Here are five Firefox add-ons that help keep you safe on the Web without hindering your full use out of its best services. (Note that last month I described free Facebook security scanners, and in April I wrote about Facebook's Safety Center.)
1. Get more control over what Google serves up
Millions of people use Google services without every changing a setting other than their password from time to time (maybe). The OptimizeGoogle add-on is for the people who want to tweak the Google search interface. The program also lets you customize Gmail and remove ads from these and other Google services, including YouTube.
I didn't realize just how many ads appear in Google search results until OptimizeGoogle replaced them with links to the results on other search engines, including Yahoo, Bing, Wikipedia, Cuil, and Twitter. You can block ads on all Google services or selectively. The program also lets you make the Google cookie UID anonymous, prevent cookies from reporting to Google Analytics, and filter your search results.
1. Get more control over what Google serves up
Millions of people use Google services without every changing a setting other than their password from time to time (maybe). The OptimizeGoogle add-on is for the people who want to tweak the Google search interface. The program also lets you customize Gmail and remove ads from these and other Google services, including YouTube.
I didn't realize just how many ads appear in Google search results until OptimizeGoogle replaced them with links to the results on other search engines, including Yahoo, Bing, Wikipedia, Cuil, and Twitter. You can block ads on all Google services or selectively. The program also lets you make the Google cookie UID anonymous, prevent cookies from reporting to Google Analytics, and filter your search results.
