Review: Homepages Friends
A few people have asked me about this after seeing the banner on the right --> , so I've decided to make a post. I originally thought it would be a good idea to wait until I've gotten paid, but I guess I can update you guys again later.
To be eligible for payments, you basically have to search with their search engine. Now, you may be wondering... eww, what if this search engine sucks... but let me write that Homepaages Friends uses the Yahoo Search Engine. I'll compare it with Google a bit later. Anyway, this service offers to share revenue from any "linkage revenue" they generate. This amounts to approximately £0.01 per search, or about ( $0.0126 USD ) and requires a minimum balance of £20 ( $25.20 USD ) to cash out (paypal).
Comparing to Google, the Yahoo Search Engine is a bit slower. I'd say fractions of a second, but I have to admit it is still noticible. As far as the search results, I have to say for some topics I would rather go with Yahoo - movie showtimes and business lookups are just to name a few.
Its up to you if you want to give it a try and make a few extra bucks a month ;). I'm currently at £9.23
Friday, February 27, 2009
Greet or Delete Week 2: Fire Gestures
Greet or Delete Extension Review: Fire Gestures
Welcome back! I can't believe another week has gone by already, and its almost March! It just felt like a couple of weeks ago when we were celebrating New Years.
Anyway, back to business. I had the chance to test out the extension Fire Gestures last week, and its usefulness was VERY UNEXPECTED. My first thoughts before I installed was that it was one of those "visually appealing" add-ons that in no way could help speed up ChaCha. But seeing that a few other guides have it installed, I decided to try it out.
Fire Gestures is an extension that allows you to do common browsing actions just by making a quick gesture of your mouse (and holding down the right mouse button). For example, with a quick stroke of the mouse, I could easily go back/forward, go to the next/previous tab, reload, etc.
I have to first admit that it takes a bit getting used to. Its very hard to switch from pushing the backspace button on the top left to just right click and drag your mouse to the left. I still haven't haven't gotten used to everything, but I'm progressing.
A good thing is that this is fully customizable. The most useful feature so far I would have to say is being able to bind a mouse gesture to closing all other tabs. After finishing a query, I can now make an upside down U and viola, all the other tabs would be gone. I also have my Universe tab locked (thanks to Tab Mix Plus), so its not affected by any accidental closing.
Final Verdict: GREET
Score: 7/10
Next week: ImgLikeOpera
Welcome back! I can't believe another week has gone by already, and its almost March! It just felt like a couple of weeks ago when we were celebrating New Years.
Anyway, back to business. I had the chance to test out the extension Fire Gestures last week, and its usefulness was VERY UNEXPECTED. My first thoughts before I installed was that it was one of those "visually appealing" add-ons that in no way could help speed up ChaCha. But seeing that a few other guides have it installed, I decided to try it out.
Fire Gestures is an extension that allows you to do common browsing actions just by making a quick gesture of your mouse (and holding down the right mouse button). For example, with a quick stroke of the mouse, I could easily go back/forward, go to the next/previous tab, reload, etc.
I have to first admit that it takes a bit getting used to. Its very hard to switch from pushing the backspace button on the top left to just right click and drag your mouse to the left. I still haven't haven't gotten used to everything, but I'm progressing.
A good thing is that this is fully customizable. The most useful feature so far I would have to say is being able to bind a mouse gesture to closing all other tabs. After finishing a query, I can now make an upside down U and viola, all the other tabs would be gone. I also have my Universe tab locked (thanks to Tab Mix Plus), so its not affected by any accidental closing.
Final Verdict: GREET
Score: 7/10
Next week: ImgLikeOpera
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Pay Experiment - rnhung version
Hello. Its late, so I won't be typing much.
But I made a few advances on my Earnings Exporter spreadsheet and was able to chart some data (see below). These are made up of over 1800 queries, and from early January. These are the average earnings per qhour (qhour is query hour. It only counts the time answering and neglects the time waiting for questions. This value is higher than earnings per real hour), and earnings per question that I received over the last 6 weeks or so.
Things to note:
Category Pay commenced at about Feb 18, and my earnings per question as well as earnings per hour plunged dramatically.
Before category pay, some of my earnings dipped below $0.10 and $0.20 due to aborted questions, etc.
And yes, I do expect this functionality to be available in the next Earnings Exporter. I just have to tweak it so everything automates. Plus, I might add some analysis to our categories, so we know exactly which categories we are banking on.
Enjoy.
