The Bottom Line
- Relevant competitor links are placed on all results pages, including news and images.
- Hiding advertisements makes for a much cleaner search results display.
- The filter is great for automatically removing unwanted sites from your results.
- Streaming search results means never having to click through multiple pages again.
- Displaying a full URL preview for Sponsored Links prevents destination deception by advertisers.
- You cannot add to or edit any of the competitor links.
- The click tracking suppression does not work 100% of the time.
Description
- CustomizeGoogle displays links to other search engines such as Yahoo and Ask at the top of your search results.
- Google advertisements (Sponsored Links) can be removed from your search results pages.
- Google Suggest recommends words and/or phrases as you type into the search box.
- Links in Google Image results are rewritten to point directly to each respective image file.
- Optional position counter displays a number next to each search result denoting its rank.
- Site icons (Favicons) can be displayed along with each search result.
- Streaming pages continuously append the next ten results as you scroll down.
- Privacy settings allow you to mask your Google identity as well as prevent data from being sent to Google Analytics.
- Customizable filter lets you block certain sites from appearing in your search results.
- Security settings ensure that you connect to Gmail, Google Calender, Google Apps, and Web History through the https protocol.
Guide Review - CustomizeGoogle
CustomizeGoogle is a terrific addition to your Firefox browser, as it refines the Web's most popular search engine to near perfection. The competitor links displayed on each results page lets you search other engines with just a simple click. The many other features available to customize your results, ranging from icon display to hiding paid advertisements, allow you to tweak Google to your liking.
The privacy settings help to calm the nerves of folks who are uncomfortable with the cohesive behavior profiles that Google creates based on your actions. This shortens the reach of "big brother" without hampering access to any of your Google Account services. In the same thread, the security settings make sure that you are connecting to Google's many services over a secure protocol each time.
The various other conveniences included with CustomizeGoogle make this add-on a must have for Google users. There is no presence in the main browser window whatsoever, as preferences are configured from an option in Firefox's Tools menu. This saves valuable real estate for other add-ons and applications. There really is no downside to using CustomizeGoogle, as it is highly configurable. This one's a keeper!
