Here’s an interesting URL that I found by following an incoming link a little while ago.
If you run Firefox as your web browser, this “Customizegoogle” add-in allows you to “filter spammy websites from search results”. (It’s got a lot of other features, but this one seems likely to be the most useful to Oracle users).
I’ve got Firefox on my Linux RAC stack – but I may have to download it for my Windows boxes too, especially the laptop which is the machine I use for most of my writing.
Updated: And here’s a URL that should let you do the same thing with Internet Explorer, too.
Here is what I have in Customizegoogles filter. Should be a good start for clean Oracle filtering:
*dba-oracle.com*
*easyhtml-db.com*
*excel-db.net*
*dba.ipbhost.com*
*rampant-books.com*
*remote-dba.net*
*rampant.cc*
*oracle-script.com*
*praetoriate.com*
*oracle-training.cc*
*fast-track.cc*
*wise-oracle.com*
*dba-sql-server.com*
*oracle-training.cc*
Comment by Jerry — June 10, 2008 @ 3:58 pm UTC Jun 10,2008 |
Don’t install it, just use it as a portable application!
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable
I’ve been using it for years and it’s great! Just install whatever extensions you like and carry your profile along with the application without any need to ever install it.
Thunderbird portable is also a must.
Hope you’ll find it useful…
Regards,
Comment by Jocelyn Simard — June 10, 2008 @ 4:37 pm UTC Jun 10,2008 |
Thanks for the links. I was getting tired of typing -Burleson every time I googled.
Comment by Ajay — June 10, 2008 @ 4:39 pm UTC Jun 10,2008 |
Here is my filters:
http://*dba-oracle.com/*
http://*remote-dba.net/*
http://*remote-dba.cc/*
http://*rampant-books.com/*
http://www.praetoriate.com/*
http://www.oracle-training.cc/*
http://www.fast-track.cc/*
http://www.txmemsys.com/*
http://dba.ipbhost.com/*
Thanks Jerry, I see i mist a couple, I will update mine.
Comment by steeve — June 10, 2008 @ 5:54 pm UTC Jun 10,2008 |
Guys,
How can I add this filter to the search engine?
Comment by thiagomz — June 10, 2008 @ 7:30 pm UTC Jun 10,2008 |
Follow the first link and install Customizegoogle.
Then go to Tools, Add-ons, select Customizegoogle, click options, “Filter” on the left side.
Then just cut and paste or add your own.
Comment by Jerry — June 10, 2008 @ 7:44 pm UTC Jun 10,2008 |
Jonathan, I am amazed that FF does not seem to be your regular web browser. For me the most important plugin is “adblock plus”. This reliably gets rid of all the adverts and overlays.
Comment by Robert Klemme — June 11, 2008 @ 7:13 am UTC Jun 11,2008 |
Thanx Jonathan. This is quite helpful.
Comment by Brian Tkatch — June 11, 2008 @ 1:00 pm UTC Jun 11,2008 |
LOL @ “*dba-oracle.com*” etc
Getting these popping up in search results is one of the downsides of working with Oracle I suppose. I find that my search is much improved by adding PSOUG as a searchterm.
Another site to block from google would be experts-exchange.com, since they hide the answers if you’ve not registered. Argghhh!
Comment by Rexton — June 11, 2008 @ 9:26 pm UTC Jun 11,2008 |
My filter addition, after setting the above filters, then Googling “oracle tips”:
http://www.arikaplan.com/*
Comment by Stew — June 11, 2008 @ 9:47 pm UTC Jun 11,2008 |
If your answer is only available in a site that require a subscription, you can try Bug-Me-Not:
http://www.bugmenot.com
you can find many shared-login.
They are not stolen, they are shared by the owners.
Comment by lascoltodelvenerdi — June 12, 2008 @ 5:57 am UTC Jun 12,2008 |
As far as experts-exchange.com goes, there’s another firefox addin that will get you in there. How do you think the results from the show up in google if you need an account to read the answers? It allows the google spiders to crawl the site, but not IE, Mozilla etc. SO you can make your firefox tell the site it is a google spider.
Anywho, ymmv
mark brady
Comment by Mark Brady — June 12, 2008 @ 4:15 pm UTC Jun 12,2008 |
Re: experts-exchange.com
Am I the only one who is just able to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the answers? Sure, you have to scroll a ways, but it’s all there. (IE7, and I’m positive it’s the same in Opera)
Comment by Milo — June 13, 2008 @ 4:11 am UTC Jun 13,2008 |
@13: I believe the answers only appear if you have an account on experts-exchange and you’re logged in.
Comment by Anurag — June 13, 2008 @ 4:50 pm UTC Jun 13,2008 |
Another option is Google’s Custom Search Engine:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
not only you can filter out low-quality web sites, but you can also give more relevance to high-quality sites as well.
And then you can use it in any browser from any location, and possibly even make your Custom Google Search available to others.
Comment by Alberto Dell'Era — June 16, 2008 @ 6:03 pm UTC Jun 16,2008 |
Alberto, there’s an issue with CSE. If you sign up for the *free* Custom Search Engine service, Google will show adWord based advertising with search results and this may still lead you to some crap sites. On the other hand if someone clicks on those links in your CSE, you make money.
Few weeks ago I wrote a custom search engine called “Quality Oracle Search” for myself and noticed the advertising problem there. I’m not gonna spam Jonathan’s blog with a link to my engine, but I will post it on my site
Comment by tanelp — June 17, 2008 @ 11:11 am UTC Jun 17,2008 |
[...] Google has a thing called Custom Search Engine, which allows you define custom search engine rules, sites to include, exclude etc. Therefore you can demote or completely exclude some unwanted sites from your search results. Alberto Dell’Era just commented on this on Jonathan Lewis’es blog entry about Firefox. [...]
Pingback by Experiments with Google Custom Search engine « Tanel Poder’s blog: Core IT for geeks and pros — June 17, 2008 @ 11:27 am UTC Jun 17,2008 |
I know this is a bit off-topic: but today is Firefox 3 download day!
Check it out! ^_^
Comment by lascoltodelvenerdi — June 17, 2008 @ 1:39 pm UTC Jun 17,2008 |
Jonathan, thank you so much for the URL. I was getting tired of always getting some well-know websites in the top 10 hits whenever I searched for anything related to Oracle. That became a real nuisance. Ironically, this is what Burleson says in his blog (verbatim):
Comment by Till — November 16, 2008 @ 11:17 pm UTC Nov 16,2008 |