Showing posts with label Yahoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yahoo. Show all posts

Wednesday, 8 November 2006

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My First Search Engine. Porn and spam sold separately.

Statistics show that 98.54% of the content on the internet is worthless dross, yet we still have to wade our way through it to get to the good stuff. Perfect example: whenever you search Google to locate a trustworthy review of a piece of tech gear you're considering purchasing, it spews out wads of irrelevant shopping spam sites which - purely by chance of course - contain the word 'review', even though no opinions, positive or negative, are imparted within their pages. Typically this fluff populates the first few pages of Google's output, pushing the genuine content deep into obscurity.

One workaround would be to identify a handful of reliable sources for each kind of information you require, bookmark and search them individually. Better still is Rollyo; a newish, startup web gizmo which provides the means to tailor your search results to suit your personal preferences. It does this by allowing you to 'Roll Your Own' categorised search filters. For instance, you could create a health 'Searchroll' by entering the URLs of up to 25 top-rated health-focused web sites, which when queried would only return content produced by these previously vetted sources.

Wednesday, 4 May 2005

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How to read your Yahoo email in Mozilla Thunderbird, Mac Mail, Outlook Express et al

If you've got an e-mail account at Yahoo and would rather not have to return to their home page each time you wish to check for new mail, you can configure your e-mail client to download your messages instead. In future, all your Yahoo web mail will be conveniently downloaded to your inbox alongside your regular pop 3 e-mail.

To the dismay of a great many life-long Yahoo users, in April 2002 Yahoo decided to begin charging for this feature (known as pop 3 access). If you subscribe to their premium service it'll be business as usual for you, though even if you're not a VIP Yahooligan, this shouldn't spell the end for your Yahoo-email client relationship. With Yahoo Pops (or the Mozilla Thunderbird WebMail extension) you can continue to access your email through many of the most popular email clients, and reassuringly, as it emulates a pop 3 server rather than operating as an exploit of any kind, using it does not represent an infringement of Yahoo's terms and conditions. As a result you can continue to enjoy the convenience of pop 3 without worrying about having your account terminated.

Friday, 11 February 2000

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How do I bypass the Yahoo Briefcase download limit?

Numerous different methods have been used in the past to bypass these limits, with varying degrees of success. Many of them involve a lot of frustrating and fiddly URL editing, and since these tend to be very hit and miss I'd recommend using a Yahoo download manager instead. One such program is Yahoo Hack, a great little tool, which in addition to allowing you to get around the download limits will also fix the CRC errors caused by the infamous 'extra bytes bug'.

Alternatively, you can grab 'Yahoo Leecher', which does the job just as well whilst helping you to increase the number of simultaneous transfers permitted by the Yahoo servers. On the other hand, if you speak German you might be more comfortable using 'Yahoo Mage'. The instructions for this one look like complete gibberish to me - if only I'd known those German lessons would come in handy one day I would have paid more attention!

So where do you find these programs? Well, any sites using Yahoo to host their files will probably provide them for you in their tools section. If not, Google should be able to point you in the right direction.

Friday, 4 February 2000

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Why is it that whenever I download a file from Yahoo Briefcase it is corrupt? Surely this is more than a coincidence?

This is a known problem with Yahoo servers and is commonly referred to as the 'extra bytes' bug. The problem occurs whenever additional bytes are tacked onto the files you wish to download rendering them inaccessible. For the files to function normally, these extra bytes have to be removed, but don't try and edit them yourself, get YBC Fix to do the job for you instead.

Friday, 14 January 2000

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The whys and wherefores of e-groups

An e-group is a bit like a bulletin board in that, once registered, anyone can post messages and upload attachments. At regular intervals - usually daily or weekly depending on the activity level of the group - all the subscriber's contributions are compiled in an easy to read format and made available as one long e-mail for your convenience (this is known as 'digest mode'). They key difference between an e-group and a mailing list is that mailing lists are designed to be a one-way form of communication. The role of the latter is simply to keep you abreast of any important changes made to a particular web site, not to give you a platform to voice your own opinion.

One advantage of joining an e-group is that your subscription is very quick and effortless to set up - more likely than not you will already have the necessary software installed on your computer; an email client such as Mozilla Thunderbird or simply a web browser. Besides, if you have a pop 3 or web based e-mail address you are already half way there. To find some interesting groups to join you can begin by visiting an e-group search engine - Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, Your Mailing List Provider, and Topica are particularly good ones to try.

All you have to do is type in your search criteria, select the group you wish to join and submit your e-mail address. Note that with most e-group providers you will first have to register with the company themselves before being allowed to join any of the communities they host. This involves some obligatory form filling, but should not take any longer than a couple of minutes in any case. Once you have completed this initial registration procedure you will never again have to repeat the process should you decide to join additional groups managed by the same company. In future subscribing to a new group merely involves typing your e-mail address into a dialog box and prodding the 'join group' button. The number and scope of e-group communities available to join is only limited by the range of topics comprising life, the universe and everything. So quite a few to explore then!