But I made a few advances on my Earnings Exporter spreadsheet and was able to chart some data (see below). These are made up of over 1800 queries, and from early January. These are the average earnings per qhour (qhour is query hour. It only counts the time answering and neglects the time waiting for questions. This value is higher than earnings per real hour), and earnings per question that I received over the last 6 weeks or so.
Earnings per qhour
Average earnings per question
I removed dates that had 10 or less queries.
Things to note:
Category Pay commenced at about Feb 18, and my earnings per question as well as earnings per hour plunged dramatically.
Before category pay, some of my earnings dipped below $0.10 and $0.20 due to aborted questions, etc.
And yes, I do expect this functionality to be available in the next Earnings Exporter. I just have to tweak it so everything automates. Plus, I might add some analysis to our categories, so we know exactly which categories we are banking on.
Enjoy.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Open up Firefox search box results in new tab
Just a quick walkthrough of how to set up the Firefox search (top right) to open up in a new tab.
1) Type about:config in the URL bar
2) Click the "I'll be careful" button
3) Find browser.search.openintab
4) Right click and set it to true
Enjoy!
1) Type about:config in the URL bar
2) Click the "I'll be careful" button
3) Find browser.search.openintab
4) Right click and set it to true
Enjoy!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Firefox Awesome Keywords
Awesome Keyword feature
I'm sure you've been into this situation before:
The IS asks you, "define: heaven"
You KNOW where to look for this. Your process is most likely to load up definr.com or another dictionary. Then you would probably type or paste the word "heaven" into their search box.
That's a lot of work.
With Awesome keywords, you can instead type "[keyword] heaven" into the URL box of your Firefox window.
... and that's it. You're already at the definition page.
This feature is useful if you KNOW where you're going to look. Recipes, definitions, synonyms, etc.
Try this:
Bookmark this page: http://definr.com/%s
Add a keyword to it: I set mine to def
After you're done, go to your url bar. Type in your keyword and your search term:
"def heaven"
Click send. :) Voila!
The "%s" in the url field is replaced by the string of your search. In the above example, the url was http://definr/%s
If you typed "def happy", it would instead bring you to page http://definr/happy.
Add these bookmarks (you will need to add your own keywords). Just drag and drop to your Bookmarks Toolbar / Folder
Definr
Urban Dictionary
Google Maps
imdb
Daily Plate (nutrition facts)
You may also ask, what if the website asks for more than one input? White pages asks for the "first name," "last name," "city," and "state." How can you accomplish something like that?
Instructions on how to set up multi-parameter search
And you may wonder if you can search multiple searches at the same time
Instructions on how to search more than one page
That should be all!
Enjoy!
I'm sure you've been into this situation before:
The IS asks you, "define: heaven"
You KNOW where to look for this. Your process is most likely to load up definr.com or another dictionary. Then you would probably type or paste the word "heaven" into their search box.
That's a lot of work.
With Awesome keywords, you can instead type "[keyword] heaven" into the URL box of your Firefox window.
... and that's it. You're already at the definition page.
This feature is useful if you KNOW where you're going to look. Recipes, definitions, synonyms, etc.
Try this:
Bookmark this page: http://definr.com/%s
Add a keyword to it: I set mine to def
After you're done, go to your url bar. Type in your keyword and your search term:
"def heaven"
Click send. :) Voila!
The "%s" in the url field is replaced by the string of your search. In the above example, the url was http://definr/%s
If you typed "def happy", it would instead bring you to page http://definr/happy.
Add these bookmarks (you will need to add your own keywords). Just drag and drop to your Bookmarks Toolbar / Folder
Definr
Urban Dictionary
Google Maps
imdb
Daily Plate (nutrition facts)
You may also ask, what if the website asks for more than one input? White pages asks for the "first name," "last name," "city," and "state." How can you accomplish something like that?
Instructions on how to set up multi-parameter search
And you may wonder if you can search multiple searches at the same time
Instructions on how to search more than one page
That should be all!
Enjoy!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Greet or Delete Week 1: Define Word
Greet or Delete Extension Review: Define Word
This extension can potentially be a great add-on for a ChaCha guide. Highlight a word, right click, and select which website you want to look up the word. It'll do the rest for you. Simple? Yeah, I agree.
However, I feel that Define Words too LIMITED. Out of the whole drop down, which ones do we use? Maybe 3 or 4? If this were made specifically for ChaCha guides that includes MORE RELEVANT links, then MAYBE.
