Tech Tips for Catholics

If you are like me, then your mind already bypasses the first two or three Google search results, because they are “sponsored links”.  Personally, the companies in the sponsored links section tend to be trying to sell me something that I don’t need or want.  That is where the CustomizeGoogle extension for Mozilla Firefox comes in.  This is an add-on with all kinds of features and tweaks for Google, but this tutorial is just focusing on how to remove sponsored links from the search results page.

Step 1: Open Mozilla Firefox.  Go up to Tools > Add-ons in the menu bar.

Step 2: When the Add-ons dialog box opens make sure you are on “Get Add-ons” tab and click on the “Browse All Add-ons” link.  This will take you to Mozilla’s Add-on directory.

Step 3: Search for “CustomizeGoogle” or you could have just clicked the link directly in the first paragraph and bipassed the first three steps of this tutorial ; )

Step 4: Click on the “Add to Firefox” button and follow the instructions.

Step 5: After you have shut-down & restarted Firefox go into the CustomizeGoogle Options.  You can do this a couple different ways.  The first is to go up to Tools > CustomizeGoogle Options.  The second way of getting to it is by finding CustomizeGoogle under the “Extensions” tab of the Add-on dialog box (Tools > Add-ons) and clicking on the “Options” button.

Step 6: Once in the CustomizeGoogle Options, check the “Remove ads” in the “Web” tab.  Browse the many other options and click “OK” when they are to your liking.

I know businesses pay a lot of money to advertise themselves in Google, but CustomizeGoogle also can save them some money.  How you ask?  Well, let’s say you like the sponsored links and choose not to block them.  By selecting the “Remove click tracking” under the “Web” tab, the click tracking in Google adds are also removed.  This means that the advertiser doesn’t have to pay for your clicking on their link, because Google will have no knowledge that you clicked the link.

Below are some related links about CustomizeGoogle:

• Important Changes in the CustomizeGoogle Firefox Extension
• Improve your Google Experience with CustomizeGoogle (Video)