While I share your dislike of the site, they used to have the answer available on the page, below about 3 screens of ads and whatever else, to give you the impression that you did actually have to sign up. Don't know if that's still the case or not.

FYI - There is a FireFox extension that mimics Googlebot which supposedly shows you the answers on Experts-Exchange (among others, or so I am told) without signing up.

The only reason why I have not abonded them is becasue there have been times where I had a real specific issue, and EE was the only place I could find an answer.

We should start a site where you get the answers, but need to register for the question.

Thanks Ray, I actually contribute to their ColdFusion questions on occasion (still a long way off from 'expert' points...)

No offense, but it just bugs me. And it actually slows me down as it clutters up my results. Folks can definitely disagree with me for sure. :)

Ray,

You can hack this out in Firefox. In the searchplugins folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins) edit the file google.src. Under the line

<input name="q" user>

add the line

<input name="q" value="-site:experts-exchange.com">

Just reboot Firefox and when you use the search plugin, you should see that the command -site:experts-exchange.com.

I'll blog the entire source here in a little bit.

Is that for the "plugin" or the toolbar? I don't actually use the plugin.

I agree that experts-exchange.com is a waste of space in my search results. If they had exclusive solutions, then I wouldn't be annoyed with them and might even pay for membership. But what I hate is how they pretend that their service is worth paying for when you can find the same answer somewhere else.

Since Ray brought up the Firefox search bar, what I've always wondered is why the search bar isn't editable via some simple dialog box. Instead, you have to install and uninstall "search plugins" to make changes to the list. These "plugins" are just simple text files (http://mycroft.mozdev.org/d... that could be easily edited by Firefox. I wonder if they make it harder to change because the Mozilla Foundation collects referral fees from some searches.

Yeah, it's for the search box in the upper right. For Google's toolbar, you'd have to figure out the right javascript file that sends the request to Google and then recompile the xpi. The good news is that it (and the jar in the chrome folder) can be opened up with WinZip. I'm not sure if Google wants us hacking their code like this though...GoogleLite might allow it though.

Like Barney said, the answers ARE there... just at the bottom of the page. At first I thought their authentication was just broken and I was getting in for free, but eventually I figured it out :)

I've gotten so used to EE that whenever I hit the site my finger automatically triggers a few mouse wheel revolutions and I don't pay it another thought. It is kind of a pain, but the site has been pretty helpful to me over the years so I guess I just let it slide.

When I go to EE (using the result in the in my first link) it does NOT provide the answer. Maybe you registered in the past?

I've actually found quite a few answers in Experts Exchange. I've never bothered to register. Nevertheless, I can see the answers. No plug-ins necessary. No user-agent spoofing. Just scroll down the page, and ignore the button that claims otherwise. :)

I'm telling ya (and maybe it's just me), but I don't see the answers. :( Do you guys see it following the link in my blog entry? (The first link, EE should be about the 5th link on the google results page.)

I do.

There's like 8 responses....

Perhaps people are mistaking the user comments on EE (they're immediately beneath the advertisements in the center column) for the real solution??

hi ray,

this is odd...

i clicked on the google link on your blog. Then I selected the experts-exchange result.

on the ee page i scrolled past the bright orange 'View Solution' icons. then i scolled past about 3 light blue adverts for something or other. then i scrolled past loads of search stuff. then i eventually saw the answer.

BUT.......

when i repeated all of the above i could no longer see the answers at the bottom of the page.

Ray, I definitely see the answers and I've definitely never registered there before. You have to scroll all the way down below the monstrosity of ads that make it look like it's the footer when it's really not. I went to this link using your search results:

http://www.experts-exchange...

You'll see a (usually) pretty thorough discussion of the question. Note that I tried this in both IE and Firefox (too see if it was a HTML rendering issue).

...then i cleaned my cookies and i can see the answers again

I thought those were just comments... ?

