1. Search

This simple tool allows you to search Google’s image database safely and easily as thumbnails or full size images, with download ready links so you don’t have to open the source site to retrieve it.  Just right click on the image for easy storing and saving. The simple and clear layout of the images displayed, enables you to pick the perfect image for your needs.

2. Settings

For those of us that guard our eyes and the eyes of the young ones around us, the tool bar allows you to browse images in “Safe Mode” to avoid any inappropriate pictures from being displayed.

You can also customize the size the images are displayed, by selecting from Large, Medium, or Icon.

The last setting in the toolbar allows you to decide if the URL of the image should be displayed.  Even if you decide to display it, you don’t have to open it to retrieve the image but It’s an option if you wanted to view the source site.

3. Viewing

As you see above, you can view the images in several different sizes but you can also view full size pictures in a slide show mode. To do this, click on the image you would like to see in full size and either use your arrow keys to see the rest of the images or click the “Next” button.

Of course, there are a few image galleries like Flickr and Photbucket  that are gaining in popularity, but you need to sign up for an account and sign in every time you want to search the database. Again, wasted time. If you need something quick, easy and safe to use on a daily basis, Google Image Ripper is a great option. If you like Google Image Ripper but don’t have good luck with it due to your Internet speed, a Firefox plugin called Greasemonkey provides more of an image selection and faster download times for Google Image Ripper.

Which image gallery is your favorite?

Whether you are looking for something in particular, or whether you just want to unload something on someone who will appreciate it more, there are two apps in particular that do it in an easy-to-manage attractive way, making it unnecessary to subscribe to so many different Craigslist feeds to keep up with the latest ads.

1. Craigslist.

The Craigslist. app opens with the front page, or “The Craigslist Times”, if you will, that shows each category as well as the sub-categories. It automatically sets your location to help witnt to unload something on someone who will appreciate it more, thereh local ads, and also allows you to add additional cities if you wish. In the settings, it allows you to turn off the Search Radar if you would like. You can also choose to use Custom Gestures and whether or not you want the app to display Personal ads or not.

Choosing a category and entering a search term displays a whole page of ads that are relevant to your area as well as available globally. The page is set to keep with “The Craigslist Times” theme, making it look like the classified ads from a printed newspaper.

Selecting an ad opens it on in a larger, full view, complete with pictures. If contact information is not available within the text in the ad, there is also a Reply button on the top left of the ad. The other ads are available in a listing to the left. In the upper right are controls that allow you to place the location of the ad on a map, save it as a favorite, or flag it.

Returning to the listings, as you go through them, you can block out or keep whatever suits your needs. If you’d like to keep an ad, you can draw a “Z” with your finger over the ad, and this crosses it off your list… literally. If you draw a circle around it with your finger, it places a red circle around the ad and adds it to a list of favorites. Entire searches may be saved as well.

This app isn’t just for searching posted ads. You can also post your own ads to Craigslist. Setting up an account helps aid in the process, but isn’t a necessity. A posted ad can use photos as well.

2. Craig’slist

The big draw of the Craig’slist app is in its design and graphics. It, too, allows you to set multiple locations. Instead of having all the categories available on the Home page, it allows you to pick and choose the ones you want to search. It also allows you to choose options such as displaying ads with photos and searching within a pricing range.

The list of items from your search is presented in a new page with even more graphics, and is easily scrolled through. The entire experience of this app seems to utilize the best graphic abilities of the iPad.

Selecting an item on the list takes you to yet another page with all the info from the ad. The contact information, if not listed in the ad, is also listed within the heading at the top, or the item can be added to the favorites from here. There is also an option on the bottom left to go to the original ad which opens it up within the app, making it look like it would within a standard browser.

Going back to the listings view, the list can also be displayed with photos only. Depending on what is being searched for, this could be a very helpful way to scan through a list.

Additionally, the listings view can also be displayed via a map view. All the items in the list are plotted out on a map. If doing a local search, this could be a great aid in the search, as it shows you exactly how far away it is from your own location.

Like with the first app, this one can also place ads on Craigslist, although with this one, a Craiglist account is necessary. It should also be noted that both of these apps are free, yet offer paid versions that remove the ads and offer more options for saving favorites and lists.

Check out these below five displayed job search applications for the iOS that will allow you to search for jobs while you stay on the move, or move to a new place or even if you are just visiting.

1. Jobs

The Jobs app was one of the first released “Job searching” applications for the iOS and thus remains quite popular even toady. In addition, because it is linked to CareerBuilder.com and has nearly 2 million job searches.

Another great feature found in the app is the GPS functionality, which uses your GPS to find jobs near you, so if you ever move to a new city or location you can always try the GPS and see if there are any suitable jobs near you.

