I understand why PA can't have FFP use start.portableapps.com as the default homepage. However, could PA have a FF search plugin within FFP? Instead of that nice little G that does most of our searching for us, why not a redirect through Start? I cannot find the page specifically, however, I recall a thread that said PA receives money from Google for every search performed through the PA Start.
Is this true? Is this legal? Might we be able to make this side some more moolah? Will the dynamic duo avert dastardly danger?
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First, it's not legal (or rather, it's against the terms of Google AdSense) for JTH to do it. However, it's not illegal in any way, shape or form for you to do it yourself.
If you don't trust me (and why should you?) get this extension:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3682
Then, go to start.portableapps.com, right click in the search box, and choose Add to Search Bar. Customize accordingly.
If you're willing to trust me, copy the following into a text file, name it whatever you like, but give it a .xml extension, and drop it in X:\PortableApps\FirefoxPortable\Data\profile\searchplugins where X is your drive letter:
<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/" xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"> <os:ShortName>PortableApps.com Google</os:ShortName> <os:Description>PortableApps.com Google</os:Description> <os:InputEncoding>UTF-8</os:InputEncoding> <os:Image width="16" height="16">data:image/png;base64,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</os:Image> <SearchForm>http://start.portableapps.com/</SearchForm> <os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://www.google.com/custom"> <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/> <os:Param name="sa" value="Google+Search"/> <os:Param name="client" value="pub-3282017654522212"/> <os:Param name="forid" value="1"/> <os:Param name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1"/> <os:Param name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1"/> <os:Param name="cof" value="GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23FFFFFF%3BVLC%3A551a8b%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BALC%3A0000cc%3BLC%3A0000cc%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000cc%3BGIMP%3A0000cc%3BLH%3A50%3BLW%3A312%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fexternal.portableapps.com%2Fimages%2Fgoogle_search_portableapps_logo.png%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2F%3BFORID%3A1"/> <os:Param name="hl" value="en"/> </os:Url> </SearchPlugin>Then restart Firefox and it should be good to go. Look for the PA logo in your search box.
The site gave me a hard time posting that; I had to do a bunch of search and replace to get it right, but I got it. If it doesn't work, try the first method, because that's what worked for me.
Thanks for this topic, it inspired me to finally get rid of my Google search engine and replace it with the one that benefits JTH and PA.c. I'm gonna do this on my home computer as well. (If you want the Google logo, do the first method and replace it with the actual Google logo.)
//edit: ...And, I can confirm the copy/paste method works, as I've just added the PortableApps.com-branded Google search to my Portable Firefox at home by copying all that text, pasting it into Win7's Notepad, saving it in the aforementioned directory as a .xml file (for good measure I had Notepad encode it as UTF-8; one of the tutorials for an older version of the search plugin said it had to be UTF-8), restarted Firefox and it works, tested it and all. So that's the quickest way.
allows you to add any search engine you want to Firefox. Even has PortableApps.
Here: http://mycroft.mozdev.org/
Ah, but does it have the PortableApps.com-branded Google that, the searches from which, result in more ad revenue for this site? Or do you mean simply they have a search plugin for this site? If it's the latter, good for them. Used to be, Firefox could do what the extension I posted does, on its own, but for some reason that feature got dropped, as did a site I used to use that let you make your own search plugin. From my searches earlier it seems the search plugin format was changed a few times, so maybe that's why.
Mycroft does have a lot of stuff, but I doubt they have the PA.c-branded Google. Why would they? I haven't got time to check however.
misunderstanding this post, but the link I posted, is a website that allows you to change the search engine in the upper right of Firefox, next to the address bar. It's not a search page, but installing it achieves the same action as using the search box provided by PortableApps.com. If your at blah.com and want to search something, once you enter your query, it brings you here, much like the Google search plugin takes you right to Google. It's not the same set-up as searching from the start.portableapps.com start page. (Portableapps search, not portableapps on google).
Yep, you missed the point, but that's alright, happens to the best of us.
If you search Mycroft for PortableApps.com you will get a search plugin that searches this site.
The search plugin XML code that I posted will search Google, but it will route the search through JTH's AdSense account so he gets credits or whatever for the search. It's just like a regular Google search, and should yield the same results, only, as I said, it contributes to the operation of this site.
Also, to clarify, the website doesn't install, your wording is off there, it's just a repository of search plugins like the one I posted. Only they wouldn't have the one I posted because search plugins that redirect through an AdSense account are kind of discouraged for obvious reasons. JTH couldn't make it and distribute it, but nothing stops us, fans and supporters of this site, from making it and using it ourselves.
Firefox used to use Mycroft; now they use AMO (addons.mozilla.org). AMO has far less search plugins, historically, but lately they've abandoned their principles; they'll let anything in now, so they're no better than Mycroft and don't look as good; aren't nearly as efficient. With Mycroft you can hit up the top 10 and search for your favorites so easily; AMO has a lot of junk but they don't have a lot of stuff.
Thanks for the clarification....gotcha now..... I'm not totally computer savvy like most here, I'm learning, but I thought a plugin was installed to add PortableApps into the search box.
It is. You make it. Or an extension makes it for you.
Plugin isn't the right word. To be really technical, it's an XML file. A lot of Firefox's interface is web-based. Chrome, the user interface or whatever (not to be confused with Google Chrome!) has a lot of CSS-like code.
Confuses me too.
And computer savvy just means you can use one. We're all varying degrees of proficiency. I consider myself clever, but I bow before the skills of guys like JTH, Chris Morgan, and others. And I'm sure they know their limits and know of programmers who impress them, etc. The thing to remember is you can only move forward, you can't unlearn stuff. Well, you can get out of practice or hear bad information, but yeah...