(I mean what you see after you scroll through the ads)

So I'm not alone in this then. Seems like some see it - some don't - and see see it at first then don't see it then see it. ;)

Either way - that to me means unreliable. :)

@Goose

yeah - i don't actually use ee so i can't really comment but if you look to the right of the comments (well everyone bar ray of course), one of them is marked 'accepted answer'

I went to their site home page. Then clicked on Search IT Solutions. That takes me to a page called sitePreview.asp. I searched for IIS Mime Type. Once I click on a link...only a partial solution or no solution is offered with guess what....a BIG A$$ link saying:

You Need to Subscribe to View This Solution

Example here:
https://secure.experts-exch...

oh yeah - i guess it would help ray if i pasted the 'accepted answer' as posted by hart...

the thing is radio buttons do not work like select boxes.

say you have two different radiobuttons

i.e <input type="radio" name="rad1" value="1">

and <input type="radio" name="rad2" value="2">

then their values can be recieed by

document.formemail.rad1.value
and
document.formemail.rad1.value..

but say you have multiple radio buttons with same name
i.e <input type="radio" name="commonrad" value="1">
and <input type="radio" name="commonrad" value="2">

now this has become an array.
so then you have to run a loop to get the value..

i.e document.formemail.commonrad[0].value will give 1
and document.formemail.commonrad[1].value will give 2

also you will have to check first which one is checked.

to avoid all this i had put an hiddenfield and just assigned the value of the radio button checked so that it can be accessed in a single line of code...

Regards
Hart

Ray,
Here's a Grease Monkey script that will set all the values of the text input boxes when on google's site. Works on Firefox google homepage and main google homepage. It could still use a bit of tweaking such as saving the previous search terms when paging and it would affect text fields on other google services (gMail, etc.)

Wiggy
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ==UserScript==
// @name Anti ExpertExchange
// @namespace http://localhost/greaseMoney/antiExpert
/// @description Removes Expert Exchange Listings from google search
// @include http://www.google.com/*

// ==/UserScript==
//

function removeExpertExchange(){

var iBoxes = document.getElementsByTagName('input');
if (iBoxes.length) {
for(i = 0;i < iBoxes.length;i++){
if (iBoxes[i].type == 'text'){
iBoxes[i].value = ' -site:experts-exchange.com';
}

}

}

}
window.addEventListener("load",removeExpertExchange, true);

Thanks for sharing Chris - but do you know if it will impact the toolbar? TO be honest, I almost -never- go to the Google homepage. I just use the heck out of the toolbar.

I just use the "Cached" version google has. Never have to register that way.

Well actually like normally i strongly disagree with you...

Sometimes when i am in a hurray i can ask a question and get a good answer,, not always.

But the big thing for me is mani-fold...

1. Training your self to solve lots of different problems, by having actual real data/real problems.

2. Helping other people in the community...

3. Sure it could have been done better, okay if you don't like it, make your own...

4. For me, Do i want to learn and help other people, yes? Then Experts-exchange is a great resource...

Hi Ray,

I use Experts Exchange occasionally and have never yet found a question where the answer wasn't directly below the ads.

If you go to this page:

http://www.experts-exchange...

Then use Firefox to search for 'window.document.forms[0]'

Do you get any search results or not?

That text is contained in one of the comments I'm seeing and it's pretty unlikely it would appear anywhere other than in a comment, so I'd be curious if you get nothing.

If so, do you have any cookies from experts-exchange.com?

I don't.

Spike

So when I do what Spike says, it works. When I go back to EE via Google, I get the page w/o the answers. EE is definitely doing something different.

Craig: "Well actually like normally i strongly disagree with you..."

Wow, I don't remember us normally disagreeing. :) But if you say so. I will have to agree to disagree about EE. And as for making my own - doesn't this blog, cflib, coldfusioncookbook.com, etc, count?? ;)

So Spike and I talked offline and I think we found it. If you hit the page with no cookies, it works. Once I reloaded and let the cookies come in, it stopped working. If you block cookies for the site, it would probably always work.

I stick by my original idea - I'm just going to avoid it.

Yeah, I recently started blocking cookies from most sites unless I really need to allow them.

Turning on cookies for EE seems causes it to set 6 or 7 cookies. Two of them look like they expire after a few weeks. In the past I've only hit EE once every few months, so I probably never got caught by the cookie issue before I started blocking cookies by default.

Spike

FYI - The first time you view a result it shows up at the bottom of the page under the ads, but if you close your browser and reopen EE, you dont see the results. This is controlled by a cookie.

Here is a Firefox workaround that has worked for me:

1. Open Cookies tab under Options.

2. Click View Cookies and delete all the experts-exchange.com cookies.

3. Click Exceptions and add in experts-exchange.com and set it to blocked.

4. Restart the browser.

Now the results will always show up.

