GoogleSharing For Other Browsers

Dominic White

 

GoogleSharing For Other Browsers

GoogleSharing is something I've written about before, and strongly believe in. It's a way of proxying connections to unauthenticated Google services in such a way that:

  • Google can't work out who you are (random session cookies are used)
  • Google can't work out that you're using a proxy
  • The proxy can't see your searches (if using SSL)
However, right now it only runs in Firefox. While there are some people looking to port it to other browsers, there are some options available in the meantime, especially for mobile browsers.

The first, and most portable is to use the front-end I've previously blogged about. It's currently sitting at http://1984.za.net/. Unfortunately, this will not be encrypted, and the webserver will be able to see your searches, however, the other benefits remain, and you can use it when you're not at your computer.

The second, and which allows you to continue to use Google as normal, and works for more than just search, is a dynamic proxy.pac file hosted here. By default it gives you a working proxy.pac that will proxy *all* Google services (even authenticated ones, to be fixed) via GoogleSharing. The options are:

  • proxy.php - will load the default .pac which will specify a DIRECT connection, without proxy for non-Google services
  • proxy.php?proxy=<proxy>&port=<port> - will allow a specific proxy & port to be specified if you are being one e.g proxy.php?proxy=192.168.1.1&port=3128
  • proxy.php?proxy=<proxy>&port=<port>&socks - will do the same as the previous, except specify the default proxy as a SOCKS proxy

Additionally, it will blackhole Google Ads and the Facebook like button on non-webkit browsers (on webkit browsers it will ignore the blackhole, to be fixed).

This is in alpha right now, but I've been using it for a week on my iPhone (more on how to change 3G proxy settings on the iPhone later) with no major problems. Feel free to make a copy of the output and create your own proxy.pac. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Todo:

  • Only proxy unauthenticated Google services
  • Implement a blackhole that Webkit respects
  • Provide a full ad-blocker blacklist from EasyList as an optional extra

Sunday, December 19. 2010
Posted by Dominic White in Privacy
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#1 Roxana wrote (Link) (Reply)
Posted on Saturday, October 27. 2012
Hi I have the Google Sharing Enabled on my lower right Add-on bar, with adblock plus & nsrcoipt in FF12.0 They all work pretty well together. I notice that Google still tries to track, altho with all these I feel fairly well protected. I also go into the tools tab regularly to look at new cookies & Google often re-installs one soon after I delete it when going to new webpages. I have YouTube, Facebook & other accounts like gozie & zippcast that play videos so I can't block every instance of Google, but esp with nsrcoipt I can edit what's allowed & eliminate whats not needed, on a page basis if needed. But lately Google Sharing Enabled will flash a warning that its been temporarily disabled with a moving warning notice, & it might say connection failed even tho nothing is happening to other open pages or anything else & even when not going to another page or website. I even blocked Google cookies temp, but still happens. In the last 3 hours it showed about 4 warnings, tho I quickly re-enabled it. Is there some new bot Google's using or a work-around, or even some known malware ? Thanks for trying to offer any help or ideas.
 
#1.1 Milena wrote (Link) (Reply)
Posted on Saturday, January 26. 2013
I get the following megssae when looking up on google after installing and configuring the add-on:The proxy server is refusing connectionsFirefox is configured to use a proxy server that is refusing connections* Check the proxy settings to make sure that they are correct.* Contact your network administrator to make sure the proxy server is working.I got the same error with the other proxies though. If I go on google.ca I don't have the error but I wonder if I go through the proxy at all in that case.I'm running Firefox 9.0.1 under OS X.
 

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