Devils' Workshop

Firefox Tweaks: Address bar as Search BOX – Let Google make you feel Lucky!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date June 8, 2007
46 Comments on Firefox Tweaks: Address bar as Search BOX – Let Google make you feel Lucky!

If you use address bar as search box in Mozilla Firefox then you can skip to advance options!

Yes in Mozilla Firefox you can just type your search query in address bar and get the search results displyed to you!

By default, whenever you hit enter after typing anything in address bar (also called navigation bar/ URL bar), Firefox checks if entered string is valid address or not! If its valid address firefox tries to load corresponding site/page for you! (Note that here if site is down or you have misspelled address, it won’t get directed to search engine). If entered string is a invalid URL, it will be submitted to Google Search and search results are returned!

If its fine with you then its great but if you want to use Google Search with I am feeling option or want to use another search engine as default then read following steps to change defaults search engine or its parameter:

Type about:config in address bar of Mozilla Firefox. A page with lots of text and 4 columns will get displayed!
Type keyword.URL in filter box. The long list will be trimmed down to just one line! 🙂
Right-Click on that line and select modify option. A box will be displayed.
Enter any of the following string for corresponding search engine!
Changes will be reflected immediately with out any restart!

#Search Engine List:

Default Google Search (In case you want to restore originals)
http://www.google.co.in/search?btnG=Google+Search&q=

Google Search with I’m Feeling Lucky (what the hell is difference?)
http://www.google.co.in/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=

Yahoo search
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=

Microsoft’s Live.com
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?fulltext=Search&search=

Wikipedia (GO option – Feeling Like Lucky)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?go=Go&search=

Technorati
http://www.technorati.com/search/

Glossary:

#Valid Address: A valid address is something optionally starts with protocols like HTTP (i.e. http://) and ends with domain name (e.g. .com, .org, .net, etc) and must not contain any space in between! So anything that does not this definition is a invalid address. Well firefox does not need to bother about all things and a simple check can be used – whether user entered address contains space or not!

#Google Search with I’m Feeling Lucky: From Google Search Homepage when you enter a query in search box and and instead of hitting Google Search hits I’m Feeling Lucky button, Google will redirect you to the first search result which is often what we want!

Tags Firefox, Google, Google Search, Internet Explorer, Security

Editorial

Bye-Bye Blogger…. Devils Workshop is moving to WordPress!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date June 6, 2007
3 Comments on Bye-Bye Blogger…. Devils Workshop is moving to WordPress!

Yes finally after lots of brainstorming we are moving to WordPress!!!

It has been pleasure being here but with your continuous support Devils Workshop has grown to look out for a better home over the time!

Actually moving to WordPress blogging systems decision was taken few months back but the delay caused first by self-hosting decision and then finding a .COM domain. (I wish I could get devilsworkshop.com)
We also once thought about changing name of this blog and conducted a poll on orkut too! The result till date is 100% in favor of Devils Workshop current name!

As of now, I can say that WordPress v/s Blogspot can be compared at par with Firefox v/s Internet Explorer 😀
I will write more about WordPress later on. It has thousands of plugins (like extensions in Firefox) and I am tired right now to write about them!

This is the stuff which kept me busy for last few weeks. More will be coming but at our new address: http://www.devilsworkshop.rsites.dev6.rt.gw

Our Email subscribers and other Feedburner Readers will continue to receive updates from new blog automatically without any change!

Thank you all of you and special thanks to 1500+ Devils on our orkut community!

Tags Editorial

Tips

Orkut Added Albums Navigation >> Just surf to your favorite albums with one-click at a time!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date May 11, 2007
1 Comment on Orkut Added Albums Navigation >> Just surf to your favorite albums with one-click at a time!

Orkut Guide on Google Group – Orkut Help said,

You asked for it, so we’re adding a better way to flip through somebody’s photo album on orkut.Instead of having to click on a photo, then click “back to album” to get to the next pic, you can now just click on the arrows above the pic to see the next or last one!

We’re rolling this out a few profiles at a time, so just hold tight if you don’t see it yet.

Yes. It looks like orkut is taking competition in social networking market quire seriously!

Here is a screenshot describing what this mean to you!

Happy Orkutting!

Tags Bing, Google, Orkut

News

Updates: Orkut Codes Changed Again!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date May 11, 2007
3 Comments on Updates: Orkut Codes Changed Again!

UPDATE: ORKUT ROLLED BACK ALL CHANGES.
SO THIS IS OUTDATED POST!

Just noticed code for submit scrap button has been changed slightly (thanks vermz).Following hack has been corrected:

While these hacks needs workaround

Send a common scrap to all ur friends (Scarp All)

There may be more not working hacks… So please let us know about them so as to modify them as soon as possible!

Tags Bing, Blogger, Orkut, Outdated

Tips

Multiple Firefox Profiles at the same time – Firefox Command-line arguments trick!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date May 4, 2007
22 Comments on Multiple Firefox Profiles at the same time – Firefox Command-line arguments trick!

