive HUGE files like MP3's or Video Clips not just text-email! Click here to see what Gmail looks like...

- Gmail is an invitation only service but each user gets 100 invitations!! I have 100 invitations which you can use but I will need an email address. PM me if you want to be invited and you'll get an invite instantly.

- If you happen to use MSN messenger and don't want to loose your MSN account, don't worry, YOU WON'T!!! Sign-out of MSN messenger and click "Get a New account". Once you register with your gmail account you can add your friends to your new MSN account and they won't even notice the difference!! (MSN WORKS WITH AN EMAIL, NOT JUST HOTMAIL)

[Sotos]

Google is our new big brother With google search they know what we are searching for. With google bar they know what pages we are reading. Now with Gmail they can read our emails also!!!! andy, I wouldn't mind a Gmail invitation

[andytandreou]

lol sotos... PM me with your email and I'll send you one

[Sotos]

PM sent!

[davidp]

Iv'e just got back from the UK and according to some computer magazines Firefox is very vulnerable to trojans etc. so i'm not confident to use it.

[Sotos]

Iv'e just got back from the UK and according to some computer magazines Firefox is very vulnerable to trojans etc. so i'm not confident to use it.

Firexox was secure as long as its share was so small that hackers didn't bother with it. The more share they get the more hackers will target it. Its a law of nature

[Adrius]

speaking about search engines.... do you know any that indexes cypriot sites? google doesn't seem to be doing a great job here

[retired2northcyprus]

www.searchnc.net

is a very good one for this part of the island

[Adrius]

Thanks for the info

[dms007]

Firefox is very vulnerable to trojans etc

so what are you using Internet Explorer?