Addons to Add Internet Parental Control to Firefox

Protecting your children from all of the explicit content that’s floating around the Internet these days can be a hard task, especially if you don’t have a pop-up blocker. Even though your children or younger relatives are swimming in a pool of adult content every time they surf the net, it isn’t impossible to set your own standards for parental control.

Children are prone to learning inappropriate things whether in school or the outside world, however you have the control over what they may learn in your home. Explore the following two preventative Firefox applications to add Internet parental control to your favorite browser. Choose the one that can aid you and your family the best.

FoxFilter

This first app is a powerful filter that blocks access to inappropriate content because of its pre-defined set of rules that are instantly triggered when an individual visits a site that may contain explicit groups of keywords (i.e. Adult Content, 18+, erotic, etc…)

Configuration & Options

As you’ll note the resemblance in its name, FoxFilter is a Firefox add-on that’s compatible with Mac, Linux and Windows operating systems. In order to modify your version of FoxFilter and edit whitelist/blacklist preferences you’ll need to login to your account settings.

You can do this by double-clicking the FoxFilter icon at the bottom of your Firefox browser. If a URL is whitelisted it’s because it has been previously blocked and believed to be a legitimate site by you. Whitelisting is easy, all you have to do is access your account settings.

Suricate

This Firefox add-on collaborates with a global group of sites that have been flagged by previous Suricate users. Not only does it use this list to deny access to users on your PC, but it also blocks the sites you select as well.

How it Works

The way it works is if you come across a site that Suricate didn’t initially block then you can click the site banning button at the top left hand corner of your browser and it will immediately block the site, add it to your blacklist and notify the Suricate central site that the URL you’ve just banned isn’t appropriate for children in general.

With these options you have the control to customize Suricate by banning the sites you want and allowing whichever ones you prefer.

This is a shot of me configuring Suricate:

FoxFilter vs. Suricate

When it comes to deciding which of these two applications best suit your parental control needs you should take into account the simplicity and basic uses of the apps. FoxFilter is easy to use, however it is a bit more difficult to configure when compared to Suricate due to the extra settings.

Although in order to access your account all you need to do is click on the FoxFilter button, some detest the idea of having to travel to another site, while with Suricate you can just configure it by selecting the options button in the add-ons window.

In regards to effectiveness, both applications are fast as they work to immediately blacklist or ban a URL and instantly make it seem as though it’s been wiped off the face of the Internet.

Thus with this being said, FoxFilter and Suricate are both similar applications and either one will aid you on your quest to successful parental control.

Which app do you use to restrict your child’s access to the internet? Please let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Own FireFox Search Plugins & Other Tips

I love the search plugins option in FireFox for one simple reason: you can store all your search engines in one place and quickly access any of them any time. They save space and time.

What’s more, the search plugins option can be configured in multiple ways and few people are really aware of how much fun they can have with this functionality.

Here are some tips and tricks to show how you can play with your FireFox search plugins.

Add a search engine to your search plugins

Normally you won’t have any problems with that. Just navigate to the site, click on your search plugins icon and the tool will invite you to add the site to the list:

You will be able to use the search engine after selecting it from the list. You will also be able to search any word on a page: select any word and right-click - you’ll be offered to search for it using the currently active search engine:

In case you are not offered to add a site to your search plugins:

In this case, you can either search for it using a search plugins directory or create a search plugin yourself.

I have already described how to create a search plugin for any site:

In essence, the steps are as follows:

• Search the site;


• Copy the search URL string;



• Substitute the search term you used for {searchTerms};


• Complete the fields as shown above and you are done!

Now, what if the site you need doesn’t have the search platform of its own?

In this case, Google search is your best friend. I am sure you know you can search any site with Google (and Yahoo!). Just type [site:yourdomain.com search term] in Google or Yahoo and you will see the list of pages for your search term. Just copy the search URL, change search term for {searchTerms} and follow the guide above.

Now, the beauty of Google search is in its advanced search. With it you can create a search plugin for almost all your needs:

• Search multiple sites with one click - create a search plugin for the following Google search: [site:domain1.com OR site:domain2.com OR site:domain3.com]. You can add as many sites as you want and you will see search results from all of them (or any of them if not all of them contain the search term you put);


• Search for most recent entries - use Google advanced date search (that adds as_qdr= to the search results URL);


• Search for words in a title / URL - create a search plugin using the following search pattern [site:yoursite.com inurl:term] / [site:yoursite.com intitle:term];



• Search for specified file types - add filetype: to your search (examples of extensions you can use:pdf, html, doc, xls, ppt, etc).

What cool FireFox plugins have already been created for me?

Here are just a few search plugins I am using:

• Peers to see search results before even searching.



• Google without Wikipedia - to get rid of wiki results in Google SERPs (in case you are tired of seeing wiki results all over the search results pages).


• TinyURL - to quickly and easily create short URLs (if you are at Twitter a lot).


• Google unpersonalized search - to turn off personalized search in Google (in case you want to compare your personalized search results with what others see).

How do you use the search plugins functionality? What are your favorite ones? Please share!