How often do you wish to run multiple firefox profiles at the same time?
In slightly non-technical words do you ever need to check two different accounts of same service, at the same time?
As an example, consider the scenario (which is 100% real-life and was encountered by my friend Deva) – you are checking mails of your Gmail account and at the same time you want to check another gmail account. What you normally do is open up another Gmail account in another browser. Another similar situation often encountered by many orkuttians who have multiple orkut profiles!

Now from firefox 2.0+ onwards this is solved and you can run firefox with as many accounts as you want! Look at the following screenshots in which I am checking two Gmail accounts at the same time! (Click on image to enlarge it)

Here comes one of the most awaited trick!

#1. Creating a Profile.
By default firefox runs in default profile. To run another instance of firefox with different profile you need to create first a different profile. To do this run firefox with command line parameter CreateProfile followed by profile name.

Window user, can click on “Start -> Run” and execute firefox with followed by the command line arguments. For example,

"C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe" -CreateProfile Rahul

where Rahul is name of the profile. You can use any name.

(Note that the path C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox may change as per your installation directory.)

On similar lines Linux and Mac OS user can create a new profile.

#2. Running firefox with new profile.
First start firefox the way you start. (This is to assure you that we are going in right direction).
Now Windows users can again click on “Start -> Run” and execute firefox with followed by the command line arguments,

"C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe" -no-remote -P Rahul

where Rahul need to be replaced by the name of the profile you have used in step 1 while creating a new profile.

When you hit ENTER the profile will start in new context!
The key here is -no-remote command-line argument!

Extra Tricks:
You will probably use two or more profiles frequently. In that case the step 2 to run firefox with a new profile will need to be tweaked!

In simplest way Windows user can right-click on existing firefox shortcut and select copy option from right-click menu.
Then paste it at your favorite place (probably desktop)
[optional] It may appear with name like Copy of Mozilla Firefox, change it to some convenient name like Rahuls Firefox or New Firefox or anything you like.
Now again right-click on new shortcut and click on properties option in right-click menu.
Switch to shortcut tab in properties window.
In target you may find – “C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe” change it to something like “C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe” -no-remote -P Rahul. (see screenshot below for more help)
Now click OK.

Thats it. Another firefox is at your bay!

Tags Bing, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Security, Windows

Reviews

Keepvid Hack – Download Videos from YouTube, MySpace, Google and virtually every video sharing sites!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date April 30, 2007
28 Comments on Keepvid Hack – Download Videos from YouTube, MySpace, Google and virtually every video sharing sites!

Here comes another hack to download videos from video sharing sites like YouTube, Google Videos, etc! I come across it via a anonymous comment by a Devils Workshops’ reader!

After giving you Video Downloader Firefox extension and Kiss YouTube Hack to do the same, this hack let you download videos from almost any site, although they have listed around 30 sites only!

Moreover it comes with a to make it further simple! Just drag-n-drop it to your browser’s toolbar and click on it to download videos you are watching! You don’t need to type anything like old KissYouTube hack!

#How-To Use

There are 2 ways!

First simply copy the link (URL) of the page with the video on it and paste it in a field provided at KeepVid’s Homepage!

The other way is for people who are addicted to videos like me 😉

Just Drag above bookmarklet on browser toolbar! It will create an entry named “Keep It” on bookmark toolbar.
Next time yo are visiting any video page from youtube, Google Video or any other service just click the “Keep It”.
You will directly taken to the keepvid page with download link! 🙂

Related Links:

Tags Blogging, Firefox, Google, Internet Explorer, Javascript, Security, Video Tools, Windows, YouTube

Reviews

Windows Software: Copy Handler to replace windows worst built-in file copy/paste feature!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date April 23, 2007
17 Comments on Windows Software: Copy Handler to replace windows worst built-in file copy/paste feature!

How many time you wished you could have nice file copying feature in your windows! Following is short list of problems I feel windows built-in copy feature suffers from:

Multiple copy starts same time, resulting in higher defragmentation (or you have to wait till first completes, before starting next)
No priority control so no matter how important is copy operation to you, other programs will suffer performance loss
In case source and destination folder have same name windows return error no matter the folders have different content
No special provision for bulk data transfer (No auto shutdown after batch-copying, etc)
If window restarts between copy operation, all the progress just get lost without any recovery!
No logging at all so chances are more after some time you may loose track of what have you copied , where you have copied and so on!
No buffer management which can result in performance variations for devices with different speed
No pause/resume of a copy operation
N0 disk space check. (Ideally a copy operation should check it before hand whether destination have enough disk space to continue with copying)
Gush… The list is endless… I am tired now 🙁

But as someone said if there is a wish, there is a way and like most of the windows problem this one have third-party but open-source solution!