You can even create an account on Careerbuilder and send your resume right from your phone, and even save the job listing for later viewing.

Jobs

2. Job Compass

Job Compass is one of the easiest apps to use if you are going for a job search on the go. Just open up the application and check out millions of jobs found in near 5 to a 100 mile radius of your location.

If you happen to find a job you like, you can call up the hiring manager right from the phone, save the job listing for later purposes and send it to your or a friends email address or even send a resume right from your phone.

Job Compass

3. Job Finder

Job Finder makes it easier for a person to search for a job on the-go easily and quickly. Job Finder aggregates jobs from multiple job websites, such as SimplyHired.com, StarTribune.com’s Jobs, Hireability.com, and more.  This gives you the option to search for various jobs from one application and save time, rather than visit each website individually.

Once you chose the type of job you are looking for, i.e. accounting, advertising, insurance, transport, logistics, etc Job Finder will display a list of available job listings to you. You can then read more about it and save the listing for later viewing.

Job Finder

4. Now Hiring

If you are looking for a new job and just want to sort out those tons of ads easily and quickly, check out Now Hiring.

With Now Hiring, you can view job listings, save them for later purposes, and even apply filters to your search to get only the best listings – filters may include search by miles, postcode, date, internship or temporary, etc.

Currently, Now Hiring searches for jobs available in the United States, UK, Germany, France, Spain and even India. The app ensures that only latest job listings are shown, so you know you are applying for new ones and not ones that may have expired.

Now Hiring

5. LinkedIn

Many people already know about LinkedIn and already have an operational and regular updated account on the website. The iPhone application allows users to post an update, search for clients, browse for LinkedIn connections and search for jobs.

The address book can be integrated and you have the ability to search job searches, so that you may view them later on. You can even save your whole search history.

LinkedIn

There you have it folks. These are some great 5 applications that you must have in your iPhone if you are on-the-go and are searching for jobs at the same time.

Image credit: Big Stock Photo

What Charms Do

As if though Windows 7 didn’t make it simple enough, the point of a “charm” is to make your experience more simple and waste less time when moving to essential components in Windows, such as the control panel, known in the newer version as the “settings” window. Honestly, the name change might cause a slight confusion to some people that were used to the control panel nomenclature since the mid 80s when Windows 1.0 came out. On a lighter note, at least the icon remained the familiar icon of a mechanical gear.

Charms were a way of preparing Windows 8 for an ultimate integration with natural user interface (NUI) technology, which allows you to have everything at your fingertips without going through a whole lot of effort. The point of an NUI is to integrate as many basic functions as possible in an environment where your body interacts with the computer by more “natural” means. To see the big picture, try swiping to the right on a tablet with Windows 7 installed. While this might not do anything, Windows 8 shows you all the options you can choose in a “charm,” which shows up at the right side of your desktop. In a non-NUI environment, the equivalent is accomplished by hovering the mouse over the “Start” menu.

Charms You Can Use

So, now that you understand charms, you’d probably be curious about what charms exist inside the main charm (the small “toolbar” that pops up). Your first charm is better known as the “Search” charm. You’re already familiar with the search functionality in Windows, so I won’t have to explain much. However, the charm also allows you to search for other things such as settings and installed applications. This brings you a unique experience that allows you to find your way if you’re ever lost in the new interface.

You also have the “Share” charm. Try writing that a couple of hundred times without accidentally spelling “share charm” as “chare sharm.” All humor aside, the “Share” aspect of Windows 8 allows you to share things using applications that automatically post your material on social networks like Twitter. Microsoft decided to make Windows 8 a more social operating system that allows you to communicate more naturally through its interface.

Other charms include “Start,” “Devices,” and “Settings.” We already spoke about the “Settings” charm earlier, and you surely know what the “Start” charm does. The “Devices” charm isn’t a device manager as you’d expect. Instead, it’s a platform with which you can externalize your media by either printing it, playing it on a particular screen, or sharing it with a device nearby.

Conclusion

Like it or not, charms are going to be a part of your life if you plan to upgrade. It’s best that you get used to these aspects of Windows, although you don’t have to use them exclusively. Voice your opinions, rants, poetry, or gibberish on the comments section below!

VX Search is an automated, rule-based file search solution allowing one to search files by the file type, category, file name, size, location, extension, regular expressions, text and binary patterns, creation, modification and last access dates, EXIF tags, etc. Once you have performed a search, there are also ways to categorize and filter the search result and to copy, move and delete files right within the interface.

