Re: [still OT?] Google cookie problem - was [Re: [OT] Google search default lang.]
On 14/08/11 23:31, � wrote:
On Sun, 14 Aug 2011 23:01:55 +1000, Scott Ferguson wrote:
On 14/08/11 19:20, � wrote:
On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:10:39 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
Camaleón wrote:
(...)
Google is now forcing their users to use cookies
Google has used cookies since day one.
Not as agressively as it is doing now.
Mea culpa - I thought that comment was made by Richard...
Cookies were used -and are sill used- for tracking users and displaying
adds (which I find it okay) but I've never had to use a specific URI for
Google to look like it was used to.
It's annoying - some of the Google people are very responsive, and other
are downright obtuse.
Politely letting them know you miss the functionality helps - Sagar
Kamdar and Matt Dunn are very nice, , smart, responsive, and helpful
(and influential). They understand tipping points and the importance of
keeping bleeding edge adopters happy. *You* should find a friendly ear
there ;-p :-D
As Google has been adding more and
more services it also has started to be more and more strict to what they
services have to look like.
Some of that is understandable as the products leave beta and have to be
supported better (the Ned and Chav factor). But they could give us the
choice to between beta testing products with choices, or using the
stricter production products (closing the labs is one of my biggest
complaints).
They're not needed for searching.
Oh, of course. If I would have needed cookies for a simple search I would
have ditched Google since years :-)
Edit => Preferences => Privacy => In the history section use the
drop-down bar to select Custom => untick both of the cookies boxes.
And what you get with that setting turned on?
No cookies. Which don't bother me - I clear them at the start of new
sessions (and I never install flash, so flash cookies are not an option).
I don't care about tracking, I allow all cookies for all of the sites, is
just that I delete them when I close the browser because I don't want my
browser get bloated in the next months.
You will need first party cookies for gmail and other services - there's
no other way to provide the functionality requires (javascript doesn't
do "back").
Again, allowing cookies is not a problem for me.
I neither see "apparent problems" (if by "no apparent problems" we mean
here that it simple works :-) ) when using Google search, is just that
I can't get it to work the way I like...
- Can you remove auto-complete? Nope
"Apparently" it's still possible in preferences - but preferences
requires you to be logged into iGoogle, which counts as no (for me).
Exactly! How in the hell would I need to "login" in a web search engine
for getting such option? That's no-sense.
If we could set those options in a plain text file... oh wait - that's
like cookies :-D
Seriously - most of the privacy concerns Google users have would
evaporate if Google cookies were renamed Google preference and stored
~/.google_prefs with human readable values like:-
autocomplete=off
autosuggest=off
etc, etc.
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0 no longer seems to work :-( Maybe
if it annoyed me sufficiently I'd work out how to kill it (it's only
javascript).
"complete=0" works for me.
When I next have time to create some more Mycroft search plugins I'll
try embedding that.
- Can you get rif off the small preview image? Nope
Do you mean those annoying mouse-over javascript pop-ups page previews?
xul-ext-noscript fixes that.
I know there are many addons to avoid that but I neither want to keep my
browser full of third-party addons... an addon to fix each of the things
Google breaks? No, thanks, better fix Google>:-)
NoScript (and that's the Debian build) is the single most useful
Iceweasel plugin (IMNSHO). AdBlock_Plus'd be the second.
- Can you instruct Google search to stay in the language you started
browsing with? Nope
I believe you can. Use one of the Mycroft search plugins:-
http://mycroft.mozdev.org/google-search-plugins.html
Please try one and provide some feedback. There are a few about:config
search setting in Iceweasel that include %LOCALE% in the URI, and I've
yet to fully understand all of them. If what you want is not there (in
Mycroft search plugins) - let me know what language, search locality,
and country, etc are required and I'll put one up (when I get some more
time).
Make sure you turn off geolocation in Iceweasel to rule out problems
there:- about:config => geo.
But I don't want to be plenty of addons! And what happens when you are
not in your computer or you use more than one browser? You have to care
about getting every addon to fix Google services just to have a happy
browsing? Nooope, not me. I'm not going to waste my time on that. When I
feel tired enough of what Google provides I will just do the same I did
with their webmail and use another MUA, so in this case, I'll use another
search engine.
I use two extensions and one search plugin - they live on a gmail
account, so I install them where ever I use a browser. Generally I have
access to my own machine - otherwise I've got USB keys (I prefer not to
use computers I don't own).
I would have ditched Google search some time ago but I like their
addons like Image search and News. I wish DuckDuckGo could provide a
similar facilities...
Try Blekko - it's pretty good too. (anything but Bling)
Looks nice and also search for images. Thanks, I will add it to my
bookmarks, very next to the Google entry...
The search plugins are the OpenDesktop search plugins - usable in most
browsers (including MSIE) - it's those default search engines in the
search box up the top right of Iceweasel. They're nothing like the
convoluted things called extensions, just a dozen lines of plain text in
an xml file.
Greetings,
Cheers
--
“People say "Iraq had the fourth largest army in the world". Yeah,
maybe, but you know what, after the first 3 largest armies, there's a
REAL big [beep] drop-off. The Hare Krishnas are the 5th largest army in
the world, and they've already got all our airports.
”
~ Bill Hicks
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