Adding Google Web search to Firefox4 June 2024 | 12:00 pm
Adding Google Web search to Firefox
Recently I read this blog post which highlights some bad practices by Google and also provides a way to make the new web search results tab the default search provider for Vivaldi browser.
In that post, the author lists some fixes for other browsers. In this post I'm gonna show another way to fix it for Firefox, a solution that doesn't rely on external websites or redirections for it to work.
On your Firefox, go to the Bookmarks → Manage Bookmarks menu (also accessible via CMD+SHIFT+O or CTRL+SHIFT+O).
Click the Bookmark Menu category on the left side panel and using the gear icon menu, Add a bookmark.
Fill up the details just like that original post, with the following URL:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14Named it Google Web Search and add a keyword gw. It will look like this:
From now on, you can type gw <search terms> in Firefox address bar to search google and go to the web tab for results.
You can create your own personalised search keywords for other sites as well. Here is a screenshot showing some of mine:
For example, check out the selected bookmark that allows me to search Kobo store for books directly from my address bar by typing kobo <search terms>.
Another way to add such convenience search methods, is to right-click inside search field in a site you want to add a search bookmark for and select
And then fill in the keyword you want to use:
After adding that bookmark, I can search Unsplash by typing unsplash <search terms> on the address bar.
If you want to learn more about keyword searches, go to Firefox documentation.
Feed and Blogrolls Discovery23 May 2024 | 12:00 pm
Feed and Blogrolls Discovery
I recently stumbled upon a really nice blogpost about adding blogrolls to your website. That post led me to another post with specs for blogrolls, which by the way are just OPML files.
I love OPML and outliners. I think they're an underrated format and workflow.
Based on those two posts, I added a blogroll <link> to this site. Now, my <head> section has RSS, Atom, and Blogroll links in it. Feels super nice to offer such files.
That got me thinking that I had no idea which sites were offering such things, so those of you that know me know what I did next, I created a WebExtension to display a page action when it detects RSS, Atom, or Blogroll on the site you're reading.
The page action popup lets the user open or copy the link to the feeds and blogroll. If attempting to open a feed link, the add-on will change the protocol to feed: because that seems to be what most native and web readers are using to intercept RSS/Atom feed links. If copying then the original protocol is preserved.
The add-on has been published to Firefox Add-ons. The source code lives here (MIT License, no build system, badly written JS but it works).
Toublan, Bordeaux, and Merlot walk into a Barn1 April 2024 | 12:00 pm
Toublan, Bordeaux, and Merlot walk into a Barn
The pig surprised everyone. Often, pigs will do that when they either start talking and become the most lovable friend you could ever had, or, when they suddenly sprout wings and start flying. Our pig, the one we're talking about here, is a very unique pig, but when this story starts this fact is not yet known.
He was named Toublan after the last wine bottle that the farmers had the weekend before. His brother and sister were also named after wine: Bordeaux and Merlot. As the months went by, the wine pigs led an unremarkable life just munching about and being pigs. The kids would play with them and Toublan even learned to play fetch with cabbages. The kids considered that remarkable given that his brother Bordeaux would always eat the cabbages instead of bringing them back. It was said that his sister Merlot could fly when no one was looking, and that was how they explained the food that went missing from the upper deck of the barn, but that was not something anyone could prove.
One day, they found Merlot on the roof of the barn. No one was sure how she got there. The commotion was so loud that neighbours came to watch the impossible scene. Which caused Merlot to be scared and slip. As she rolled down the roof, her older brother Bordeaux screamed "Fuck! She's gonna fall!" much to the surprise of everyone present including Merlot who squeaked at the unfamiliar voice coming out of her brother.
That was too much for granny, a potentially flying pig and a definitely talking one were not something her heart was prepared to cope with and it just gave up.
Amidst the mayhem, Bordeaux screamed "Merlot, go get help!" upon which, blushing like a tomato, Merlot took flight in the direction of the hospital. Three people passed out at the sight of the flying pig. One of them hitting the barn fusebox, causing a short that shut everything down.
The lights went down just as the farmer was about to try to revive granny with the emergency defribillator.
"Fuck it" said the farmer and simply unplugged it from the wall socket. He slowly walked towards Toublan and plugged it into his nose. The machine beeped and a couple seconds later, after a huge shock, granny shouted "The pig is talking!" and collapsed again after seeing the sparks flying from Toublan nose.
Outside, an air ambulance guided by a flying Merlot landed. A kid looking at Toublan gleefully shouted "It's Pigachu!"