Surf Canyon : Real-time Personalised Search addon for Firefox

Most of the average Internet users spent their valuable time searching for the information. If we can improve the efficiency of our searching, that means we can save a lot of time. Here is an add-on (works with FireFox & IE) that helps you find more personalized information faster and easier.

Surf Canyon

Surf Canyon is a browser extension that personalizes search engine results as you search! Available for download as an add-on for FireFox and Internet Explorer (IE6 and IE7), the software figures out what you want and then automatically recommends relevant search results.

Features

• Improve your search on Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft (MSN Live Search), Craigslist and LexisWeb
• Find relevant information from as deep as page 100 of the search results
• Personalize your search in real time: recommended search results reflect instantaneous relevancies, based on your actions
• Add preview images to Craigslist listing pages

Downloading Surf Canyon

Obtain your copy of Surf Canyon for FireFox.

IE users please visit http://www.surfcanyon.com/

You can use my.SurfCanyon.com to further customize your search experience.

Ubuntu : Installing Flash player

Flash player is one of the most important plugin that every Netizen needs for his everyday life. So Here is how to install a flash player in Ubuntu.


Installing Flash Player

There are several ways to install flash support in Ubuntu, here we are discussing two relatively easy methods

• This is the easiest way to install flash player in Ubuntu, Just type in sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree ,this will fetch and install the plugin from internet (this works only if you have an active internet connection).
  

If you don't have an internet connection, you may need to install flashplayer plugin manually.

• Go to http://www.adobe.com and download the Adobe flashplayer (the tar.gz download,remember do it all from linux, otherwise you will be redirecte to windows ).In this example we consider the file is downloaded to ~/Desktop (~/ represents the user's directory in linux)

• change directory to ~/Desktop
  

• tar xvfz install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz command will untar the tar file and change directory cd install_flash_player_9_linux/

• sudo ./flashplayer-installer will invoke the installer and you will be asked a few questions.Answer the questions appropreately an the installation will be completed succesfully

NB: if the installer is aking for the installation path of mozilla then just enter /usr/lib/mozilla

This is all.Now you are ready to rock with youtube and metacafe!

Essential Firefox Addons

Everyone is talking about Firefox these days, I thought I must share some of the best add-ons that I use regularly with Firefox.So have a look at them and start customizing your Firefox so that you can do most of the things without leaving Firefox.


Adblock Plus - Tired with ads ? then go for this Firefox add-on. Adblock Plus enables you to block ads.If you wish to enable ads for a particular site then you can create an exception.The only drawback of Adblock Plus is the exception filter creation needs a little knowledge.(Example exception filter - add @@|http://nextdoornerd.blogspot.com to add an exception for this particular site,remember you have to do this manually). You can learn to write Adblock Plus filters from http://adblockplus.org/en/filters. It is a nice how-to article on how to write custom filters.

Download AdblockPlus

DownThemAll - This is one of my favorite Add-on, this is a cool and easy to use complete download manager.DownThemAll even supports download resuming and queuing.

Click here to get DownThemAll

StumbleUpon - Go check it out, a cool add-on helps you discover Web sites based on your interests.This is a useful site when you are bored and looking for something to browse or when you want something funny or informative to browse through.

Get StumbleUpon

PicLens - It is an awesome add-on that transforms your Firefox into a next generation Image and Video viewer with their stunning new Image wall.(hey if you have Google desktop installed then you can use PicLense to show your offline Images to your friends,and see them say WOW!)

Download PicLens

PrintPDF - Installs a driver printer on your machine and lets you print your web pages to pdf files (Mac users, you already have this feature!).

Download PrintPDF

GSpace - This add-on allows you to use your Gmail as an online storage space.So now you can upload files from your hard disk and access them from anywhere.

Get GSpace from here

ScribeFire - If you are a regular blogger then this is a cool add-on for you,You can blog without leaving Firefox.You can even drag and drop text from web pages and take notes using this add-on.

Download ScribeFire

ChatZilla - Love your old IRC chat ? , then here is an add-on.ChatZilla - An easy to use IRC client add-on for your Firefox.Now you can chat without leaving Firefox.

Download ChatZilla

PDF Download - Did you ever think of downloading web pages as PDF files ?. Here is a very useful add-on that help you download web pages as PDF files.

Download PDF Download

FoxyTunes - FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.

Download FoxyTunes

Sage - Don't want to leave your browser for reading your favorite rss feeds ? here is a handy plugin with some cool features and easy to use interface for handling feeds.

Download Sage

Zotero - Easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources.

Download Zotero

ColorfulTabs - Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface.

Download ColorfulTabs

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. You can also log in to my.foxmarks.com to manage your bookmarks from any computer.

Download Foxmarks

Just drop a comment here in case of any doubt or suggestions.

[this post will be updated frequently with more better plugins as I come across them.. :) so don' forget to check this out]