Insider Secrets: Hack Google with Firefox extensions Video

Insider Secrets: Hack Google with Firefox extensions Video Transcript

There's no arguing that Google search is good at what it does. But what if I told you how you could make Google even better for the Firefox browser? I'm Molly Wood from CNET.com, and I've got the three best Firefox extensions for improving Google. Check it out. The first way to create a more useful Google is to customize it...big time. CustomizeGoogle, which you can get from Download.com, lets you get rid of text ads on Google search results, adds links from about 10 other search engines, adds more contextual links to news stories, weather results, product results, and more. It will filter your results, show links to the WayBack Machine so you can see dead Web sites in your searches, and it'll let you remove click-tracking so you can search anonymously. Once you've installed the plug-in, you can enable or disable all the customization options through the menu. Click Tools on the Firefox Browser and then select CustomizeGoogle Options. OK, cool, Google's looking better already. But there's still something missing: a way to preview a site in the search results. Enter another free Firefox extension called GooglePreview. This miracle plug-in inserts thumbnail views of the referenced Web page to take the guesswork out of clicking a link. Just install it, reload Firefox, and there you have it: preview images. OK, CustomizeGoogle and GooglePreview have made our searching smarter and faster. Now, how about safer? McAfee SiteAdvisor works like a permanent traffic signal for your searching. It rates sites as safe, suspicious, or "don't go there!" It can also keep track of the number of unsafe downloads, spammy emails, and pop-ups there are emitting from the site. And then, of course, it displays a red, yellow, green, or gray button on the Web page itself, after you've transferred over from the search results page. Gray, by the way, means the page hasn't been assessed. I'm sure you can figure out what red, green, and yellow mean. So, there you go. I've installed three little extensions, and removed a lot of the guesswork from my searches. That leaves me tons of time to...uh...watch TV on the Internet, I guess. For CNET.com, I'm Molly Wood...and you're welcome.