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! and Bing. 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, and Chrome. To download and install the extension, go to www.SurfCanyon.com and click "Download".

Q: How do I uninstall the browser extension?
A:

Q: How do I disable the browser extension?
A:

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 the Refinements at the top of the search results page?
A: On the Settings 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.") Also, if you are using Firefox, Surf Canyon will disable itself when you select "Private Browsing" from the "Tools" menu.

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: 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 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: Is Surf Canyon a Virus, Spyware or Adware?
A: No. We provide simple uninstall instructions to completely remove our application. It is also easy to modify its behavior at my.SurfCanyon.com. There is no malicious software or intent. No login or registration is required to use our application, and everything that Surf Canyon does to affect the user experience is transparent.

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 from our Contact Us page.