Refine Google Search

If you consider yourself a Google guru and know every search operator that’s mentioned on Google page, please stop reading.

For everyone else - this dl.tv video podcast with Patrick Norton and Matt Cutts will help you quickly recap some useful tips for searching Google more efficiently. You may know a lot of these Google tricks already but refreshing skills once in a while should be fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxfYd15ALsw&eurl=http://www.labnol.org/internet/search/refresh-google-search-skills/5527/&feature=player_embedded

Useful Firefox Addons

A bare copy of Firefox is a wonderful thing, but when you start stuffing it with add-ons it gets even better. Here's our top 25:

1. All-in-one Sidebar

All-in-one Sidebar makes Firefox's Sidebar more useful by displaying pretty much anything you might want: source code, downloads, add-ons, page info, entire web pages…

2. Stealther

Jealous of Safari's Porn Mode – ahem, Private Browsing? Now you can have it too, with Stealther.

3. Web Developer Toolbar

The name's a clue: the Web Developer Toolbar adds a toolbar containing useful tools for web developers.

4. Instapaper

Install Instapaper's bookmarklet and you can store interesting things to read later. You can view pages without ads or other distractions, and it works on phones as well as PCs.

5. FireFTP

FireFTP is an excellent bit of charityware – it's free, but donations are encouraged. It puts a fully featured FTP program right inside your browser.

6. Greasemonkey

The Swiss Army Knife of the Internet, Greasemonkey enables you to bend sites to your will through the power of JavaScript.

7. Tab Mix Plus

Get complete control over Firefox's tab handling, from the way tabs look to the way they work, with Tab Mix Plus.

8. User Agent Switcher

Browser sniffers stopping you from seeing sites? Pretend you're using a rubbish browser by changing the user agent string with User Agent Switcher.

9. IE View

Sometimes you need to view or test a page in IE. IE View is a Windows-only extension that makes it a one-click job.

10. IE Tab

Does much the same as IE View, but opens IE within a Firefox tab. Once again IE Tab is Windows-only.

11. Sage

Firefox's RSS support is pretty basic. Sage gives you a fully-featured RSS and Atom feed reader that's a joy to use.

12. HideBad

Pretend you're busy working with this excellent boss key. Not only does HideBad replace the current tabs with safe ones, but it zaps your browsing history, too.

13. Download Statusbar

Keep track of and control your file downloads without leaving the main browser window with Download Statusbar.

14. DownThemAll

Download every link or linked image from a web page in one fell swoop, filtering out unwanted file types automatically with DownThemAll.

15. FoxyTunes

FoxyTunes lets you control your music player, or take advantage of Yahoo!'s online MP3 player, while you wander around the Web.

16. Gmail Space

So unofficial that Google will probably kill you if it catches you using it, Gmail Space turns Gmail into an online hard disk.

17. StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is the easy way to discover sites that other people liked.

18. NoScript

Eliminate annoyances and security risks by blocking scripts and other executable content from sites you don't trust with NoScript.

19. BugMeNot

Don't want to register to read an article? BugMeNot gives you other people's logins.

20. Mouse Gestures

A massive time saver, Mouse Gestures enables you to navigate with a quick flick of the mouse.

21. Fast Video Download

Download embedded video clips with Fast Video Download so you can watch them at your leisure.

22. ScribeFire

ScribeFire is a superb in-browser blog editor that works with everything from LiveJournal to WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

23. BetterSearch

BetterSearch adds previews to search results so you don't end up on irrelevant, malicious or obscene websites. Unless that's what you're looking for...

24. FlashBlock

Flash is often used for in-page annoyances, so FlashBlock gets rid of all of it unless you specifically click on a bit of Flash content.

25. Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus eliminates invasive ads and makes some sites look very weird as a result.

When i t comes to browsers, Firefox is always my first & foremost choice..

JPEG or PNG ?

Many people come asking about which format is better while working with images. Its not actual the format that matters but actually the situation and usage of that image.

George adds - "JPEGs are for photographs and realistic images. PNGs are for line art, text-heavy images, and images with few colors. GIFs are just fail."

xkcd uses PNG for their web comics while Hugh MacLeod prefer JPG format for his cartoons.

Want to view Google Office in NY ??

You could take a tour of the Google's Office in New York with the below link...

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid271557392/bctid1915468090.

Software geeks must go through and see how their competitors work profile is..

Google Via SMS

Now you no more require a web-enabled phone for performing your Google search.

Get cricket scores, Indian Railways train schedules & ticket status, horoscopes, movie showtimes, restaurant information and more ...all through SMS on your phone.

