Get a Costco.com search plug-in for Firefox

I’ve been a fan of the Firefox browser for several years. If you haven’t tried it yet, I challenge you to give it a spin and compare its functionality and stability to IE.

One of my favorite Firefox features is the search engine toolbar that appears to the right of the address bar. The browser comes standard with several pre-installed search tools for sites such as Amazon, Wikipedia, and Creative Commons. It’s nice to be able to punch in a search term on the fly and be taken directly to the site of your choice.

You can also add search tools that other (smarter) people have created. I added one for Target.com a while back and it works great.

“So, is there one for Costco.com?” you ask. Why, yes there is! A group calling itself the Mycroft Project has made such a tool available. You can install the plugin directly to your browser and begin using it immediately. Or you can visit the main site and search the more than 15,000 plugins currently available. Note that not all plugins work with the current Firefox version 3.

Costco.com is top-performing retail site in August

Internet Retailer reported yesterday that Costco.com had the best “high broadband” rating of all web retailers last month. Their survey also studied who had the best access rating among dial-up and “low” broadband users. I’m curious to know just how many Costco.com shoppers are still using dial-up. We made the jump to broadband in 2001.

I’m also wondering if anyone reading this has ever had a problem with the site. I can’t recall one time that it ever failed to load for me. Being someone who works in an internet-related field, I appreciate the simple design of the site. I do think they could improve on their search functionality, however.

Harmonics flooring – Yes, it’s worth the savings

If you’re like me, you enjoy doing home improvements yourself so you can save some money and have the satisfaction of accomplishing something. If you’re a bit more like me, you’re afraid you’re going to blow a wad of cash on something that’s way over your head and end up wishing you’d hired a pro.

If you’re quite a bit more like me, you’ve invested in the Harmonics line of laminate flooring available only at Costco. You installed it yourself. And you’re happy.

Yes, as further evidence that we’ve drunk the Costco Kool-Aid in this family, we took the Harmonics plunge this past spring. I’ve admired the quality of this product ever since the store started carrying it. Then last year they introduced the wide-plank mahogany and I thought, “This might be it.” Then came the hand-scraped (looking) chestnut this year and I thought, “Now this is it.” Those beveled edges. The way the dark wood veneer throws off a subtle burgundy when the sunlight hits it. Wow, this stuff pops. It’s ours.

More advice on Harmonics flooring after the jump.