Welcome to OptimizeGoogle
August 10, 2009 | In: General news
As I also really like the Firefox plugin “CustomizeGoogle” but have noticed there is no new release since October 2008, I decided to setup a Wordpress blog to provide a platform to keep the plugin alive. As Google makes changes the plugin needs to change as well.
What does CustomizeGoogle do? It provides the following three core functions:
- Removes all ads on Google pages.
- Allows to switch to HTTPS when accessing Google pages like Gmail, Google Docs, etc.
- Protects your privacy: Removes click tracking and does not send tracking information (Google Analytics and Unique UID).
So I’ve collected the changes I could find on the internet and created a new version which you can download here. I am not a programmer by profession and as such I hope some people will volenteer to create a team to keep this plugin up to date and easily available.
15 Responses to Welcome to OptimizeGoogle
richard
August 31st, 2009 at 14:49
Hi,
Just wondering why your extension isn’t listed in add-ons for firefox.
Richard.
DickS
September 5th, 2009 at 17:38
We will add this to the official Firefox site as soon as the last few bugs have been ironed out.
Marie from Paris
September 24th, 2009 at 03:25
Keep up the good work with this excellent work! Thanks! Kisses,
Marie
Milan
October 1st, 2009 at 16:35
Hi.
Thank you! This plugin is the greatest; finally making the web searchable again without the in-your-face spam.
I know this valiant effort takes a lot of your time, but I would really appreciate it if you could get the filters working again. Whatever sites I put in the filter list seem to show up on any search; filters enabled; restart, etc. The format I use for the filters is usually: http://*.patentstorm.us/*
Thanks again for all your work in making the internet “free” again.
Milan
DickS
October 1st, 2009 at 17:31
Milan, this is one of the first things that will be fixed in the next version.
Friedel
October 12th, 2009 at 00:43
Many, many thanks!
(Especially for the picture-search!)
scott
October 18th, 2009 at 20:44
OptimizeGoogle
100.00%
93.63% 16,951 2009-08-16 N/A 654
OptimizeGoogle is a Firefox extension that enhances Google search results by adding extra information and removing unwanted information. Created to maintain and improve CustomizeGoogle which seems to have been abandoned.
Also, is this adware, spyware and other such stuff free?
thx,
scott : )
DickS
October 18th, 2009 at 21:18
Yes, this add-on is fully ad-, mal-, spyware free. The source code is available in SourceForge.
michael loft
October 21st, 2009 at 09:27
Thanks for reviving this plugin.
John
October 25th, 2009 at 16:30
Hello there,
Nice add-on. A pity it doenst work properly with the SearchWiki feature. The links from SearchWiki still appear, but we simply can`t click them.
Gregor
November 28th, 2009 at 13:51
Why don’t You add this extension to Mozilla Add-ons so it can be check and review by Mozilla Editor, so we can be sure it is safe.
DickS
November 28th, 2009 at 14:11
We will be doing that next week. We just wanted to wait till we had the .77 release out which has a lot of fixes.
Grover
January 13th, 2010 at 18:02
Love this add on. Is there a down-loadable list of sites for filtering out the really egregious crap site like Next Tag and so on?
Dan
February 14th, 2010 at 20:01
If the old CustomizeGoogle plugin truly is abandonware (as is suggested by their last changelog entry, 2008-10-23), perhaps you could persuade them to make an official note on their page suggesting users to switch to OptimizeGoogle. This would both lend credibility to your project and help others to find it (I just found it by accident while trying to find a way to submit a bug report to CustomizeGoogle).
Alex
February 18th, 2010 at 22:46
DickS,
once again thanks for this great Extension. I wonder if there is any way we can use gmail BUT not be “logged in” when searching on Google?
Many thanks guys!