Web

5 Google search tips for more relevant results

You shouldn't need to wade through pages of Google search results to find what you want. Here are five Google search tips to yield more relevant results:

Tip #1: Search within a single Web site (site:) To perform a search within a Web site, use "site:" within the search. For example, if you want to search for a review of the Asus Transformer tablet at CNET.com, type, "asus transformer review site:cnet.com."

Tip #2: Use a wildcard for words (*) You can use the "*" wildcard to search for whole words within a … Read more

How to enable Google Sync for a Google Apps account

If you or your employer use Google Apps as your e-mail provider, and you are experiencing issues setting up Google Sync on your mobile device, make sure that the account admin has Google Sync enabled. This short guide will walk you through enabling Google Sync (ActiveSync), which will allow members of the Google Apps account to access their e-mail, contacts, and even calendar as if they were on an Exchange server. … Read more

How to avoid sharing personal info online

Honesty is the best policy--unless you're dealing with someone you can't trust.

The sad fact is, you can't trust anyone on the Web. Just ask the millions of people who signed up for Sony's PlayStation Network and who now must protect against possible hack attacks on their bank accounts and other private data lost due the recent data breach. CNET News reporter Erica Ogg explains the company's response to its customers in her Circuit Breaker blog.

Sony claims the credit card information was encrypted and did not include the cards' security codes; the company also … Read more

How to get Speed Dial in Firefox

While it's got Sync, tabs on top, and a menu button, Firefox still lacks one feature that all the other major browsers have in one form or another: the "speed dial." Originally from Opera, the feature is the visual implementation of your most recently or most frequently visited Web sites on the new tab page. Firefox add-ons have stepped up to fill the dial void, but implementation in each is uneven.

Speed Dial 0.9.5.8 (download) is the most robust of the four add-ons we're looking at today. It's highly customizable, offering the … Read more

How to set a favicon for a WordPress blog

A favicon (short for "favorites icon") is the little graphic that Web browsers show next to the URL, bookmarks, and other places that help personalize and visually identify a Web site or blog. WordPress is a widely used blogging application that is available either as a service from WordPress.com or as an application you install and host, using your own hosting provider. I'll go over how to set a favicon for both types of WordPress blogs below.

Set favicon for WordPress blog service (WordPress.com)

WordPress.com users have the WordPress "W" logo as … Read more

How to use Chrome's speech-to-text

Google has introduced a way that you can talk to your browser, as long as that browser is Chrome. It won't talk back, but it will do your bidding. These instructions cover the basics of the new speech-to-text feature, which is functional but has yet to be implemented widely.

First off, be sure that you're using Google Chrome 11 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux)or later, and that you've got a microphone. Next, you have to navigate to a site that supports the new speech API. Currently, that's limited to Google Translate, which itself is limited … Read more

How to clean up your Facebook feed

Get in real time. At the top of your News Feed, click "Most Recent." Now you're viewing a real-time view of your friends' activities--however, Facebook is still only showing posts from people who it thinks you interact with most. To change that, click Most Recent > Edit Options > Show posts from all of your friends and pages.

Now you're viewing activities as they happen, which can get a little hectic. Here's how to refine this view:

Hide friends from the feed. Instead of unfriending someone because of his bothersome updates (like, "This chicken … Read more

Research: Most can't tell pricey wine from cheap

Perhaps you, like me, enjoy a glass of wine. Especially if it's a larger glass, at least half full of good wine.

Perhaps you, riding on your usual wave of intelligence and sophistication, believe that you can always taste the difference between cheap wine that deserves a box or a hole in the ground, and expensive wine that deserves another year or two in a dimly lit cellar.

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in England, believes the mathematical likelihood is that you have no idea what you're talking about.

Wiseman, you see, decided that … Read more

Must-have Firefox mobile add-ons

One of Firefox's most popular features is its add-on support, with its accompanying deep add-on catalog. The new Firefox 4 Mobile for Android (download) and for Maemo devices (download) also support add-ons, so we've got a collection of Firefox mobile add-on essentials for you that covers the bases, from useful ad blocking to interesting, mobile-specific password helpers.

The best-known add-on that's a must-have is Adblock Plus (download), ported by the developer from Firefox desktop to mobile. If you're not familiar with it, it blocks ads by using blacklists to filter out the ads. Once installed, the … Read more