Ray,

I have toyed with the idea of creating a site for this very purpose (www.cfuser.net). I relaunched it yesterday with Galleon as the forum and would be open to any suggestions on what the CF community would like to see. I am a relative novice, but would really like to pull this off.

Problem(?) with EE is the fact it DOES have a lot of users and it DOES have an answer to pretty much any query i've had. They have recently changed something to do with viewing their answers with cookies but as one guy said using Google's "Cached" link instead of the main link will still work (until the next indexing no doubt).

I'm sure its a strategic money making initiative, but if anyone has any idea of how to get all of their members and solutions to somewhere unrestricted I'm on board!

Jeff's cookie work-arount works great.

Thanks Jeff.

We have one already. It's called House of Fusion. :)

> We should start a site where you get the answers, but need to register for the question.

CustomizeGoogle (.com) for firefox has a number of extensions for google that I find it hard to live without, amoung those is a list of sites (or regex expressions really) that you dont want to see results for on google.

Like Brian Philippus mention above, whenever I see an expertexchange result in Google I just hit Googles "cashed" link instead of the expertexchange url itself. Also, just now I opened a page where I did not see the answer, but according to some other comenters advice (Nick Lansbury mentioned it first I beleive) I used the firefox web developers toolbar to delete domain cookies, did a reload, and voila - all the answers were there.

Download Greasemonkey (if you haven't already). There's a script to do just what you're trying to do and SO many other things as well. If you're a gmail user, there are some *fantastic* scripts for keyboard navigation that I've become completely dependent upon.

Experts Exchange Script: http://userscripts.org/scri...

If i ever want to view the EE stuff and I dont see the solutions, I view the cached versions of the EE page and I have been able to view the answers. I havent tried the cookie thing. I dont normally go to EE, as I too can find the answers somewhere else.

M

Just read your question, couldn't be bothered going through all the other comments so someone may have already suggested this.

Why not simply copy http://google.com to your hard drive and then mod the post method of the form so it discreetly sends the -site:experts-exchange.com as a concatenation to your real query. Then simply put a shortcut to it on your quick launch bar and use that from now on?

I came accross http://www.codershome.com who seem to be trying to do a similar thing as experts-exchange, might be worth a shot there?

All the best anyway.

I have always been able to view Experts Exchange and my colleague sitting next to me could not. It is strange.

however the EASIEST way to fix this problem is register for EE. It is free. You don't get spammed and it is very usefull

http://www.experts-exchange...

That's how I got in.

I use google's cache if I can't see the answers. They wouldn't dare hide the keyword-filled answers from googlebot...

The solution is simple. Just clear out your cookies and then never again click on the big "View Solutions" button. The solutions will always be at the bottom of the page past countless advertisements.

If you click the orange button, the site sets a cookie and will block the solutions from displaying in the future unless you sign up or delete the cookies again.

The reason why they do this is because they want everyone to sign up, but also want the search engines to be able to index the solutions.

I use experts-exchange.com all the time. I use the quicksearch in forefox as above. I also block all cookies from EE. Get one cookie on there and you will not see answers on subsequent visits. I also use RIP(remove it permanently) extension to get rid of all the crap between the Q and the As below.

If you are going to spend any time at Experts-Exchange don't miss the opportunity to visit the Lounge -- what a hoot!

The problem is not Experts-Exchange, The problem is user error.

Just because you're too frickin retarded to figure out how to see the answers doesn't mean the site sucks. Furthermore, subscribing is free, and there is even a way to EARN free premium services. But seeing that you're a frickin retard, you won't be able to figure out that one either.

if you want to post any comments, post them in my website thread, if you dare. Don't forget to read the disclaimer $10 Timmy.

--
phileoca

Phileaca, I'll post here if you don't mind. We will have to agree to disagree. To me, requiring a logon to see the answer is a business choice. Which is fine. But for me, I simply don't want to use the site. Hence the main reason for the entry (how to tell google to avoid a site).

It was not a question of me not knowing how to use the site. I d o know how. It is just a pain. Therefore, I don't want it to "pollute" my google reasults.

There is no need for you to call me retarded. I have no problem with you disagreeing with me, but if you can't be polite, why bother posting? Unless you are a child, and then I understand your lack of common sense.

