Over at BB, Cory posts on Mark Pilgrim’s hack “Butler” which strips out most Google ads, removes copying restrictions in Google Print, adds alternative search results to nearly every Google service, and generally does things which I can only imagine will keep give big G fits. It is still in geek stage – it requires “Greasemonkey” and Firefox – but man, it sure sounds like fun.
Google Tweaked
Over at BB, Cory posts on Mark Pilgrim's hack "Butler" which strips out most Google ads, removes copying restrictions in Google Print, adds alternative search results to nearly every Google service, and generally does things which I can only imagine will keep give big G fits. It is still…
It’s excellent. I’ve been running it all afternoon. Very handy for SEO work.
Reinforces that AutoLink is a non-issue.
I think it’s pretty cool hackery, but doesn’t this do to Google what people are upset about with AutoLink? It changes the publisher’s content – this time, changing the ad content that Google chooses to serve as well as their results etc. As much as I dislike the AutoLink functionality, I don’t think the appropriate response is to fire back with the same actions.
Has anybody got a version for google.com.au? The standard version doesn’t work.
Winer had it right – does Google realize how screwed their entire business model can become if this becomes common practice? Honestly, Google management is negligent if it doesn’t kill autolink _immediately_.
it’s the Butlerian Jihad!
a FireFox add-on means squat in terms of general impact on the Internet.
Firefox/Moz’s AdBlock plugin has been far more widely available and publicised for quite a while now, without causing nary a dent in anyone’s revenue.
Neither are the Big Guys going to start a toolbar text-rewriting war. Why would they want to take on this PR minefield with arguably little user utility?
google.com.au support has been added and is currently being tested. Look for version 0.2 shortly.
When is somebody going to write a truly useful Firefox plug-in, like one that let’s me automatically dial a number on skype by right-clicking a phone number on any web page?
“When is somebody going to write a truly useful Firefox plug-in”
Good question. There should be some place to suggest plug-in ideas to geeks, because it seems like they do things just for their own geekery
Jaime and Hashim,
Geeks solve problems interesting to geeks, its true.
Sometimes these are interesting to non-geeks, too.
There are lots of places to request plugins. Sometimes geeks find the ideas interesting and implement them, too.
But geeks aren’t your lackeys.