Permanently turning off Google Instant (update)

If anyone noticed, the Google instant configuration has now changed since the last time. Looks like it was very recent.

Before it was simply an on off switch, the setting of which sometimes Google remembered, but most of the time didn’t. Now you have more options.

Clicking on the gear on the top righthand bar will bring up this page…

Never, you bastards!

I don’t know if this time it would make any difference at all, but the last time, the setting only lasted as long as you didn’t use any other Google service (E.G. Gmail) and then logout.

It’s 3:09AM right now, so I’m not going to bother testing this. Let’s just hope that this time they took a hint from all the feedback.

Permanently turning off Google Instant

Don’t know about the rest of you, but I really do enjoy using the “Back” button. It helps me keep track of what I already searched and, in my old “almost 30” age, I need to save my sanity as much as I can.

I put up with this for a long time now, but apparently all the new changes to the Google homepage came with an auto-falconpunchtogroin-reset feature.

I was going into the search settings and changing this, but if I check my Gmail, logout, and go back to a Google search, whatever settings I saved are all gone. It also seems to randomly change back at times.

So here’s the next best solution; instead of http://www.google.com, make the following your homepage URL instead :

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0

(Edit 12/22 : You can also use the Firefox start page instead which is much leaner and still be able to keep the autocomplete, which I did find useful at times.)

This way, you don’t have to bother with settings or punching your screen in frustration, which I have to be really careful about with my girly hands and all.

It strikes me as odd that a company that allegedly prides itself in “Dogfooding” (I.E. eating its own dogfood — a term used internally in the company when releasing new services and features) would find no one in the office that would consider this asinine in the extreme.

Also, I seem to be correct that this HTML5 trend is pushing more and more client-side scripting junk on the browser and Google among others are forgetting the fact that part of the reason it became famous (aside from search accuracy) was that it was simple.

Google and Self-induced depression

Ever stop and think to yourself “I’m just too damn happy today”? Well, rest your happy head and prepare to loose faith in humanity…

Would we...

Will I...

Why would...

Why will...

Why is...

Why... (OK seriously, what's with the green poop questions)

Why can...

Who will...

Who can...

Should we...

Should I...

Could I...

Can we...

Can I...

And my all time favorite…

Is it wrong... Is so wrong on so many levels, I don't even know what to think.

Turn off Firefox3 address bar bookmark search.

Firefox address bar Bookmarks = Incredibly Annoying!

I’m sure there are some users who find this useful, but considering I have, literally, a hundred+ bookmarks and I get to see this every time I enter in any character, it’s really annoying.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about…

Well intentioned, but annoying for me

I keep all of them organized into folders so I always find what I’m looking for. This was really unnecessary for me.

So how to turn it off?

Go to your about config > search for urlbar > select browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped and set it to true.

In about:config, find browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped and set it to true

There… Problem solved!

Like I said before, there are plenty of people who would find this useful. But I’m not one of them. I’m sure a lot of others out there aren’t either.

Update

On second thought, that number of a hundred+ bookmarks may be slightly off…

Here is a list of those folders..

I didn’t really take a moment to glance at this

And a few samples within… Yes, there are folders within folders

Design related bookmarks

Electronics related bookmarks

Upon closer inspection, the actual number may be several hundred to a thousand bookmarks.
Each folder has about the same number of links in them… Yikes!

Is America screwed?

The latest string of Google searches may indicate just that :

Is America...

I didn’t make that up, folks. That’s already what’s posted up on the Internet.