SquirrelNet

Happy Mother's Day from SquirrelNet.com!

"I'm nuts about you Mom." Awww :)

Track the Swine Flu outbreak on Google Maps

Here is a Swine Flu outbreak map courtesy of Google Maps. Click for bigger view.

Where to watch President Obama's inauguration online

Barack Obama will be inaugurated the 44th US President on Tuesday, January 20 a t noon (see inaugural schedule). In case you are away from the TV during the event but have internet access where you'll be, GigaOm has coverage on where to watch President Obama's inauguration online. Here's a subset of what Om recommended, useful to have handy in case some site is overwhelmed:

How to Follow the Discussion on Twitter for Today's NFL Playoffs

If you're a football fan and want to follow today's discussion on Twitter (if you know what that is), following the discussion is rather easy.

Just visit here on NFL playoffs search via search.twitter.com.

On that note, if you ever want to reach me on Twitter, here I am: Mike Reynolds on Twitter.

Remembering AskJeeves

Remember AskJeeves? Here is an old AskJeeves logo from 1996, way before I had ever heard about askjeeves.com.

What's planned for SquirrelNet in 2008/09

I'm pretty excited about the changes made here at SquirrelNet during 2007/08. First, I've seen a ton of new traffic going to SquirrelNet's Google SafeSearch page. Next, on that page, you'll note links to SafeSearch pages for the Australia, Canada and the UK along with links for a Dictionary, Encyclopedia Search and a Happy News Search.

Interestingly, SquirrelNet's most popular country-specific page is Google SafeSearch for Australia. So welcome to all from the land down under!

What's in store for SquirrelNet in 2008/09 is using Google services to build highly-targeted search engines. I may launch a few of these under different domain names, but I'll let you know about them here.

For everyone successfully finishing another year of school, for their parents, teachers and all those who make it happen, CONGRATULATIONS!

How to add Google SafeSearch for Kids to MySpace

If you or anyone in your family has a MySpace page and you want to provide a safe Google alternative for them, here is how to add Google SafeSearch for Kids to a MySpace page.

I'll make this easy - only fair since I didn't know how to edit a MySpace page until an hour ago :) You will be editing your MySpace "Profile". This is the page that people see when they visit your MySpace page. Here goes:

Log into MySpace, click "Home" and then "Edit Profile". Choose the appropriate section for your Google SafeSearch box (I recommend the beginning of the first section.
Copy the text in the box below and paste into the beginning of your "About Me" section. Then click "Preview Section" and then "Save All Changes".

<div align=center><table><form method="get" action="http://www.squirrelnet.com/search/Google_SafeSearch.asp" target="_top"><table bgcolor="#ffffff"><tr><td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top" align="left" height="32"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnNxdWlycmVsbmV0LmNvbS9zZWFyY2gvR29vZ2xlX1NhZmVTZWFyY2guYXNw"><img src="http://www.google.com/logos/Google_Safe.gif" border="0" alt="Google" align="middle"></img></a><label for="sbi" style="display: none">Enter your search terms</label><input type="text" name="q" size="41" maxlength="255" value="" id="sbi"></input><label for="sbb" style="display: none">Submit search form</label><input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" id="sbb"></input><input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-6379962124902668"></input><input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1"></input><input type="hidden" name="channel" value="7717572924"></input><input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1"></input><input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1"></input><input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"></input><input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#99CCFF;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:FFFFFF;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;LH:50;LW:259;L:http://www.squirrelnet.com/SquirrelNet.gif;S:http://www.squirrelnet.com;FORID:11"></input> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en"></input></td></tr></table></form></div>

To see your Google SafeSearch box in action, you will need to click on "View my profile" or click on "Home" and then "Profile".

Here is how Google SafeSearch looks on my MySpace page. If my instructions don't work right for you, please contact me (Mike Reynolds) and I will personally help you set this up.

Google SafeSearch for Kids on iGoogle

(Original link to iGoogle may not have worked for all, my apologies. The link below works now, or just click here: )

Google SafeSearch for Kids is the most popular page here on SquirrelNet, showing that many people value "safe" Google results. Another reason is that Google itself doesn't allow a person to "lock into" SafeSearch, meaning it's very easy to reset preferences to allow inappropriate content. Using our links here at SquirrelNet is one way to lock into SafeSearch as long as you are searching from here.

I don't know if any of you use iGoogle, but if you do, I recommend adding Google SafeSearch for Kids to your iGoogle. I went ahead and built a Google Gadget that "locks into" SafeSearch from here.

Click the button below to add Google SafeSearch for Kids to your iGoogle page:

Once completing that one step, you'll have this nice little Google SafeSearch for Kids box in your iGoogle:

SquirrelNet now up and running (in most of the world)

SquirrelNet.com is now up and running again as far as my stats show. There was a bit of a snafu earlier today with some technical details. My apologies again for the inconvenience.

SquirrelNet is temporarily down

I'm adding a feature to SquirrelNet that requires the site to shut down for a day, but we should be back up on Saturday at some point. Sorry for the inconvenience :)