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

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/

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.

Gmail-Facebook Crossover

I am a little over half way through a current project. The project is to make a Google-Facebook crossover all, that will allow you to send a gmail to your facebook friends wall AND ALSO email a facebook message to your gmail contacts.

Currently the half that is built is the half that allows you to SEND/FORWARD from Gmail to facebook. The functionality isn't what I would want. Facebook won't allow programmers to send messages anymore. I guess that many programmers abused the privilege early on, so they took it away. So... instead of being able to send the gmail to your friends fb inbox, you can post it to their wall. I know... not as cool as you would like, but it is out of my hands. The sucky thing is, I wasted days trying to figure out a way to do it anyways, and I couldn't figure a way around their prevents.

The half that will be done by Monday, is the piece that will allow you to send a Facebook message as an email to a Gmail contact. So... if you are like me, and all of your contacts for your phone are in Gmail, then this is great.

Between Facebook and Gmail, I have all of the people that I need to email to. With this plugin, it will help centralize your ability to email your friends. It is pretty cool.

I need some people to use it and let me know what you think. To use it, install the appropriate browser plugin:

• Internet Explorer - HERE
• Firefox - HERE
• Chrome - HERE

And if you must know (and the throw props to those who deserve it), I am using the following pieces to do this:

• Kynetx
• emposh's fcbkcomplete
• jQuery
• some custom PHP scripts that I wrote for back end server support

Please use it and give me some feedback as to how it works! Remember, you can't hurt my feelings. I need to know what you think could be better. 

Guest Blogging

I wanted to let everyone know that in the last week, I have been invited to write two guest blogs for two different companies in the past few weeks.

Last week, Yahoo emailed me and asked if I wouldn't mind writing a guest blog for their YQL blog. This morning a company named SmartBear Software emailed me and asked me to also write a guest blog for them.

Why does Yahoo want me to write a guest blog for YQL? Last month, I participated in a programming contest for a company called Kynetx, and I won a $250 gift cert to Amazon. Part of the contest was to win integrate Kynetx with YQL. This I successfully did, and built a code completion tool for their the Kynetx appbuilder. It is quite detailed and provides much more functionality than a traditional code completion tool.

Why does SmartBear want me to write a guest blog for them? SmartBear Software is the owner of my favorite test automation tool to use for console application testing, TestComplete. The users of TestComplete are often NOT experienced programmers/scripters. In the past, I have spent a considerable amount of time answering community questions and participating in community conversations to help spread the gospel of TestComplete. I have helped people in quite a few different states, including a few different countries. SmartBear is apparently beginning to provide opportunities for community users to gain exposure by allowing them to guest blog on their site. They chose one of my community comments, and asked me to elaborate and write a guest blog on it.

Needless today, I am exicted. I am going to have to pick a night this week and write some blog posts. I am excited.