Get back the Black Bar Toolbar on Google

Why do Google remove efficient mouse based UI's for favor touch screen based UI's on PC platforms?  After the trouble everyone was having with the Google Compose in Gmail, this is another nail in the coffin.

The issue access to apps like "Drive",  "Calendar", "News", etc is NOW restricted by the need to navigate a grid all the way on the right side of the screen.  This focus stealing design is no way efficient and only tailors a user experience for touchscreen users.
What used to be "Look, Point, Click" is now, "Scroll Right, Click, Look, Read, Click".

Great F*ckin Work

There is a solution for the new time robbing issue:
Install Stylish from Userstyles.org or from FF Addons page.
Install Google black nav bar returns from the Userstyles.org page.

On a serious note, these stop gap solutions just to gain user efficiency is wearing thin.  And it is of a similar road to being frustrated with all the baggage tolerated using Microsoft Windows products, which lead to finding alternatives.


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Hate the new Gmail Compose!!!!

Why destroy something, if it works.

This new stupid compose window is geared to idiot hipsters and definately not power users.  The stupid window is smaller and the UI is not intuitive, involving more clicks than ever before.

Google have been stubborn to change, despite  thousands of people complaining on the forums.  The only way to resolve this issue, is to dump gmail as your favorite email client.  If you can tolerate Thunderbird, then the Imap access may be reasonable, otherwise ZOHO MAIL is another solution.

Zoho has the advantage of being linkable with your existing gmail account and it is free.  When sigining up with Zoho, you may see options to pay for hosting, however there is a small option for a FREE user@zoho.com.
Then it is a simple matter of forwarding your existing gmail mail to Zoho.
The other main advantage of Zoho is the absence of ads, however this may not be anything new if your browser is running adblock.


UPDATE: use oldcompose extension. 


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How to get writing text back on gmail icons button labels

Ever since google changed the gmail interface, the labels on the buttons have changed from English text to some crappy symbols which have no apparent meaning.  We are talking about the "Archive" "Refresh" "Delete" buttons..

They have made excuses to people like, the position has not changed or the labels have the meaning when you hover over them with the mouse, but should we have to swallow this BS just so illiterates can use their email without feeling violated?

Anyway, google has succumbed to public pressure and made a option for uses to go back the having text on buttons in the gmail online interface.  The switch is easy:

In the gmail interface, click the gears icon.  Then click settings.
In the General tab, you will see "Button Labels", change this to text.
Relax, and enjoy  your new freedom.




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Workaround for drive.google.com being blocked at work docs.google.com docs drive

Anyone that has changed over from google docs to google drive, will learn that it is a one way process with no looking back.  They will also learn that some companies have blocked access to cloud sites, such as google drive.  Hence a complete denial access to any documents.

The problem is usually caused by a denial to the URL drive.google.com  This will block access to the list of documents and any further access to documents in a corporate environment.  The documents have a URL of docs.google.com/... which is usually whitelisted.

There are a few workarounds to this issue, one is to gain access the URL of your document on a non blocked computer and emailing it to the blocked computer.  The URL of the document will begin with docs.google.com, which is not blocked in my case.

If you need access to the documents list and documents then do this:
1.  Login to the gmail account where your blocked documents are kept within
2.  Go to Jolicloud and sign up
3.  Go to my.jolicloud.com/#!/dashboard and click the green + icon in the top left hand corner
4.  Do a search on Jolicloud  for the app "Google Docs", its the one with the subtitle "Google Docs that isn't blocked by some businesses or secure networks."
5.  Install the app and authorise it to access your documents from your goggle account.
6.  Go to my.jolicloud.com/#!/files and click the Google Docs  icon and your google documents will "magically appear"

I have no picture, but can confirm that this works.  If your organsiation has blocked access to jolicloud, then try the first method.

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[solved] Google Search Redirects, cant copy links greasemonkey

I hate the way google redirects it links.  If I want to copy a link for a email or something, I get some garbage that is no where near the direct link.
If you are using firefox, install Greasemonkey and then get this script from userscripts.org
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/24102
No more redirects, and the browsing experience looks good.


