Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does Surf Canyon do?
A: Surf Canyon is a browser extension that sits atop search engine sites like Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Craigslist. By observing user behavior, its real-time semantic personalization technology enables users to quickly and easily find relevant information that's buried in the search result set. Check out our blog for more technical discussions.

Q: How do I install the Surf Canyon browser extension?
A: Surf Canyon is currently only available for Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari. To download and install the extension, simply go to www.SurfCanyon.com and click "Download".

Q: How do I uninstall the browser extension?
A: If you are using Firefox, open Firefox and select "Tools" from the top menu. Select "Add-ons" and then click the "uninstall" button next to Surf Canyon. The browser extension will be removed the next time you restart Firefox. If you are using Internet Explorer, open the Windows "Control Panel" and select "Add or Remove Programs". Find "Surf Canyon" and click "remove" or "uninstall". If you are using Chrome, click the "Customize and control Google Chrome" wrench icon in the upper right-hand corner, select "Extensions," and click "Uninstall" next to Surf Canyon. If you are using Safari, open the Disk Image file you used to install Surf Canyon (you can get a new copy from our homepage if you do not have one handy) and double-click the Uninstall icon.

Q: How do I remove Surf Canyon from my browser's SearchBar?
A: If you are using Firefox, simply click the Surf Canyon icon in the SearchBar in the upper right-hand corner of your browser. From the menu that drops down, select "Manage Search Engines...", which will take you to a menu where you can remove Surf Canyon. If you are using Internet Explorer, click the down arrow in the upper right-hand corner of your browser just to the right of the SearchBar. Selecting "Change Search Defaults..." will bring up a menu that will let you remove Surf Canyon.

Q: When I try to uninstall the extension on Firefox, why is it still there after I restart Firefox?
A: If after closing and then restarting Firefox you see that Surf Canyon is still present in the Add-ons menu, it's possible that Firefox was re-opened before it had an opportunity to completely shut down. Even after the Firefox window disappears, it sometimes takes a while for the background process to complete its shutdown procedure and remove itself from memory. So close Firefox and then wait a minute before opening it again.

Q: How do I disable the browser extension?
A: If you are using Firefox, select "Tools", "Add-ons" and then click the "Disable" button next to Surf Canyon. To re-enable Surf Canyon, simply go back and click "Enable". If you are using Internet Explorer, select "Tools", "Manage Add-ons" and then "Enable or Disable Add-ons". Select the Surf Canyon Add-on and then click "Disable" under "Settings". To re-enable Surf Canyon, simply go back and click "Enable". If you are using Chrome, click the "Customize and control Google Chrome" wrench icon in the upper right-hand corner, select "Extensions," and click "Disable" next to Surf Canyon.

Q: How can I turn the extension on or off for a particular search engine?
A: The Settings tab on http://my.SurfCanyon.com lets you select which search engines will activate Surf Canyon.

Q: How can I turn off recommended sponsored links?
A: Recommended sponsored links are shown to only a small percentage of users. If you are one of them, you may turn them off by unchecking the box next to "Enable recommended sponsored links" on the Settings tab at http://my.SurfCanyon.com.

Q: How can I turn off the Refinements at the top of the search results page?
A: On the Setting tab of http://my.SurfCanyon.com, uncheck the box next to "Add refinement links to the top of the search page."

Q: Why do the bull's eyes not appear?
A: Third-party ad-blocking software, such as Ad Muncher, will sometimes also block the bull's eyes. This can be fixed by adding "surfcanyon.com" to your ad-blocking software's list of approved domains (sometimes called a "white list.")

Q: How can I visit a link without triggering recommendations?
A: There are two ways. You may turn off "Show recommendations when search result is clicked" on the Settings tab on http://my.SurfCanyon.com. Or, for some users, you might be able to open the result without triggering recommendations with a center-click (clicking the wheel button in the middle of your mouse).

Q: What is the purpose of the "Reset recommendations" link?
A: Just to the right of the search bar you'll see a "Reset recommendations" link whenever Surf Canyon has calculated recommendations for the search session. Clicking the bull's eyes or [X]'s will "hide" them from view, but clicking the "Reset recommendations" link will clear them all out completely and allow you to start over fresh.

Q: Why do some Craigslist images not show in the preview?
A: The Craigslist image preview feature only displays images for jpg files. Also, in order to not consume too much bandwidth, the Craigslist image preview feature will ignore images that may be extremely large.

Q: Why is there sometimes a delay before the bull's eyes appear?
A: The bull's eyes appear only after the extension has connected to Surf Canyon's server.

Q: Why is there sometimes a delay before the recommendations or "More Results" appear?
A: Thousands, perhaps millions, of calculations need to be made "on the fly" in order to bring you recommendations and personalization in real-time. When the servers are particularly loaded there may sometimes be a short but perceptible delay.

Q: What's happening with the bull's eyes flash briefly on the screen and then disappear?
A: This means that Surf Canyon is not able to calculate recommendations for the given search. This could be because the extension was not able to connect to the server, or it could be because the search result set was not large enough.

Q: What do I do if I get an "Invalid file hash (possible download corruption) -261 error" or "Download Error -228"?
A: Try right-clicking the "Download" link, selecting "Save link as", saving the file to the desktop, and then dragging it in onto a Firefox browser window. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_install_themes_or_extensions_-_Firefox gives a good overview about to what to do when having difficultly installing Firefox extensions.

Q: What do I do if I get the message "Module C\:Program Files\surfcanyon\surfcanyon.dll failed to register"?
A: You're probably on a corporate network and don't have administrative privileges to your computer. Contact your IT support personnel.

Q: Why can't OSX Spotlight find Surf Canyon?
A: As a browser add-on for Safari, Surf Canyon is not an application itself. Our software must be installed to /Library/InputManagers in order for Safari to use it. According to the Apple Knowledge Base, Spotlight does not look in that location, and as of OSX 10.4 there is no mechanism to add that folder to the search path. While you can navigate directly to /Library/InputManagers using the Finder, if your goal is to uninstall Surf Canyon, it is safer to follow the install instructions here rather than deleting the installed files directly.

Q: Is it Spyware or Adware?
A: Everything that Surf Canyon does to affect the user experience is transparent. There is no malicious software or intent. It is easy to modify the behavior of the application at my.SurfCanyon.com or remove it completely.

Q: What is your privacy policy?
A: Our privacy policy can be found at http://www.surfcanyon.com/search/privacy.jsp.

Q: Is it free?
A: Yes.

Q: Is it easy?
A: Yes.

Q: Where do I report a problem or make a suggestion?
A: You may contact us at .