VX Search comes in three version: Free, Pro and Ultimate. The Free version is able to index 500,000 files and take up a maximum disk space of 2T while the Pro and Ultimate version are able to index much more files, more disk space and many more premium features.

Once installed, you can start to search files from the main interface.

Click the Search icon and you can type in the search term to perform a search.

Additionally, you can change the filter criteria for it to better search your files. The filter contains a big list of items, including filename, extension, file attribute, file size, created date etc. You can also use a wildcard search or regex to locate those ambiguous files. A good thing is that you can set multiple rules to help you find your files quickly.

Lastly, you can also narrow down to the directories for it to search.

During the first run, it will take some time to index the files in your system. This also means that the first search could take a slightly longer time. Once it has completed indexing the files, subsequent files will be much faster.

One good thing about VX Search is that you in the search result, you can sort it by various criteria, such as by File Type, Extension, Last Accessed Time, Last Modified Time and more. This allows you to zoom in to the file you want quickly.

Free Giveaway

The developer of VX Search has gladly sponsored a 24 hours free giveaway of the premium version: VX Search Pro. The Pro version allows you to index up to 5 millions files, store up to 10 user profiles, perform hierarchical, multi-level file search rules, multi-threaded file search, performance tuning options and many more features.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Download the VX Search Pro Trial version (Pick the version for your system).

• 32-Bit: http://www.vxsearch.com/setups/vxsearchpro_setup_v3.4.38.exe
• 64-Bit: http://www.vxsearch.com/setups_x64/vxsearchpro_setup_v3.4.38_x64.exe

2. Install and run the app.

3. In the right top corner, click the “Register” link and enter the following unlock key:

8185-7216-9801-6495

That’s it.

This giveaway will only be valid for 24 hours (starting from 3pm, 3rd Nov 2011, Pacific Time). Grab it while it lasts!

MakeTechEasier would like to thank VXSearch.com for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interested in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us.

If you have noticed recently, when you perform a search in Google, some of the search results have a profile picture (of the author) displayed beneath the link. There are no special privilege for these authors, nor did they pay Google to do it. If you are a blogger or content creator, you can get your picture in the search result as well, for free. Here is how to do it.

Setup Google Profile

Obviously, if you want to display your Google Profile picture, you need to have a Google Profile. If you already have a Google account (or Gmail address), you already have a Google Profile. Log into your Google account and setup your Google Profile. Remember to upload a photo of you (not any other thing) as it will be used in the search result.

2. Before Google can display your profile picture, you need to establish authorship of your site. This is to let Google knows that you are the original author of your content. To do that, you just have to insert a link to your Google Profile with the parameter “?rel=author” in every single page of your site. For example, you can insert a link at the end of your content.

<a href="https://plus.google.com/1234567891234567?rel=author">Follow me at Google+</a>
<!--https://plus.google.com/1234567891234567 is your Google Profile URL-->

Or insert an empty link if you don’t want anything to show up.

<a href="https://plus.google.com/1234567891234567?rel=author"></a>
<!--https://plus.google.com/1234567891234567 is your Google Profile URL-->

To use Google+ image instead of text, go to this site and enter your Google Profile URL. Grab the generated code and embed it into your content.

3. Next, go to your Google Profile and click “Edit Profile”. At the About tab, click “Contributor to” and enter the name and URL of your website. Save the changes and click “Finished Editing”.

4. Lastly, complete this form so Google can contact you for any implementation issue.

That’s it.

A search engine I’ve been hearing mentioned more and more lately is Blekko, so I decided to take a closer look to see if it actually offers anything different to El Goog’s algorithm. I don’t know if many of you have noticed, but Google’s search results have been looking more and more “gamed” lately, with spam becoming pervasive.

So What’s on Offer?

Blekko pitches itself as a search engine with a difference. Through its use of “slashtags”, it allows you to specify what section of the web you are trying to pull results from. Basically if you want to search for something health-related, for example, you would type “/health keyword” and so on. Blekko claims to filter out content farms, spam and malware. Google’s become quite good at filtering out malware, however as I mentioned earlier, its record on spam and content farms is not looking so great right now. Of course, it’s one thing to claim great features like these, but the proof should be in the proverbial pudding. So, does Blekko deliver?

The Results

Let me preface this by saying that this is a highly subjective analysis, and you are best trying it out for yourself. Anyway, I decided to try a bunch of searches in a variety of niches in both Blekko and Google, to test which search engine delivered more relevant results. I used google.com/ncr in order to ensure that Google was showing non-geographically determined results. For some queries, I ran two searches in Google to compare the results adequately, one using the Blekko slashtag as an extra keyword and one without.