>>Now if I can just find a way to make that the default, I'd be even happier. There must be a way to tweak the Google Toolbar for Firefox to get the same results.

Hmm, seems like a good question to ask on Experts Exchange ... oh you are trying to avoid the site ... never mind

Please don't sign up for free, you'll end up getting premium services by answering a few easy questions and then you'll be addicted.

Experts Exchange sucks. 1 year ago it was free. Premium was started then. 3 months ago it was free and now premium again.

They think we are idiots. I am not paying for it, there are better communities outside.

<< Experts Exchange sucks. 1 year ago it was free. Premium was started then. 3 months ago it was free and now premium again.
>>

Mike, you are a fuktard.
Experts exchange was not free a year ago. It's 10 dollars month, unless your EARN premium services. If you earn PS, than it's free. you have 2 months to keep your PS status by answering the minimum number of points (3000 per month).

but mike, yes you're right, we do think you're an idiot.

furthermore you don't have to suscribe to see the answer. just scroll down past the ads. and the reason phil called your retarded is because you didn't scroll down to the answer was at the bottom of the page. you call the site useless. we call your brain useless, hence the word retarded.

there's a reason why google has EE TA answers ranked High.

noobs.

but its better that you ee haters stay away. cause we don't want you to show up in a google search on EE

Folks. If this topic cannot stay polite, I will disable comments. There is no reason to curse. I find it odd that the the EE supporters, though, are the ones who are mainly being rude. I hope that this is not indicitive of the type of people who contribute to the site. Either way - I believe we can discuss EE w/o being rude. If not, I'll simply close down the discussion.

It seems as if the fragile egos of the 'Experts' has been bruised.

Don't worry guys, I am sure that there are plenty of people out there that will give you the opportunity to feel superior (and get your premium services for free).

Nice thread Raymond. I too am annoyed by EE always popping up in the top of searches only to find them pimping their wares. As for you EE users who are calling names...nice representation of the contributing EE users. Way to really show your maturity.

I think the general irritation with EE is that when people are looking for a solution to a problem, they expect to be presented with an answer, not to be given a site that tries to coerce the user into buying a service. As information technology professionals we have come to rely on answers to our questions answered by our peers, not by some money making machine. As an IT professional, when I come across that site, I find the tone rude, greedy, and generally distasteful.

I'm pretty sure the reason you're getting flamed by some of the EE Lounge lizards, is because your entire blog in anti-EE.

the facts are this:
1)None of the users of EE get paid to be there.
2)You don't have to suscribe to see the answers.
3)If you want to do a search from WITHIN EE (using EE's search engine), then you have to suscribe.
4)Subscription is FREE.
5)Premium services are $10 a month, unless you earn them (which is rather easy for anybody that knows anything about computers).
6)Ads are visible when you don't have premium services. Again, premium services can be earned and maintained monthly. I've been a member for 4 years and have yet to pay a dime.
7)We have some of the worlds top experts in the EE community.
in fact, the author of this site(http://www.amset.info) is a Microsoft MVP. That's just an example of the talent that supports EE.

the problem EE supporters have with your blog is it has inaccurate information. She took a snap shot instead of looking at the big picture.

and finally, EE teaches people how to fish, instead of just giving them fish. They help people solve problems and learn how to solve problems rather than just giving them the answer. Look at the Access forums for the largest number of examples.

My suggestion, is next time you want to right a negative blog, do a little research. There's a reason EE comes up in many google searches. And that's because somebody already asked your question, and the solution was found with help from ee.

good luck in your future endeavors.

EE facts, can you please tell me what part of my blog entry was inaccurate? I said you have to sign up. Is that not true? Folks on this list pointed out that EE uses a cookie, and if you block the cookie, you do get the answers all the time, but the default behavior is to not show the answers after the cookie is set.

If that is wrong, please tell me and I'll gladly update the blog post. I do not understand why EE folks feel the need to attack this entry so much. I'm sure some folks love EE. Personally I don't care for it _when using Google_, which was the main point of the blog entry - how to remove sites from Google results.

You made the comment, EE teaches people how to fish - personally I think using Google is fishing. When I get a result from EE and can't read it until I sign up, I'd rather simply not use EE.

