Google SearchWiki lets you customize the search results by promoting, demoting and adding new pages. You can also annotate the results. Some people think that the new feature clutters Google's clean search results, without bringing too much functionality.
Google doesn't offer a way to turn off SearchWiki other than logging out from your Google account, but you can install a Greasemonkey script that hides the interface for this additional functionality. If you use Firefox, install
Greasemonkey extension, restart the browser and the add the
No SearchWiki script. Google's search results will look clean again, even if you are logged in.
The script also works in Opera, which has built-in support for userscripts. Just go to Tools>Preferences>Advanced>Content>JavaScript Options, choose a folder in the "User JavaScript files" box and then save
the script in that folder.
Note that the script doesn't disable the SearchWiki interface for the results you've already promoted so you can restore their default position and you can still see the removed results at the bottom of the page. To undo your changes, you can use
My SearchWiki Notes page.
Update: Apparently, Google (temporarily?) removed the feature.
Labels: Greasemonkey, Tips, Web Search
Liyster said on November 22, 2008 2:43 AM PDT:
Thank you!
said on November 22, 2008 7:13 AM PDT:
Thank you for this although I use Opera can it be adapted for this? What the hell are google thinking not giving an option to turn this pathetic feature off?
said on November 22, 2008 7:13 AM PDT:
oops it does work for opera I just saw.
Home Biss said on November 22, 2008 7:51 AM PDT:
I won't turn it off.
It is a great feature for internet users and I hope Google will one day let internet users determine the relevancy and quality of search results. It's time to remove those stupid high-ranking results that were powered by silly social bookmarks once and for all.
HB: I agree with the desire to let internet users determine the relevancy and quality of search results, but this just isn't the way to do it. Give users real, wholesale control, not just a clunky mechanism for tweaking individual queries.
My take: http://thenoisychannel.com/2008/11/21/google-searchwiki-an-interesting-take-on-pim/
said on November 22, 2008 10:37 AM PDT:
thank god and/or whoever wrote that script. much better now. searchwiki was a poor excuse for a feature and lead to serious eye cancer.
said on November 22, 2008 12:37 PM PDT:
I was looking for a way to disable searchwiki (I don't use firefox, so am unable to use available greasemonkey skripts to do so) and found this note on google's newsgroups. It shows you how to tweak the url of you iGoogle homepage so that you don't get searchwikified results when you search:
http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_Help-UsingWS/browse_thread/thread/3d76baecf04b18d3
ok, here is a better way to opt-in to google search wiki and turn it on/off on the go
http://www.facesaerch.com/blog/disable-google-search-wiki/
also greasemonkey based
baker said on November 22, 2008 1:41 PM PDT:
Just when I was getting use to the search wiki results, Google go right ahead and turn off the feature in my account!
joelpt said on November 22, 2008 3:14 PM PDT:
SearchWiki appears to have been switched off for my account as well. Maybe they had second thoughts.
said on November 22, 2008 10:21 PM PDT:
I hate it. It adds too much clutter to the search page.
Wishing Google would remove it...
Carol said on November 23, 2008 12:24 AM PDT:
Thanks,
I've successful install this extension.
said on November 23, 2008 2:26 AM PDT:
You can also use the DNS hack to anonymously search google
http://blog.vivekjishtu.com/2008/11/google-clean-search-without-wiki.html
said on November 24, 2008 10:10 AM PDT:
This SearchWiki sham is the silliest thing I've seen on Google since "customized search." If I didn't know better I'd think it was a joke. Thanks for the instructions. Hopefully Google will come to its senses and start focusing on improving its results rather than depending on gimmicks.
Henning said on November 25, 2008 4:48 AM PDT:
Google doesn't display the SearchWiki controls if you add &filter=0 to the url.
@Henning:
I don't think that's true.
joelpt said on November 25, 2008 1:58 PM PDT:
After having the SearchWiki icons on my search pages for a few days now, I find that I am pretty easily 'filtering them out' visually when I scan the page.
It's probably because the icons' color is faded relative to the blue search result links.
Thank you for the script. Much appreciated. Now I just need to make a similar one to get rid of "Experts Exchange" results, and I'll be happy
-Scut
said on December 22, 2008 7:38 AM PDT:
I use the search box in FireFox 3.0.5 with google.com and hate SearchWiki.
I don't want to install any plugins or have any software filtering my pages. I was able to disable SearchWiki by going to the directory where I installed FireFox. Inside the searchplugins/ folder there is a file called google.xml.
In this short file there is a line saying:
Param name="aq" value="t"/
that line is surrounded with a less-than and greater-than sign but I cannot type that without this blogging software complaining.
I added this on the next line, also surrounded by the same less-than and greater-than sign:
Param name="hl" value="all"/
and restarted FireFox. this made SearchWiki go away.
said on February 22, 2009 2:09 PM PDT:
Thank you! I was using Chrome, but switched back to Firefox in order to use Greasemonkey and turn off Google's damned SearchWiki.
Den Livej said on February 26, 2009 9:56 AM PDT:
You can Disable personalized search with this search plugin.
Works both in Firefox and in Internet Explorer!
http://yoast.com/tools/seo/disable-personalized-search-plugin/
google seo wiki is a nightmare... i used it once for one of my sites, now for some keyword my site appears on the top.. but only for me, ;) it has no value to me, expect the comment functionality, but even this is not required... thats the first time i installed grease monkey, one more plugin making firefox slower... :( thanks google.