Out of the couple days I had this add-on installed, I found it VERY HARD to get myself to use it. Its just NOT MY STYLE to highlight and search with a drop down menu.
This extension also CROWDS UP my right click menu (which led me to find the Menu Editor addon that can remove items)
I personally prefer using Firefox Awesome Keywords. Its definitely more customizable, and will suit anybody who types faster than 20 wpm.
This extension can potentially be a great add-on for a ChaCha guide. Highlight a word, right click, and select which website you want to look up the word. It'll do the rest for you. Simple? Yeah, I agree.
However, I feel that Define Words too LIMITED. Out of the whole drop down, which ones do we use? Maybe 3 or 4? If this were made specifically for ChaCha guides that includes MORE RELEVANT links, then MAYBE.
Out of the couple days I had this add-on installed, I found it VERY HARD to get myself to use it. Its just NOT MY STYLE to highlight and search with a drop down menu.
This extension also CROWDS UP my right click menu (which led me to find the Menu Editor addon that can remove items)
I personally prefer using Firefox Awesome Keywords. Its definitely more customizable, and will suit anybody who types faster than 20 wpm.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Earnings Exporter v1_02d Released
Yup.
Fixed so that it works correctly for the Category Pay changes made earlier today.
Earnings Exporter v1_02d
Enjoy!
Fixed so that it works correctly for the Category Pay changes made earlier today.
Earnings Exporter v1_02d
Enjoy!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Greet or Delete - Firefox Extensions put to the Test
This column will be a weekly review of a random (or suggested) Firefox extension and how it can help or hurt ChaCha SMS guides. I will post my thoughts by the end of each week (by Friday) pros, cons, and my final decision of whether you should GREET the extension into your extension library, or DELETE.
~
Past reviews:
Fire Gestures - Score 7/10
Define Word - Score: 4/10
Ubiquity - Score: 3/10
ImgLikeOpera - Score: 2/10
~
Let me post here a list of my current extensions, and my thoughts about them, as I will not be reviewing these.
Codewolf's Statsclicker v1.6 - This addon adds a non-intrusive earnings summary in the bottom of your Firefox screen. It can be set to automatically refresh your earnings and question count every so often.
Review: This is one of those must-have, but luxurious, addons. Yes, we can live without it, but why? It keeps me motivated to work as I get to see my earnings for the current month shoot up.
~
Past reviews:
Fire Gestures - Score 7/10
Define Word - Score: 4/10
Ubiquity - Score: 3/10
ImgLikeOpera - Score: 2/10
~
Let me post here a list of my current extensions, and my thoughts about them, as I will not be reviewing these.
Codewolf's Statsclicker v1.6 - This addon adds a non-intrusive earnings summary in the bottom of your Firefox screen. It can be set to automatically refresh your earnings and question count every so often.
Review: This is one of those must-have, but luxurious, addons. Yes, we can live without it, but why? It keeps me motivated to work as I get to see my earnings for the current month shoot up.
Clippings - This extension allows us to assign hotkeys to the text we commonly type. Instead of spending 5 seconds to type "It appears that you tried to send a keyword to ChaCha. Please check it and try again. Avoid extra spaces, words & signatures," or "Thanks for using ChaCha. Ask again soon!" it only takes me 1 second.
Review: Since ChaCha added PAQ ability for expeditors (they now can provide the IS with answers from previous questions), I have to admit that many of my Clippings have started collecting dust. Nevertheless, I still use a few very often: ones for signatures, history problems, etc. This is a MUST for any SMS Guide.
Review: Since ChaCha added PAQ ability for expeditors (they now can provide the IS with answers from previous questions), I have to admit that many of my Clippings have started collecting dust. Nevertheless, I still use a few very often: ones for signatures, history problems, etc. This is a MUST for any SMS Guide.
Copy Plain Text - This nifty little addon simplifies copy and pasting, a lot! Often times I find myself pasting from a website that is very poorly formatted-extra spaces, lines, etc-and this addon just gets rid of all those for me so I don't have to do it myself. For example,
Analysis: Very easy to install and configure. Very easy to use. "What? Did I just save 2 seconds per question without even noticing?" "Yes, you just did."
" This sentence has a space before it, twowould be pasted as
spaces after each comma, and
one space after it "
"This sentence has a space before it, twoTrue, it may only save a couple of seconds... but seconds add up!
spaces after each comma, and
one space after it"
Analysis: Very easy to install and configure. Very easy to use. "What? Did I just save 2 seconds per question without even noticing?" "Yes, you just did."