Why did you say none of the EE users get paid? I never said they did. I don't want to search within EE. I want to search within Google. It's great the subscription is free, but it means extra steps in my results from Google. To me, this is almost false advertising. The search result shows up, but you don't really get the answer until you logon. As for top experts - I never attacked the intelligence of the EE community.

Note that I was attacked (called retarded) by one of EE's members. I never turned this into a personal attack - EE defenders did. If this is representative of the type of people EE use, then I'm glad I don't go there often.

Hi,
If you aren't happy with Experts Exchange you might want to take a look at our newly launched site: www.quomon.com
It's based on the same idea, but it's inspired by the web 2.0 trends like tags and AJAX.
And it's free to use and not plastered with ads.
It's not as big as EE yet, but give it a try...

I also hate EE. The site is plastered with ads and popups. To see the comments/solution you have to scroll through at least 3 pages of crap. I dont know why the site gets ranked so high on google.. perhaps they are cheating.

So I'm not the only one. I found this page by googling "experts exchange sucks". I want them off my Google results! Who in their right mind actually uses them anyway?

AMEN! I hate that site! Occasionally it will pop up results without you having to sign up and/or pay. But it pisses me off that a pay site shows up all over the top ten search results for something. A little further googling with eventually find the answers you're looking for but it's a huge annoyance. How about if you just pay to get a question answered but then let the answer be freely available to all. Once when I was rich I paid to get on their crummy site but NONE of my questions were ever answered and my time expired.

And is it just me or does the site name look more like "expert sex change" hahaha

just use google cache... This makes it possible to view the solutions without paying

Experts Exchange sucks big time. As if anyone is going to pay for information that can be found for free elsewhere.

experts-exchange is greedy, I hate them screwing up my search results

I totally agree, will be using this tip for sure from now on. I really dislike these kinds of sites. So many people strive to distribute free content. This is what the web is all about. I also don't like how they waste your time by showing you the question and then a bunch of answers that all say the same thing.

scroll down the advertisements and all answers are there without signing up. signup and you will not see them.

EE is FREE if you contribute! i have never paid to asked a question because i help others. The site encourages people to share and exchange information.

answer 3 questions a month and is all free, unlimited use! 2 million questions, and 10 years, chances are the solution to your question in there, and if not, ask, and it will be.

the site is about exchanging ideas, sometimes they are crap, sometimes you learn something new.

chapskates EE is better qualty information cuz u pay for it

Totally aggree with Raymond, EE sucks and it should be removed from Google search results!!

You EE haters are retarted. The site has sooo many solutions to so many of my problems. If you dont find it helpful then you must be retarted.

No, EE DOES suck.
It's now June, 08, and I found a script finally to block EE results from search.
and the hosts file, so I can't accidentally go there and give them any chance to get a micro cent from my visit.

It is not obvious at all that one can just scroll down for the answer. What you EE users don't get is that most (intelligent) people, when confronted with a sales pitch instead of an answer, are going to just close the page. The reason for this is that we are so inundated on a daily basis with ads and sales pitches to buy this and buy that, that it has become second nature to blow it off. How many times have you told the telemarketer, "take me off your list" (before the do-not-call list) without really hearing a word? How many times have you fast-forwarded through commercials on your DVR (or VCR for the old-schoolers)? I'd say that most people don't like ads - most especially those that are noticeable and intrusive. And Masquerading as a search result, (without an obvious notice stating that answers are at the bottom of the page) and then trying to sell us something is definitely intrusive. Given that the internet was founded on the idea of free exchange of information and that the open source movement is gaining significant momentum, I think this is a terrible business model and a terrible first impression to make on a potential user. But hey - maybe the owners of EE have money to burn.

Right,

personally I use EE as a work tool, it is often very helpful to find information about something specific that you cannot find a "SPECIFIC" answer to on sites like this for instance. I understand that people don't like ads but one would have thought that people would get used to it as they are everywhere on the internet, and after all.
who actually cares... if you don't like it don't use it... stop winging about it.

Hate that site experts-exchange. It pops up as though it's there to help us poor souls. So many times, I clicked on their link only to find out that it is that darned site which needs us to subscribe to their "services". Hate it, hate it, hate it.

You big babies. EE is only $13.00 a month and it's saved my buttocks many times at work. How often do you go out and have two drinks that is over $13.00.

I know this is a bit late...

But i use this gr8 site, it's called Fixya, they have good solutions and you can see them without even signing in.