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Lightweight Offline Home Search Page for Android Devices

Every time you open a new window on the Android browser it loads a home page, usually google page by default.
Every time that pages loads, data is sent through the internet to retrieve that page and in most cases the GPS is activated to determine your location to "better help find you".

I have written a small and simple "offline" search web page, to be stored on the SD card and to be configured as the home page.

Advantages:

• Has both DDG and Google search fields
• Instant loading
• Uses less data
• Customisable
• Configurable

Disadvantages:

• My version is very plain
• Your friends wont understand the advantage
• It will be harder for google to track you

Hopefully your web browser does not break the code or go to http://pastebin.com/xr4cSGfd



<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="content-type">
Search



<input class="query" size="40" name="q"
value="" autofocus="" type="text"><input
class="submit" value="Quack" type="submit">

<input name="q" size="31" maxlength="255"
value="" type="text"><input value="Google Search"
type="submit">







But is should look like this if you make a html page, name it search.html

Go ahead and put this on your android device, I put mine in /sdcard/Documents/search.html

Now in you android browser, type in the location of the search.html file
file:///sdcard/Documents/search.html

Make sure it works for you, then set it as your home page!



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Duckduckgo.com my new search engine

Why is google becoming like Microsoft.  M$ think they can control people and tell them what they should like and google are doing the same.


Lately the implementation of google instant on searches and their slight UI tewakings have caused me to start scratching for alternatives.

Duckduckgo.com seems to have all the advantages I want.

No Bubbling
No Tracking
SSL Searches
Ability to do google only searches

Plus you can tailor your search engine and save it by a cookie or a custom URL which has your setting within the URL.

Give it a shot today.  https://duckduckgo.com/






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Geo Locate Wifi Routers using andriodmap

This proof of concept site http://samy.pl/androidmap/ works very well in finding wifi routers.  It does this by gathering google information obtained from android devices.


So perhaps you are trying to hone in on the location of a nearby AP.  If you have the BSSID then you can punch it in to get a ball park of the location.  It is a great wardriving recon application.



Try it out for yourself, all you need is the mac address of your router.  I got this mac from the example page on the interweb.

Turn off Google Instant [Solved]

I hate google instant when using Firefox.  It steers away from my original search terms, and on flaky connections it is a pain in the arse.

The settings on google, to turn off instant are cookie based and depending on your browser settings, instant my be back on when you restart your browser.  So many people have complained on the web about this and still google have not done anything to help the people out.

Frequent complaints include:

• Steering away from the users original search terms.
• Network congestion from multiple call backs to google servers.
• Halting of instant due to multiple call backs causing instant to freeze.
• The ability to opt out of instant not sticking on browsers.

There have been a few solutions on the web so far, some which have temporally worked or not at all.  These include Firefox / Greasemonkey plugins.

Only one solution so far has seemed to work, i involves changing setting on browser and is not cookie or session based.  This solution will not follow you around but at least will disable instant on the computer you set it on, and it will stick.

Reference:  http://www.ehow.com/how_7190054_disable-instant-search-permanently-firefox.html

Press the "Ctrl" and letter "N" keys to open a new Firefox browser window. Type "About:Config" in the address bar. Press the "Enter" key.

Read the warning. Press the "I'll Be Careful, I Promise!" button.

Type "Firefox" in the blank field labeled "Filter."

Double-click on the following entry to open a dialog box: "general.useragent.extra.firefox."

Type "www.google.com" into the blank field. Click the "OK" button to close the dialog box. Exit out of the browser window.

Open a new Firefox browser session and navigate to Google's search engine page. Begin typing in search terms and notice no instant!

How to add Secure Google to Firefox

Surfing the web is great, but there is always a possibility that someone could be listening in on your traffic.  Running SSL encrypted sessions help, as long as you attentive enough to check the verifying signature and it possibly? could give you a indication if someone is doing a MITM attack + SSLSTRIP at the same time.

Google have introduced SSL encrypted searches some time ago, the search address can easily be recognised by the https:// URL and the indication of a padlock on the bottom left hand corner of the Firefox browser.

To add Secure Google search in firefox:

Go to Firefox add-ons page and search for Secure Google, proceed add it to Firefox.

 
 Once that is done, select Secure Google Search from the search bar.

Enjoy secure searches, note the verification authority and the https:// in the URL bar.