Search 1:
Blekko search: “/health weight loss”
Google search 1: “weight loss”
Google search 2: “health weight loss”

Results: Again, highly subjective, but I found the second set of Google search results to be the most relevant. The first result in Blekko was headed “Vinegar may aid in Fat Loss”, second was “Yoga – Prevention” and third was “Sleep loss limits Fat Loss”, whereas the Google search results #2 were “Healthy Weight Loss and Dieting Tips”, “Healthy Eating and Diet Center” and “Weight Loss – Mayo Clinic”.

Search 2:
Blekko search: “/recipes chocolate cake”
Google search: “chocolate cake recipes”

Results: To be honest, I could not discern a quality or relevance different between these results. A tie.

Search 3:
Blekko search: “/smallbusiness accounting”
Google search: “small business accounting”

Results: Blekko wins this one. It linked to a number of pages that talk about how to select software for accounting, as well as a guide from the IRS. The Google results, on the other hand, were purely commercial – with software companies taking the top two places.

Search 4:
Blekko search: “/travel new york”
Google search: “new york travel”

Results: This one’s a tie. They both showed official NY tourism websites, with the only difference in the top 3 being a Yahoo travel link from Blekko and a NY Times link from Google

Wrap-up

This limited testing of mine suggests that, at the very least, Blekko is worth a look. Especially if you aren’t finding what you want on Google. While there is some overlap in the results, there are also some situations where Blekko shows markedly different results. Please comment on your experiences with Blekko below.

While Google, Bing, and Yahoo! are arguably the leaders in search, there are literally dozens of search engines out there. Many of those engines track your search history and, based on that history, put you in what’s been called a “search filter bubble”.

Enter DuckDuckGo. It’s not your average search engine. Not only does it maintain your privacy, it also has a number of nifty features that make the search engine more useful.

Let’s take a closer look at DuckDuckGo.

Using It

If you want to do a search, just head over to DuckDuckGo. Its front page looks a bit like Google, doesn’t it? Very minimal, very uncluttered, and very easy to understand.

Just type what you want to find — for example, MakeTechEasier — in the search box. Then, press Enter.

OK, nothing you haven’t seen before. But take a look to the right of the results. Notice the list of Search ideas? They apply additional criteria to your search. Click one of the search ideas, say +Tutorials and you get a more focused version of your search.

For the techie (or techie wannabe), there are also tech-related utilities that do more complex calculations, offer useful computing tools — like a whois search and a password generator – and links to cheatsheets.

More Than A Search Engine

But DuckDuckGo does more than search. It has a number of nifty utilities that you might find handy. Click Goodies on the main page. On the Goodies page, you can:

• Do mathematical calculations
• Perform conversions
• Find a list of DuckDuckGo keyboard shortcuts
• Get weather information

And a lot more.

You can also change a large number of settings. Click Settings on the main page. There are settings for how DuckDuckGo handles results, for tightening your privacy options, and for changing the look and feel of the front page.

The settings are easy to change. Select an option from one of the many drop-down lists on the Settings page, and then click the Click here to save and go back link at the bottom of the page.

!Bang

No, MakeTechEasier isn’t trying to shoot you. Using DuckDuckGo’s !Bang feature, you can essentially combine two steps into one: go to a particular site and automatically search for a keyword.

How does it work? Say you want to search Barnes & Noble for a book on WordPress. Just type !bn wordpress in the search box and press Enter. You automagically jump to the Barnes & Noble site and results matching your query appear.

There are !Bangs for over 100 sites. You can find a list of those sites here. The great thing about using a !Bang is that it saves you time. Depending on the site, though, the results may or may not be what you’re after.

If you don’t care about your search results being highly personalized, then you should definitely give DuckDuckGo a close look. You still get great results but with less spam and you don’t have to worry about being trapped in a search filter bubble. On top of that, DuckDuckGo’s other features and functions make it even more useful.

Photo credit: DarkSide

Search Sidebar is a very useful add-on that allows you to search multiple sites with one query and search interface. The best thing is, all the search results appear in your Google search result page, so you don’t have to get used to any new interface.

Once you have installed the Search Sidebar extension, you won’t see any configuration option in your Firefox toolbar. Instead, you will see a search strip at the sidebar when you perform a search in Google (Note that this extension will not work for Google encrypted search).

When you hover your cursor over the icons in the search sidebar, the search result for that site will pop up.

If you are logged in to your Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook LinkedIn or Dropbox account, it can even search your personal account.

To see all the search results, simply click on the blue “WebMynd” button and the strip will expand to show all the search results from different sites.

You can add more sources for it to retrieve the search results or to remove the default source from the list.

