Tag Archives: Google

Goro page when making google your default search provider

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’ve been setting up a few old computers with new installs of XP.

The biggest issue with using internet explorer 8 at the moment is that if you reside outside the USA, microsoft will not let you select google as a default search provider.

The next step is to do a google search for:

google default search provider

And the top item is:

http://www.google.com/homepage/search/

Ie: google “seems” helpful enough to do what Microsoft refuses to do.

But there is a problem:

You go to the page, click on the button that says: “make google my search provider”, then go through the steps to complete the action.

You now feel warm and fuzzy, because the search box at the top right says google…

But when you try to search, you get:

goro1

At first glance, I thought I made a mistake, but a closer look shows that Goro is actually part of Google.

So now I’m thinking: did Google somehow stuff up their attempt to change the default search provider away from Bing?

Or is Google trying to force people to switch to a google account?

I tried to login to my google account, and the search provider box then gives me:

goro2

So its now obvious that google have shot themselves in the foot (and Microsoft can breath a tiny sigh of relief… with the unfolding disaster otherwise know as Windows 8, Microsoft need all the help they can get!).

So what do I do? IE8 (as far as I can see) no longer allows you to manually setup your own search provider by entering the appropriate URL… so thats no longer an option.

The eventual (ugly) solution is:

Go to control panel, and temporarily change your “Regional and Language Options” in Control panel… from English (Australia) to English (Untied States 🙂 ) . Then, when you tell IE8 that you want to find more providers, you are given a much wider choice, including Google.

Its starting to feel like Google is getting too big, and are heading down the same path as Microsoft… Lots of big plans, but forgetting to take enough care to dot the “i” and cross the “t”

google 404 redirect nginx

Computer Aid Posted on by

This computer had an interesting problem:

You could visit most websites, except for google and youtube.

When you go to google.com, you get a 404 error, and then, underneath, in small writing: nginx

Also: system restore would not work.

A scan with malwarebytes removed a few infections, but the google problem persisted.

A search uncovered a few possible solutions:

  • Make sure the hosts file at: C:windowssystem32driversetc only has one entry (127.0.0.1 localhost)
  • go to: internet settings -> connections -> lan settings -> make sure no proxy settings are ticked
  • make sure the internet dns settings are obtained automatically
  • use tdsskiller to remove hidden rootkits

In my case, malwarebytes fixed everything… but I still needed to use tdsskiller to fix the problem with google (which was caused by a rootkit).

I wonder if malwarebytes is capable of detecting and removing rootkits?

youtube html5 doesnt work on firefox

Computer Aid Posted on by

I recently found a strange problem:

I tried looking at a youtube video, but it didn’t work.

After some experimentation, I found that it was partly due to youtube using HTML5, and partly due to firefox (chrome worked correctly, and firefox displayed other non-youtube HTML5 pages correctly).

So what gives?

And how do I fix it?

Well, it turns out that YouTube is using a proprietary codec to show these video… but only Chrome is “licensed” for this particular codec.

So its not Firefox’s “fault”… its google / YouTube who are “breaking” the HTML5 standard… Yeah, ok, technically, they are not breaking the standard, but using a proprietary codec is a good way of turning people away.

I hope this situation doesn’t start to mirror the weird GIF situation from many years ago.

If only Google would release this codec to the public (or use an existing codec), then we wouldn’t have this stupid situation.

Google: get your act together!

How to add Google as a search provider in ie9

Computer Aid Posted on by

Interesting… I was recently setting up a new PC, and then installed IE9.

So far, its all quite simple.

Then I get the usual annoying setup wizard, that asks all the questions designed to confuse a novice computer user (do you want to activate web slice, etc).

At the end, I expect to be taken to a web page, where I can select google as my default search engine… but google isn’t there!

So whats microsoft up to?

I quickly find many posts saying:

hey, its easy, just go to: tools -> manage add-ons -> search providers -> find more search providers

But the problem is that I’m taken to a microsoft page that gives me the following choices:

  • Bing
  • Ebay Australia
  • Grays Online

So where is google?

It turns out that microsoft believes that if you don’t live in the USA, then you don’t want to use google as a search provider…

But the solution is easy when you know how…

Just navigate to:

Google search provider in IE9

Then pick google on the left.

I wonder how long this page will remain available, before Microsoft decide to make it “disappear”?

New Google tab icon (favicon)

Computer Aid Posted on by

I went to google today & saw an odd icon on my browser tab:

I think it looks awful.

It took me a long time before I realised its actually a white “g” on a colourful vomit background.

OK, personal artistic feelings aside, I also don’t like it from a marketing and branding point of view.

Most good marketing people know that you need to maintain consistency with your logo, and use it everywhere you can.

Mcdonalds is a good example. They use the golden arches everywhere (including their favicon).

I’ve tried the same with the Computer Aid logo (black name on a yellow oval, with a red oval border). For my favicon, I decided to only use the letters “CA”, since anything else would have been unreadable.

If I were google (don’t we all wish for that!), I would make use of their logo from their home page… but since its too big to fit into a favicon, then the first letter (maybe with a circle around it), would be the next best thing.

So, I would use the letter “G” (uppercase) as the favicon…

Hold on!

Thats what Google originally had as a favicon!

So, it looks like the new icon fails on a few fronts.

Even the slightly older small “g” failed, as they picked the second “g” from their name… not the first.

What do you think?

SEO work (how to get good google rankings)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Recently, I’ve had a few people ask me about why their websites rank so badly in Google.

Given that I’ve spent about 12 months researching this area, in order to improve the ranking of Computer Aid, I’ve learnt enough to keep me talking for hours!

So I end up sending huge emails, explaining all the things that need to be done, so that a website becomes “attractive” to google. I never actually realised how complex this field has become (and how expensive it is to get an expert to do a good job!). At this rate, I could end up getting some good SEO work (on top of all the other hats I currently wear! 🙂 )

What many people don’t realise, is that SEOis an ongoing task (with ongoing expenses). But given the rewards for appearing in googles “top 10”, many companies willingly spend thousands, even tens of thousand of dollars, in order to improve (or even just maintain) their ranking.

Anyway, I’m very pleased with the results of my own website.

For example, in January, when I did a search for “brisbane computer repairs”, computer-aid.com.au would be the 250th site on google. Now, its 4th. And it ranks very high for many other search terms.

It was a lot of hard work, but traffic to my website is growing rapidly every month. Its amazing, given that now I just do some minor site maintenance, compared to the bucketloads of work in the early days.