Tab Mix Plus - I use this addon mainly to keep my Guide Console Dashboard opened. No accidental closing, opening up new links, etc. I've written up instructions and a short analysis on this extension before, and you can read about it here.
Other non-ChaCha specific extensions installed:
Adblock Plus - Block ads
Fire.fm - Music toolbar from last.fm
Foxmarks Bookmark Syncronizer - Syncronize bookmarks with your other computers
Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize webpages with javascript
NoScript - Allow javascript to run on only websites you trust
StumbleUpon - Discover new websites
Tweak Network - Firefox performance booster
All that said, next week's featured addon will be:
Define Word
I just installed it and will have a review by next Friday.
Enjoy!
Subscribe! (I've added a subscribe to email link on the right side of this page)
Other non-ChaCha specific extensions installed:
Adblock Plus - Block ads
Fire.fm - Music toolbar from last.fm
Foxmarks Bookmark Syncronizer - Syncronize bookmarks with your other computers
Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize webpages with javascript
NoScript - Allow javascript to run on only websites you trust
StumbleUpon - Discover new websites
Tweak Network - Firefox performance booster
All that said, next week's featured addon will be:
Define Word
I just installed it and will have a review by next Friday.
Enjoy!
Subscribe! (I've added a subscribe to email link on the right side of this page)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
ChaCha Query Wait Time
Remember when ChaCha sent out this email?
Well, while working on the Earnings Exporter today... I was thinking, "I have all this data... Lets see if I can test to see if its true"
So I went ahead and took all my data from the last month or so (Jan 5 to Feb 11, approximately 1130 data points), and looked how the hour of the day correlated with the time you had to wait to receive a query.
You may ask, how did I manage to have the wait time data? Well of course, this is an estimate. I took the time of a question and subtracted it with the time of the last question + the question answer length.
So for example, if I answered the following two questions:
the time of wait for the first question would be approximately 2 minutes and 41 seconds.
Of course, this is only an estimate as ChaCha times in the 2nd column do not include the time to the number of seconds. I had to also make sure the dates were the same, and that extremes were taken out (if you were to take a 1 hour break answering questions).
Charting the data gave me interesting results. (ChaCha WAS telling the truth. The busiest time is around 7-9PM EST)
You may notice that my general sleeping hours are from 3AM - 9AM EST (I'm in the West Coast), and that somehow I didn't do any questions from 8:00 PM - 8:59 PM EST in a month.
Hope you enjoyed that! Comment! Check out the Earnings Exporter.
Well, while working on the Earnings Exporter today... I was thinking, "I have all this data... Lets see if I can test to see if its true"
So I went ahead and took all my data from the last month or so (Jan 5 to Feb 11, approximately 1130 data points), and looked how the hour of the day correlated with the time you had to wait to receive a query.
You may ask, how did I manage to have the wait time data? Well of course, this is an estimate. I took the time of a question and subtracted it with the time of the last question + the question answer length.
So for example, if I answered the following two questions:
| 2/11/2009 | 16:21 | Generalist | When is the next prelicensing course ... | 2:08 | ||
| 2/11/2009 | 16:17 | Generalist | Is it possible to get a girl pregnant... | 1:19 |
the time of wait for the first question would be approximately 2 minutes and 41 seconds.
Of course, this is only an estimate as ChaCha times in the 2nd column do not include the time to the number of seconds. I had to also make sure the dates were the same, and that extremes were taken out (if you were to take a 1 hour break answering questions).
Charting the data gave me interesting results. (ChaCha WAS telling the truth. The busiest time is around 7-9PM EST)
You may notice that my general sleeping hours are from 3AM - 9AM EST (I'm in the West Coast), and that somehow I didn't do any questions from 8:00 PM - 8:59 PM EST in a month.
Hope you enjoyed that! Comment! Check out the Earnings Exporter.
Earnings Exporter v1_01
You can download version v1_01 here.
If you experience a RunTime Error 1004, please contact me immediately. Thank you.
- Fixed Transcriber Abort, Clarify Analysis. Was duplicated from Expeditor
- Removed Top Guide Analysis on To Do list
- Added Average Time Per Question
- Added Average Earnings Per Search Time
- Added Comments
If you experience a RunTime Error 1004, please contact me immediately. Thank you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
people have found my page useful (hopefully!).