>>Documentation
I Installation
I-1 Install stable version
SquiggleSR is a simple add-on for Firefox. The easiest way to install it is to visit SquiggleSR page on Mozilla add-on website.
I-2 Install testing versions
Testing versions of SquiggleSR are only available on our forum. These versions include several features that have not been reviewed by Mozilla reviewers. Just download the selected version of SquiggleSR and then open the file "SquiggleSR.xpi" with Firefox:
Open Firefox
Click on "File" and then "Open File"
Select the file you downloaded
Click on install.
I-3 Troubleshooting
When trying to download the plug-in from SourceForge website, it may happen that the download refuses to start.
This is because FireFox automatically installs plug-in and therefore refuses to download "xpi" files.
In order to solve this problem :
Open the "Tools" Menu in FireFox
Click on "Options"
Open the security "Tab"
Click on "Exceptions" and add sourceforge url : sourceforge.net
Click on "Allow"
Normally you should be able to Download SquiggleSR
II Start SquiggleSR
II-1 First Start
New SquiggleSR version (v 4.8.1) includes a wizard configuration assistant. When you run Firefox, after SquiggleSR installation. The wizard assistant should start. You can launch the wizard mode through the "Preferences" window.
II-2 Launch SquiggleSR
SquiggleSR icon should appeared on the bottom right corner of the Firefox window. To start SquiggleSR, you just have to click on the icon.
The icon color should change and the name of the search engine appear.
To change the squiggled search engine, right click on the icon and select the search engine you want. The SquiggleSR menu is also available in the "Tools" menu of Firefox.
III-3 Stop SquiggleSR
To stop SquiggleSR, just click on SquiggleSR icon. The icon should turn into orange, and the state should indicate "OFF".
III Preferences
III-1 General
Launch at start (default: off): If checked SquiggleSR will start with Firefox .
Simulate Incremental Queries (default: on): This option will generate several similar queries to simulate realistic behavior. This option only affect long queries.
Deceive cookie/ad tracking (default: off): By default, SquiggleSR just downloads the text from the clicked results. However, search engines also place ads on several the website that are visited by SquiggleSR and could thus detect that the ads are not displayed. With this option, more elements are displayed. Only the element which have a cookie attached ( meaning that content from the same source have already be downloaded) are downloaded. It is strongly recommended to use a script blocker if you use this option. Furthermore, this option may run flash in background (and thus make sound).
III-2 RSS Flows
RSS: OPML is the standard used to save and export collections of RSS flows. Netvibes, Google Reader and Matoumba use OPML files to save your RSS subscription.
The RSS flows described in the OPML file are used by Squiggle SR to generate queries. Since the OPML file of your favorite news aggregator is relevant about your interest, the queries generated would be similar to queries you may have done. Thus every optimization and personalization made by your search engine remains unchanged. However you have the possibility to change your OPML file adding or deleting entries, just click on the RSS flows tab in the SquiggleSR Menu.
You may import an OPML file :
Use "Merge OPML" to merge the selected opml file with your actual opml file
Use "Replace OPML" file to replace your actual opml file.
Popular Queries: In addition to the RSS flows, SquiggleSR is capable generate popular queries using search engines statistics as "Google Ho Trends" or "Yahoo buzz". To add an entry, you have to provide the URL as well as the start tag used to recognize queries keywords. For instance, on Yahoo Buzz Web page (http://buzz.yahoo.com/overall/) the link to the request about Rachel Griffiths is: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=rachel+griffiths&cs=bz&fr=buzz The start tag is "p=".
III-3 Queries Timing
In order to simulate realistic behaviours, queries scheduling has to be considered as well. Indeed, often user authentic queries are sent by burst followed by a small idle period where users are occupied studying the returned web pages. Moreover, the scheduling process impacts the amount of generated queries and thus, the intensity of the generated noise: the more queries are generated, the more noisy will be the search profile
III-4 Shaping
Through this interface, you can adjust the size of the generated queries to match your real habits.
Maximum size of a query: Largest size of a query issued by SquiggleSR. If "Simulate Incremental Queries" is enabled, the query that are larger of this parameter will be shorted.
Size of the smallest keyword in your queries: Keywords shorter than this value will be ignored
Noise Words:Noise words are common words that are ignored by search engines because they do not bring relevant information. For instance, english noise words include: the, a, an, on, it, to, be, not, or.... Noise words are language specific. You can add or remove noise word from the list. Please, do not hesitate to send us (mail/forum) you customized noise word list so we could include it in the next SquiggleRS version.
III-5 Stat & Log
This panel display several statistics observed from the queries you made. This statistics are stored locally and aim to help you configuring SquiggleSR parameters. In addition, the number of queries generated by SquiggleSR and an estimation of the bandwidth consumption are also provided. Finally, the log of the queries issued by SquiggleSR and the url of the visited websites are partially displayed (old log are not displayed to reduce memory consumption but remain stored on your disk). The number of time a query has been issued is also displayed.
