v1.1.2 - The “Google Preview” Edition

Today the latest release of Surf Canyon was unleashed upon the world. The most important development is the enhanced compatibility with the Firefox version of Google Preview, which is available on addons.Mozilla.org. Google Preview “inserts preview images (thumbnails) of web sites into the Google and Yahoo search results pages” and these previews are now available with Surf Canyon’s recommend results as well.

We’re unaware to what extent there is precedent for two Firefox add-ons collaborating to produce an enhanced experience that is greater than the sum of its parts, but Edward Ackroyd at Google Preview provided us with code and instructions that enabled our application to first identify whether or not Google Preview is installed and, if so, insert the appropriate previews in the correct places. We’re pleased to be working with him.

Additionally, the UI for the new version has been translated into Russian, which looks very cool.

David Shaw at Bloggle announced the new release and had this to say:

”[Surf Canyon] really does improve on Google’s search results in real time… Best of all, you don’t move from Google - no new web page… It works extremely well, quickly and smoothly. The results are there if you want them, but if you choose not to use Surf Canyon’s recommendations, your page hardly looks different.”

In other news, Surf Canyon was selected as the Tip of the Day for July 17th by BootLog.co.uk, which has this to say:

“Obviously it can’t work miracles but after trying it for a couple of weeks I have to say it’s quite impressive and more often than not its suggested results get you to where you want to go a lot quicker then trudging through pages of hits.”