Conclusion

Search Sidebar is useful if you search from multiple sources regularly. My personal favorite is the ability to search your personal accounts, like Gmail and Google Docs, without having to visit the sites.

My only gripe is there is no easy ways to organize the search sources. I prefer to have my Gmail account at the top of the list. To do that, I have to first remove Gmail from the list, then re-add it again to make it appear at the top. You have to do this for every other sources. It would be great if the developer can come out with a drag and drop solution to rearrange the search sources.

Search Sidebar is available for Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Gog.is is great for sending a Google search link to someone about a topic. Normally when you search for something like Cars on Google and simply copy the URL, you will have a mess that looks like this.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=cars&aq=f&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=5014d35bb6efb157&biw=1024&bih=632

People sometimes get scared when they see all that gibberish and can’t tell what the link actually is. Gog.is simplifies this. All you need to do is type Gog.is/cars. When the link is clicked or copy and pasted into the address bar, they will see the same results.

Modifiers

There are a few options you can use as modifiers to help narrow the search. You can see them on the Gog.is site, but here are a few useful modifiers.

Separate words by a comma if there are multiple words in the search term (e.g. gog.is/race,cars ) Other options are adding a plus sign (+) or a forward slash (/) between the words.

• imdb: to search IMDB gog.is/imbb:hangover,2
• youtube: or y: to search Youtube. gog.is/y:soccer,tricks
• shop: or s: for shopping. gog.is/s:android

Other modifiers for seeing the stats of the link and Twitter searches can be found here.

What shortcuts for searching can you share?

Alfred for Mac kind of takes on a very similar function. It manages the details, and provides you with the information that you need in order to rock.

Alfred, like any good assistant, runs quietly in the background. Instead of finding him on your dock, you see him hiding up top, near Time machine backup and Internet connectivity indicators. When you want Alfred, all you have to do is click on the hat, and then the worlds “Toggle Alfred”. Then, poof, he is there: ready, willing, and able to get you what you need.

Let’s say that you want to find a lost folder, or documents, or the contact information on the client that you haven’t seen in six months, but suddenly need to contact. All you have to do is start typing and Alfred will give you related results with a fair amount of accuracy. Alfred will, by default, search your programs, Web bookmarks, and files to see if they can find you what you need. If you spend some time in the preferences, it can even be made to search your documents, images, and even your AppleScript’s, making it fairly comprehensive search tool for most users.

If you can’t find you what you need, Alfred will still try to please you, giving you extended search options through sites like Google and Amazon, because any good butler wants to get it right.

Aside from functionality, Alfred has its own fashion sense too. Two styles to be exact. You can change between the light Alfred, and the dark Alfred, depending on which style suits you better. This is a nice change from a lot of productivity apps, and system utilities, that do their job well but are aesthetically less than pleasing.

Another nice option is that if you feel your results aren’t accurate, you can rebuild the index that the program is searching from. Basically, this is meant for times when Alfred can’t find it, but spotlight can. Think of it as the ultimate in flexibility for search software. While you’re in this menu, you will notice a button with the tantalizing words, “Do not press this button,” written on it. Let me save you a little trouble, when you press the button, something funny but not harmful to your system happens.

On the whole, Alfred is really one of your best productivity options in the Mac App store. It doesn’t look to change how you work, it simply looks to make it easier for you to get what you need.

Alfred (iTunes link)

InstanFox is a Firefox extension that allows you to perform instant search for several sites directly from the address bar.

The usage is simple. After installing the extension, all you have to do is to type the keyword for the respective sites follow by a space and your search term (for example, “g bookkeeping“). It will then perform an instant search as you type.

The default websites and keywords supported by InstantFox include:
g » for Google Search
i » for Google Images
m » for Google Maps
y » for Youtube
t » for Twitter
w » for Wikipedia
a » for Amazon
e » for eBay
b » for Bing
yh » for Yahoo
wa » for Wolframalpha
f » for Weather Forecast
c » for Calulator

As good as it gets, there is no room for configuration. If you are thinking of adding your own search engines and keyword, you are out of luck here. In addition, the search is default to Google (international). If you want to perform a localized search, you will be better off loading the Google site in your country domain.

Another problem is that other than Google search, you can experience lag when searching other sites. For example, when you search “e iphone” (search “iphone” in eBay), it will take a whopping 5 seconds to load up the page. While it is still faster than loading the eBay site and type in the search term, it is still nowhere near “instant”.

According to the developer, the future release will see more features like dynamic autosuggest, ability to add custom sites/keyword and to speed up the instant process. We will see how it goes.

Thanks to Janis Leon for informing us about this addon.

InstantFox Addon.

