Snow Effect

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

ResultBlocker - You can now control your own search results.

Click to Download Chrome Extension
Download Chrome Extension
Download FireFox Extension
Download Internet Explorer Extension

NOTE: Searching on Google will allow you to see your blocked sites, and you can UNBLOCK them from there. 

As part of a competition that Kynetx sponsored, I built a browser extension that will all you to remove certain websites from appearing in your search results. Example: If you are continually searching for "Something Cool", and results from "www.DumbThings.com" continually appear in your search results, you can tell your browser to stop displaying those results from "www.DumbThings.com". The extension adds a link next to each result that will allow you to block that site from your results. If you click it, that site's results will no longer appear in your search results. It is a pretty cool way to allow you to customize your search results.

There are two more levels of deletion though.
1. If you delete something from Google search results... and then a few minutes later you go to Bing.com or Yahoo.com to do a search, when you search at those sites, your browser will also stop displaying results from "www.DumbThings.com". Even though you were on Google when you deleted it, it will also delete it from those other major seach engines, Bing and Yahoo. Likewise, if you block a site whilst on Bing, it will also be blocked on Yahoo and Google. Pretty awesome!

2. If you block something from your work computer, when you go home, the results will still be blocked from your home computer. Example: if you were at work and Googled "Something Cool" and you blocked the results from "www.DumbThings.com", then those same results will ALSO be blocked from your home computer. After you install the new extension, it will ask you to login using your facebook account. Once you log in, all of your blocked results will follow you from computer to computer.

Part of the competition was that this work on all three main browser: IE, Firefox and Chrome. I have provided links for those downloads. Over the next day or so, I will add the functionality to unblock sites, so that you can view their results again. Further, it will tell you (very subtly) each time that it blocks sites. At that moment, you will be able to easily unblock them.

Click HERE to download and install the new plugin for CHROME.
Click HERE to download and install the new plugin for FIREFOX.
Click HERE to download and install the new plugin for INTERNET EXPLORER.

Kynetx has been phenomenal to work with. I am currently using their technology for this entire plugin. They have been great to work with. If anyone is planning on building a business level or personal use browser extension, you need to consider Kynetx as your platform. Kynetx is to browser extensions as jQuery is to Javascript. They are to browser extensions what jQueryMobile+PhoneGap is to mobile development. They truly are Greasemonkey, in the cloud, on steroids. They do MUCH more than browser extensions. They have free lunch every Friday for anyone who wants to stop by and visit them to learn more. Please, check them out: www.Kynetx.com.

Please email me with feedback: aaronfrost@gmail.com

Thursday, February 10, 2011

It's SHIG, not SHWAG!

So... a while ago a Smartbear Software contacted me and asked me to do a blog post for them. Since that initial contact, I have completed the initial blog that they requested, and have lined up at least two more. Additionally, they have a new version of their software that isn't even in Beta stages yet, and they are asking me to be a dogfood user, to help them get the product ready for an initial release. I will be testing that software out at work, in a production environment. Rather than test it on fake data, why not use it to do my job. That will be the best way to test the bloody thing.

HERE is the blog that I wrote for them!

Any who, so they sent me a care package full of goodies: a bag, a leather-ish binder, a 4GB flash drive, a mug, and two nice pens. Each of them have the Smartbear Software logo on them. This is some nice SHIG (Sh** I Get)(not SHWAG, Sh** We All Get)! I hope they know how much I appreciate it. 

For those of you who want to know more about Smartbear Software, feel free to ask. They are the makers of two of my favorite testing tools: TestComplete (UI automation) and AQTime (Code/Test Profiler). Additionally, you can go to their website: http://smartbear.com/

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Guest Blog: SmartBear

Here is a link to the community blog for SmartBear Software. Not sure how long this will be the main blog, but it is for now.

CLICK HERE to read it.

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