Eureka, its copy-handler! Its freely available for download with manuals, FAQs, installtion guide, screenshots, etc! I tested it for more than a year now and I just cant think of using windiows without it! It solves all problem listed above with additional features like…

Auto-start with windows (optional)
Overriding default windows copy-operation (optional)
Changing target after copy operation is started
Allocate custom buffer size for different devices
Can shutdown when copy finishes
Ask to resume/restart remaining operation after accidental reboots!
Can provide default actions for things like delete source file if already exist and so on..
There are more…

For developers, development manuals is here ! You can download source code from this page!

I am using tons of third-party software on my windows machine! Starting from today I will write about those I liked and tested over the years! Hope you will enjoy this and find it useful 🙂

Tags Software, Windows

Reviews

Using Multiple MySpace Profiles with Firefox Extension!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date April 18, 2007
4 Comments on Using Multiple MySpace Profiles with Firefox Extension!

This extension is for all myspace users using firefox! Clee developed this cool extension – MySpaceToolbarEx using which you can switch between multiple myspace profiles (accounts) with just single mouse click!

In Clee’s words,

MySpace toolbar with supported for multiple MySpace Profiles. Once you have setup the account info, you never have to type it again, just selected the account and hit home button and it will auto login to myspace for you, will also support view…

Here some screenshots!

Can anyone out there make it easier? 🙂

Requirement : Firefox

Tags Blogging, contest, Events, Firefox, Polls

Tips

SEO: Get higher Google pagerank by naming files and/or blog post titles optimally!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date April 17, 2007
18 Comments on SEO: Get higher Google pagerank by naming files and/or blog post titles optimally!

Before reading ahead…
please note that this is not something which can burst traffic to your site/blog overnight! At Devils Workshop, we are against of all kind of spamming but we value your hard-work and thus would like you to help you to get maximum out of it! Thus lazy people and spammers quit here itself!

Now for hard-workers…
Well I have lots of tricks for you guys and will post them here time to time. Lets start now without wasting your more time!

While naming your files or blog posts titles…

First lets talk about optimal filenames:

Never use filenames like ch1, ch2, … or 1, 2, 3, etc…
If you want hierarchy go for ch1-Intro, ch2-Types, etc…
Try to use longer filenames with as much keyword as possible.
If file is static HTML file then always make use of title tag : <title> also try to use title upto 100 characters.
Use underscore (_) instead of space to separate multiword filenames
- e.g. use “rahul_bansal” instead of “rahul bansal”

Now its Blog Posts Titles:

Make sure all keywords comes earlier!
Try to minimize use of junk words like of, are, hurry, surprise, important, read-this, etc atleast in first 30-40 characters.
Enable Post Pages which give each of your posts their own unique web page, in addition to appearing on your blog’s front page. (For Blogspot Blogger, Go to Settings >> Archiving >> Enable Post Pages and select “YES”)
Try to use maximum available length of blog post titles (normally upto 100 characters)

Reasoning:

First lemme me remind you what makes a URL (i.e. Uniform Resource Locater) with a simplest example!

URL = <protocol e.g. HTTP> + <site name> + < optional path> + <filename>

Also remember title of a page is displayed in your browsers top most strip (it is often concatenated with browser name itself, but don’t bother about this browser name part)

With these two terms we will dissect now blog post titles and filenames together!

Blog post title forms Title of post pages as well as URL!
If post pages are enabled, every blog post gets converted to static HTML page with a file name which makes is part of URL!
Post pages are nothing but files dynamically created so again convention for file names and post page title overlaps! (thats why covering both in same post here 😉
Thats why I insisted similar things like keeping file names and blog post titles longer as much as possible!
Unfortunately for files their name and title tag need to be chosen separately!
For blogs post tiles goes in both places! But only first 30-40 characters of post title gets converted to filename i.e. name of post page!
Thats why be wise to use maximum keyword as early as possible in post title!
Always remember never exceed title more than 100 (while 150 is allowed). Search engine may treat you spam if they discover titles are toooooooo lengthy!

How it benefits:
First lets look at an example : A user hits Google with query – Using Orkut Mobile

The output is highlighted in following screenshot (click on it too enlarge)

Point to be noted: Whenever a user hit a query highest weight is given to URL and blog post titles (ofcourse within same pagerank group)
Thats why all this trouble for post titles and file names! It may appear tedious but soon you will be habitual with it! Got it! 😉

Some notes… (You can skip this if I already bored you enough!)
PS1: This small looking post took my 3-4 hours! There are countless search engine optimization exist which applies to Google and other search engine also (I know only few… may be around 50) So feedback is necessary if you guys want me too spend more time writing on this issue!

PS2: This is first time I am writing on topic – SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This field is generally considered as webmasters arena but I see no reason for non-technical people to loose valuable information it carry! Thats why I tried to write keeping in mind naive user! If you think this could be written it better terms please spare some time for your valuable suggestions (via comments preferably)

PS3: is better than XBOX 360! 😛

Tags Bing, Blogger, Blogging, Google, Google Search, Internet Explorer, Security