One of the most powerful buttons on an android phone is the search button. You know, the magnifying glass button. If you aren’t using it regularly, perhaps you don’t know what pressing this one button can do for you.

Here are a few tweaks to help you give the Android search button even more power.

In the settings

I know a lot of people don’t go poking around in the settings if they don’t have to. One tip for better searching on Android involves adding some choices to your search.

Press the Android search button and look for the Google icon at the top. This is where you can change how the Android search acts. You can search a bunch of different applications. When you install applications to your Android device, you cannot search these apps by default. You need to go into the settings and allow them to be searched.

To add new applications to the Android search screen, you need to:

1. Press the search button.
2. Press the menu button.
3. Select search settings.
4. Select searchable items.
5. Check all of the boxes for the apps you want to search within.

Now when you go back into the search screen by pressing the magnifying glass (search button). When you press the Google logo next to the search bar, you will see the apps you selected available to search now.

Searchify

Searchify is an application that adds functionality to your Android search button. What I mean is it lets you search certain web pages and search Google using shortcuts in front of your search term. They are essentially search operators similar to the operators for search engines.

A couple of the terms to use before your search term are:

• twt will search twitter for your query
• slang in front of your search will take you to results in the Urban dictionary.

To activate Searchify, install the app from the market. Once it is installed, you will need to follow the steps listed above to activate it in the Android search settings.

LaunchKey

LaunchKey is another application to add even more function to the Android search button. LaunchKey works in a way similar to QuickDesk. By long pressing the Android search button, you can choose 9 application or system shortcuts.

Download LaunchKey APK. After you install and run it for the first time, you will need to do a little configuring. I chose the custom menu option.

From there you will need to long press the Android search button. When you do, you will be asked to choose the default action. Check the box Use by default for this action then select LaunchKey.

Choose what applications or system functions you’d like to have access to by following the onscreen instructions.

Conclusion

The more you can access with fewer clicks, swipes or typing, the more productive you will be using your Android phone. The trick is to keep it simple enough where you do not need to radically change the way you search. Most people struggle when they need to learn a whole new system.

The addition of Searchify and LaunchKey will let you keep doing what you are doing, but adds a few useful features.

What Android productivity tips or apps do you have to share?

image credit: somegeekintn

The advantages of using a PPA is that you can add new application package to your existing repository and install it the way you normally do (by terminal or Ubuntu Software Center). Additionally, when there is new update in the application, you will be automatically upgraded.

With all that said, the only problem with PPA is that not all applications come with a PPA. And for those that have one, it can be difficult to find. For new users, adding the PPA involves the command line, which many people will shun as much as possible. Y PPA Manager aims to make the above process much easier.

Y PPA Manager is a simple tool that allows you to search for PPAs and install them without hitting the terminal. It also allows you to manage (add/remove/purge) your existing PPAs with a few clicks.

Usage

Open a terminal (hopefully this will be the last time you install PPA via the terminal) and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager

Once installed, go to “Applications -> System Tools -> Y PPA Manager“.

There are few options for you to manage your PPAs

Add PPA

If you know the PPA, you can add it to your repository using the “Add PPA” option.

After Y PPA Manager has added the PPA, it will also run a update on your system to retrieve the package files. When it is done (it will notify you via the NotifyOSD), you can go to Ubuntu Software Center to install the application.

Remove PPA

When you select the “Remove a PPA” option, it will show you all the existing PPAs you have installed in your system. You can then select the one you want to remove.

Search for PPA

The best part about the Y PAA Manager is that you can search for PPAs right within the app. Double click the “Search All LaunchPad PPAs” option and perform your search. If there are matching results, it will display in a new window and you can then select the PPA and install it in your system.

Purge PPA

Removing a PPA only prevents the application from being updated. Your installed application will still be the same. On the other hand, purging a PPA will downgrade the packages to the version in the official Ubuntu repositories and disables that PPA. In Y PPA Manager, you can also purge a PPA with the “Purge a PPA” option. Similarly it will display the list of installed PPA and you just select the one you want to purge.

Wrapping up

Most of the functionality in Y PPA Manager are just wrapper for the commonly used commands. Seasoned users might prefer the command line more than using this application, but I am sure that new (or novice) users will appreciate the simplicity and usefulness of this app, and also save you from the terror of the terminal.

One thing that I hope to see is the ability to install applications right after I have added a PPA. People don’t add PPA for fun. They will add PPA so that they can install certain applications not found in the repository. If Y PPA Manager can show the respective applications after adding the PPA and provide an option for the user to install the app, it will be perfect.

What do you think?

Note: To enable Google Instant, your iDevices must be running iOS 4 and above and Android phone must be running Froyo (2.2).