Best of all, you don't pay a premium charge for any of this, just the price of a standard SMS.

Try it out! Simply send your search query by SMS to 9-77-33-00000 and we'll send you results back by SMS immediately.

Of course, don't forget to save 9-77-33-00000 to your phonebook for quick and easy access to Google SMS in the future!

For more guidance, you could simply send "help" as SMS to the above number. Really very nice initiative from Google.

USB Devices getting Infected with autorun.inf

Autorun.inf flash drives malwares spread these days through various portable USB devices like iPod, pen drives, autorun.inf malwares cause various types of damages like drive does open on double click, double clicking on drive opens search and even restart your computer when you try to open pen drive infected by autorun.inf malware.

Flash Disinfector is another quite effective Flash Malware removing tool created by sUBs, it will target following flash malwares in general.

 W32/Perlovga (copy.exe | host.exe)
VBS_RESULOWS.A (Hacked by Godzilla, Hacked by Moozilla)
Bha.dll.vbs
w32automa worm (Autorun.vbs)
Trojan.Win32.VB.atg | Win32/Dzan | Worm_vb.bnr (tel.xls.exe | mmc.exe)
W32/RJump.worm (RavMonE)
Worm.Win32.Delf.bf | W32.Fujacks (spoclsv.exe)
W32.Fujacks.BH (Fucker.vbs)
WORM_AGENT.PGV (soundmix.exe)
W32/Hakaglan.worm (RVHost.exe)
Trojan.Win32.VB.ayo [AVP] (Macromedia_Setup.exe)
Trojan.VBS.DeltreeY.b#1 (Destrukto!!! | destrukto.vbs)

Usage of FlashDisinfector :

>  Download Flash Disinfector from here

> Double click Flash_Disinfector.exe, follow the prompts

>Your desktop may vanish for a while and then reappear back to normal

> Wait till it finishes the scan, and then exit the program   

 Download Flash Disinfector

Note: Make sure to stop any anti virus, firewall or any script blockers before running Flash Disinfector,  We would suggest to run Flash Disinfector in the safe mode id possible.

Microsoft joined hands with SUN for MSN Toolbar.

The next time you download Java from Sun website, you’ll be offered the MSN toolbar for Internet Explorer as well.

This is part of a new deal between Sun and Microsoft to promote Windows Live Search and other Microsoft products like Hotmail and Live Messenger among Internet users who have Java on their desktops.

An interesting part of the deal is that Microsoft has decided to distribute MSN Toolbar with Java and not the more recent Windows Live Toolbar – I guess this is because MSN Toolbar includes Silverlight and Microsoft is certainly looking for ways to push their "Flash killer" on Windows desktops.

View Office 2007 formats using Google Services

If you have  a document either .docx or .pptx or .xlsx attached in your Gmail, then you can directly view that using the "View HTML" option provided by GMail.

Also if you are searching for docs in Google Search Engine, and the resultant document is in Office format, even then you can make use of "View HTML"  option as shown:

Track Indian Railway Trains Using GoogleMaps

IndiaRail Info is an interesting Google Maps mashup that helps you visualize the current geographical location of any train in India. Just type train name or train number and check its exact location on the map.

IE to move towards Webkit

Addressing a developer conference in Sydney Australia, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the idea of using WebKit as the rendering engine within its web browser was "interesting" and added "we may look at that."

This is good news for web developers, who’ve long hated Internet Explorer’s total disregard for existing standards, as well as end users, who can now look forward to the next generation of web apps dependent on powerful Javascript engines.

While Microsoft rapidly developed IE up to version six in 2001, new innovation stalled after the apparent death of the rival Netscape browser between 2000 and 2001.

The lull in Microsoft's browser efforts afforded Mozilla the opportunity to release and refine the Netscape code into what became Firefox in 2003. During the same period, KDE shipped the fast and lean KHTML browser engine, a project Apple built upon to create WebKit, the rendering engine behind Safari 1.0, also released in 2003. That web browser renaissance spurred Microsoft to deliver a new version of IE in 2006.

WebKit has subsequently been chosen by a number of developers to serve as the foundation for their web browsers and other web related tools. That includes Nokia's mobile browser, Google's new Chrome, and of course the mobile Safari browser used by Apple's iPhone. 

Embracing WebKit as the basis for new generations of IE would enable Microsoft to benefit from its standards compliance and raw speed, while still enabling the software giant to extend its features with proprietary extensions, just as Apple's Safari browser adds unique features such as bookmark management and syncing, Dashboard Widget clipping, and SnapBack.