Websites – Page 4 – My Thought Spot

Do you GoodSearch?

One of the missionaries I had in a class a couple of weeks ago suggested we use a search engine called GoodSearch. It is a search engine that lets you specify where you would like a portion of the advertising money that you generate from web searches to go. She said that there is a charity that she always sends her money to through GoodSearch. To do that all you do is choose the charity and use the GoodSearch website. Everything else is taken care of in the background.

I have set up my mission organization, Baptist International Outreach, to receive money through GoodSearch. You can choose BIO on the drop down menu if you would like to help us out, or you can choose your own charity. By helping out our board office you are helping to support over 100 missionaries through your web searches.

While it is a small portion that is actually donated with each search, it is at least something that is being sent to the charity. That is certainly better than donating nothing.

GoodSearch is powered by Yahoo. I find that I get totally different results with them than when I use Google. Neither one is necessarily better than the other, just different. Try it out and see for yourself.

Traffic Gimmick

I did the post about the page 56 meme for the sole purpose of getting people to twitter about my set of rules. This will drive traffic to my site. I am trying to see how many people I can get to hit that post. It is purely a gimmick. So far I have not had anyone (besides me) link to the rules and play the game. I have tweeted it twice.

If you are on Twitter you can help out by playing the game as listed in that post. I use about 1/100 of my alloted bandwidth a month from my web host. I need to do something to make it exciting around here.

Help a bored fellow out.

Page 56 rules for Twitter

This is the standard page 56 meme, but the rules are too long to list on Twitter.

Rules:

Grab the book nearest you. Not your favorite or coolest, but closest.
Turn to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post that sentence along with the shortened URL for the rules.

Shortened URL: http://bit.ly/4AEm

You can use your twitter client to make the URL for you if you wish.

Installing an Ad Blocker in Firefox

Recently I was at my brother’s house using their computer for a bit of surfing. I have gotten used to my computers having ad blockers on them and I rarely see an ad for anything questionable. It was a shock to my system to see so many advertisements show up on screen.

I decided to write a tutorial for them on how to get rid of the ads. I hope it helps others.

This will be dependent on you using Firefox as a web browser. There are probably other solutions for other browsers, but I use Firefox and that is all I currently recommend. I am also going to be working through this on Windows so I can get the steps right for them.

Start by having Firefox open. Select Tools | Add-ons from the menu. Click the tab that says “Get Add-ons” and do a search for adblock plus. On my search, it was the first hit returned. Click the “Add to Firefox” button and go through the installation procedure. Once that is installed then restart Firefox.

When Firefox restarts it will give you a list of filters that you can apply to Adblock Plus. Choose the Easy List (USA) option. Then get back to the Add-ons section (it was still open after the Firefox restart on my machine). Now look through the search results and install the Adblock Filterset.G Updater. Again you will have to restart Firefox. When it comes back up the filterset updater will be up and running and will install the latest update. Exit out of those windows and you will be ready to use Adblock Plus.

Notice that there is a small red octagon beside the search box on the top right of the screen. This is where you can make changes to the way Adblock Plus operates. As it is, it will eliminate the vast majority of advertisements. But there may occasionally be a site that needs extra tweaking to get rid of especially offensive ads.

I know there is controversy as to whether you should block ads on websites. Many sites are able to be free because of the ads that support them. I understand that. But, I also don’t want my kids nor myself to be inundated with ads for activities which are not appropriate for our family. When I do use someone else’ computer to touch the Internet I am always shocked at the lewdness of advertisements on-line. With an adblocker I am able to control most of what comes across my computer screen.

Twitter revisited

A bit over a year ago I talked about using Twitter. I have recently (within the last 3 or 4 months) gotten much more involved with twittering.

I own 2 Twitter accounts if you want to follow me. The first one is the one I have been using for a year and a half. That one is the username dpeach. That has mostly been tied in closely with my running buddies. I have a few people who follow me there who do not run, but my main following is made up of people who run and are interested in running news.

My second, and new as of tonight, Twitter account is DavidPeach. I am going to use this one as more ministry related content. I may still post some things about my running, but I plan to make it more about our ministry.

As we explore different ways to help missionaries stay more connected to the people in the churches, this has come to my mind as a great opportunity. My friend Jeff at Missionary Geek and I have talked in the past about using social networking as a way to engage our supporters. I have dismissed much of it because of the problem I see of allowing other people to view my connections. Sometimes, sad as it is, I have been told that I would, or would not be, supported based on who I would be working with. I could understand if the problem was doctrinal, but it never is. First off, I am not going to seek support from a church that I cannot agree with doctrinally. It is always based on personalities or quirkiness that really does not matter in the big picture. Therefore, I have avoided using social networking as a means to communicate with my supporters.

My mind has been steered with the help of some of the people whom I follow on Twitter. The main one being Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson. I have followed him for 2 months. In that time he has told me what new books Thomas Nelson is publishing; he had informed me that they have changed the dress code at the office; and, I know when he plays golf even. Does any of that really matter? Not if I am thinking about what book I would purchase from them. But what it does do is put Thomas Nelson constantly on my mind. That is exactly what I want from people who say they are praying for me and my ministry as well as supporting me financially. I want them to think about me constantly. I want them to know I am a real person who struggles with the same things they do. I think Twitter can deliver that.

Now you can follow one, or both, of my accounts. There may be some cases where I would cross post between accounts, but mainly the DavidPeach account will be ministry related and dpeach will be everything else.