1. Load your mobile browser and go to http://google.com. It will most probably load the mobile version of Google search.

2. Scroll down all the way to the bottom and tap on the link “Go to Google.com”

If your mobile OS supports Google Instant, you should see right below the search field, a line saying “Instant (beta) on“. If it is not ON, you can tap on the link to turn it on. Similarly, you can tap on the OFF link to turn it off.

3. Now, start typing on the search field and you will be able to see the instant search-as-you-type result.

In Android phone, the instant search results might be blocked by the on-screen keyboard. Press the back button to hide the keyboard. In iPhone, tap anywhere on the screen to hide the keyboard.

How do you make use of Google Instant on your mobile phone?

Setting Google Instant as the homepage

While the default homepage in Firefox is set to the Google search, you will find that you can’t perform any instant search on it. The reason being, the Firefox Google home page is a custom page created by Mozilla that doesn’t come with the instant feature. To set Google Instant as your homepage, go to the “Preferences -> General” and set Google.com as your homepage.

For those who are not residing in the United States, you will also find that Google will auto-redirect the Google.com site to a country-specific site. For example, I am living in Singapore, so whenever I access Google.com, it will redirect me to Google.com.sg which does not come with the instant search feature. To fix this, you have to set the homepage URL to google.com/ncr or http://www.google.com/webhp?sclient=psy. This will ensure that the actual Google instant Search page is shown.

Accessing Google Instant from the Awesome bar

To enable Google instant search from the awesome bar, install the InstantFirefox extension.

Once installed, you will be able to perform a Google instant search from the awesome bar.

There are two things that you need to take note:

1. While performing the search, the dropdown search result will overlap with the instant search. This can be very irritating at times.

2. This extension will only work on new tab. If you are using extensions, like Speed dial, that also take control of the new tab, this InstantFirefox extension won’t work.

Accessing Google Instant search from the search bar

You can easily add custom search engine to the search bar with the Add To Search Bar extension.

Install Add To Search Bar extension

Go to http://www.google.com/webhp?sclient=psy.

Right click on the Search field and select “Add to Search Bar”. When prompted, enter “Google instant” as the new search engine name.

Note: You won’t get instant search result when you type on the search bar. However, you can just type the first few characters of your search term, press Enter and it will bring you to a Google instant search result page. You can then continue your search from there.

That’s it. What other ways do you make use of Google Instant in Firefox?

By site specific search I mean that you can use a search engine to find content from a specific blog, website or forum. Sometimes you may want to search a popular blog for some tutorial and it’s not always very comfortable to open blogs in different tabs and use their search box to find the content you are looking for.

Instead, you can search any website from Google, Yahoo or Bing. The advantage is that you can filter all the posts that match with specific keywords directly from a search engine.

Perform a Site Specific Search With Google, Yahoo or Bing

The search engines index the content of all websites daily and by using the site operator, you can limit your search within a specific website. The general syntax for the site operator is keyword site: domain.com

For example: performing this site search query shows all the posts from maketecheasier.com which contain the word “Images” in the post title:

Using the same syntax, you can perform a site specific search at Yahoo and Bing as well. For example: This search at Yahoo and this one at Bing shows all the posts that contain the word software in the post title. Let’s take a look at the search results pages now:

Using the At Operator

Google recently introduced an “at” operator which lets you perform the site specific searches more easily. The syntax is keywords at domain.com

This operator shows more results from a specific domain and it’s quite easy to remember as well.

Please note that you can use regular phrases and not just single phrases, when using the site operator or the “at” operator in any of the above search engines.

Using the Advanced Search Options

All the search engines have an “Advanced search” option which you can be used to perform a search within a single or group of domains. Let’s take Google as an example.

Go to the Google homepage and click “Advanced search” placed just right to the Google search box. You will be taken to a new page which looks something like the following:

Enter the name of the site you want to search in the text field “Search within a site or domain” .Then enter the keywords or phrases in the “all these words” text box. You can further exclude some words in the “don’t show pages” text box.

When you are done, hit “Advanced search” and Google will return the results from the specific domain of your choice. The advanced search has an advantage when there are an overwhelming number of results from a specific domain and you want to exclude some keywords from your search (e.g. using Firefox in the main text box and using linux in the excluding text box shows results which contain the word Firefox but not the word Linux.)