Check it out -
http://www.fixya.com/suppor...

I hope it will help you
Mind's.

I just made Google without Experts Exchange my default search:
http://www.google.com/coop/...

http://www.calvert.ch/affine is an Internet Explorer addin which allows you to hide unwanted sites from your search engine results

Yep Experts Exchange is a rip off and a waste of time. Its interesting to see that this thread has being going I while - exactly the same search brought me here, trying to block it from my google searches. As people have pointed out, you can see some answers if you scroll down past the rubbish - sometimes. But then you get stuff which is no better than any newsgroups, worse sometimes. OK you might find something of use there, but the impression that they are trying to give to people is that they are 'experts' somehow, and will therefore give you an expert answer - this would fool those who aren't in the know. They are just a way for the owners of the site to profit from what used to be in newsgroups.

Come on - we have been newsgroups for years, for the community - by the community. I was a bit annoyed when dejanews got bought by google, but its totally free at least.

At the end of the day 'Experts' Exchange are trying to profit from the generosity of spirit that programmers have given each other for years. It would be great if everyone blocked their site in google!

(and those people defending EE - why so rude?)

I set Chris' link as my homepage now, but look into blocking more sites from google when I have time (like About.com)

I agree, a complete rip off and waste of time.

I'v been an expert there, but was called names by a "colleague" amateur expert and when elaborating his googlish comments I got suspended...

I've started a blog to show how "ab-normalized" this expert is commenting. (http://community.zdnet.co.u...

Like other disappointed Experts Exchange experts I moved to bytes.com (formerly www.thescripts.com) to help people for free and in a decent manner.

Hope to see you there :-)

Nic;o)

First you dont have to login or pay to see any answers just scroll all the way to the bottom.

last if you contribute and answer around 3 questions a month you NEVER HAVE TO PAY. EE is a great idea. if you are a lazy free loader then yes, you have to pay! if you are someone who like to share your ideas and help others 'just like the creator of this blog' then is a grate place. i have met many CF developers and lots of new friends on EE. 10 years + and still the most active community on-line of this type so it must be doing something right!

Sorry Alex, but cookies prevent viewing the answer for "regular" google visitors.
EE is very "smart" in covering up the answers and forcing people to pay for something they can get for free at other sites.

As an EE expert you don't experience the "tricky" way to find out the way to become a free member. You need to know that you've to enlist as expert....

Many newsgroups do have better quality experts as EE and no flames and experts hunting for expert points.

I found better friends at bytes.com and never ran into flames. Just wait till you're called names by a "colleague" expert and see what action the EE amins take... <LOL>

They do indeed something right, they are experts in covering up criticism. They follow the "Bush" doctrine: "Who's not for me is against me". And they are experts in misleading the innocent customers. Just run a search for a common CF mistake and count the number of broken links and irrelevant answers. Now check again the number of questions the advertise with to attract paying members....

For more info I would invite you to read my blog as stated in the above comment.

Regards,

Nic;o)

You can Crack any link of experts-exchange site , using Google Product Session , What i mean is you can still view those restricted answer right bottom of the page (make sure page Loads Completely ) Only things should be experts-exchange Link which you Clicked from any Google Product ..

For Eg ..
1.If u find any useful experts-exchange Link in GOOGLE Search,, you can see all those obfuscated answer at the bottom of the page .
2. KEy Feature to Crack(another Approach)
If u search solution in the experts-exchange sites itself , this time its Hurts by which u will find all answers in Locked State i mean cant able to see those answers . What Should be done is ....
Just Copy that link and save the link in your Gmail Account .
ANd Click that pasted Link from your Gmail Account . Now You can see those answers at the bottom....
I bet there are really some better Solution in that Site...

ve Fun

I used to like Expert Exchange, that is until their shady billing practices allowed them to steal money from me. They stink.

EE is crap. I have been with EE for a decade and used to be expert now. it's not free anymore i am not is even premium member now. locked to export member type but can't do much unless i pay. i feel like handicapped.. EE sucks......

Just wqant to pass on a thanks for this. EE is annoying at the least, your hack worked very well for me as they no longer show as a result. Although the google.src file on my computer was located in C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\SeaMonkey\searchplugins, a copy of it placed in the folder mentioned and edited as instructed worked like a charm. Thanks again, I agree that if the information is free somewhere else then why pay for it?