The procedure is exactly the same for Yahoo Advanced Search and Bing as well, take a look at the following screenshots:

Search a Specific Site From your Browser – Firefox and Google Chrome

Another neat way to perform a site specific search is to use a browser extension and add a custom search box in Firefox awesome bar. This will allow you to search any website directly, without having to open it and use the internal built in search box. Here are the steps:

1. Install the Add to Search Bar extension and restart Firefox.

2.Go to the website where you would want to perform a custom search often. Right click the search box and choose”"

3. Now click the Firefox Awesome bar and select the custom search engine you just added.

4. Now you can simply type the keywords and hit “Enter” to perform a site specific search using the Firefox’s search box. The extension allows you to add any number of sites, so if you can multiple blogs or websites without any problem.

What methods you use to perform a site specific search? Please let us know your ideas through a comment.

Many search engines have areas where they excel over its competition. However, unless you are a tech type, Bing’s entrance into social search didn’t exactly make it to everyone’s news feed.

For those of you who use the search engine best suited for the job, here are a few searches you may want to try on Bing next time you have the need.

1. Travel plans

Let’s face it, planning a trip is a pain. It takes a good chunk of your time to find good deals, the right places to stay, look up reviews… By the time you get it all planned, you really do need the vacation.

If you go to bing.com/travel, you can do all of those things in one spot. It searches the major travel sites and airlines to get you the best deal.

If you are still aren’t sure of your destination, you can get alerts emailed daily when airfare prices change. To get the alerts, you need to sign up for an account. The account is not anything more that a place to save your searches and an email address to email your alerts to.

2. Search results as an RSS feed

When researching a topic with most search engines, you are constantly going back to search the same terms. With Bing, you can use your RSS feed reader to keep track of your web search results.

It is just like any other site with an RSS feed. Simply search like normal and click the RSS icon. If you are using Firefox, it is right in the address bar. This feature work with most searches, just not videos and images.

3. Salary

For those of you who are in need of a job or perhaps looking for a career change, the salary search will be music to your ears.

[desired job title] salary

For this example, I typed mechanical engineer. The result shows a result with the most relevant info above all the links.

4. Share search results

You have the ability send your individual search results via email or publish them on your Twitter account or Facebook wall via Bing. This may not seem to neat at first, but at minimum it will save you time copying and pasting the link into another application.

1. To the right of the search result, there is an arrow. Hover over it to show more information and sharing options.

2. Click on the envelope to initiate your default email app. Similarly, you can click on the Facebook or Twitter icons to share.

5. Visual search

The visual search makes looking up anything online more pleasant. It is a well laid out collage of information. Search like normal, then click on Visual Search.

Once you are a couple selections into the search, it displays quite a bit of information. Here is a quick example.

6. Search for a file type

When searching the web for something specific like a document, you can use an operator to aid in narrowing the results. Type in your search term then contains: then the file type.

Here is an example using soccer sites with videos. soccer drills contains:mov The results show over 4000 sites which have videos about soccer drills. This operator will work with a bunch of file types. Some of which are PDF, doc and mp3.

What other non-Google search engine tips do you have?

Change the default search language

Select the “Language Tools” on the right side of the Google browser.

Tip 1: Using Translated Search.

The translated search feature allows you to search a foreign language using the language you are most familiar with.
Here is an example of how to use the Translated search.

By keying in “Bern tourist information” and selecting the language preferences as: French, German and selecting, “My language” as English, the following will happen while translating.

1. The query gets translated into the language preferred (in this case French, German) and the system finds the results in that language.

2. The results found are translated back into the language chosen as “My language” (in this case English).

Here are the search results.

Tip 2: Using Translate Text

Enter the phrase or text to be translated into the text box and choose the language for conversion. When you click on translate, the text will immediately get translated into the selected language.

Example: By translating the text “Catchy lines”, from English to German, we get the following result.

Tip 3: Translating a Webpage

Translation of a web page can be done using this feature. For translation, user has to enter the Web address on the search bar and select the conversion language. By clicking on “Translate” the relevant web page will get translated to the language selected by the user.

In Google Chrome, whenever you visit a foreign language site, a toolbar will appear to ask if you want to translate the site.

Tip 4: Google UI in your language and visiting Google’s local domain sites

This feature allows you to change the language of Google.com to your favorite language (other than English). Alternatively, you can click on the flag to access the Google local domain for that country.

Tip 5: Advanced Search

The advanced feature of Google will be useful if you’re not getting what you are seeking with the basic search. It features a more precise search for zeroing into your search. The term “Advanced Search” may give you a feeling of hardness; however, it is relatively easy to use.

The “Language” part on the “Advanced search” can be used to restrict results to pages that are written in a specific language. Here is an example, to find pages in Spanish with recommendations for hotels in Andalucía- Spain.

Which method do you use to tackle foreign languages searches in the Web? Share with us in the comments.

Image credit: Danard Vincente