November 22, 2008

How to Disable Google SearchWiki

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: You can now disable SearchWiki from Google's preferences page.
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25 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 22, 2008 at 7:13 AM

    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?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 22, 2008 at 7:13 AM

    oops it does work for opera I just saw.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 22, 2008 at 7:51 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 22, 2008 at 10:28 AM

    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/

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousNovember 22, 2008 at 10:37 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousNovember 22, 2008 at 12:37 PM

    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

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousNovember 22, 2008 at 1:27 PM

    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

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownNovember 22, 2008 at 1:41 PM

    Just when I was getting use to the search wiki results, Google go right ahead and turn off the feature in my account!

    ReplyDelete
  9. joelptNovember 22, 2008 at 3:14 PM

    SearchWiki appears to have been switched off for my account as well. Maybe they had second thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousNovember 22, 2008 at 10:21 PM

    I hate it. It adds too much clutter to the search page.

    Wishing Google would remove it...

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousNovember 23, 2008 at 12:24 AM

    Thanks,
    I've successful install this extension.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousNovember 23, 2008 at 2:26 AM

    You can also use the DNS hack to anonymously search google

    http://blog.vivekjishtu.com/2008/11/google-clean-search-without-wiki.html

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousNovember 24, 2008 at 10:10 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  14. HenningNovember 25, 2008 at 4:48 AM

    Google doesn't display the SearchWiki controls if you add &filter=0 to the url.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Alex ChituNovember 25, 2008 at 4:51 AM

    @Henning:
    I don't think that's true.

    ReplyDelete
  16. joelptNovember 25, 2008 at 1:58 PM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  17. ScuttermanDecember 6, 2008 at 5:48 PM

    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

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonymousDecember 22, 2008 at 7:38 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2009 at 2:09 PM

    Thank you! I was using Chrome, but switched back to Firefox in order to use Greasemonkey and turn off Google's damned SearchWiki.

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2009 at 9:56 AM

    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/

    ReplyDelete
  21. Asus eee PC 1008HA testJune 15, 2009 at 1:27 PM

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  22. ruchikaJuly 13, 2009 at 2:02 AM

    i think it is better for google.Google doesn't display the SearchWiki controls if you add &filter=0 to the url.

    ReplyDelete
  23. smirkingmanNovember 22, 2009 at 9:24 AM

    This addin for Internet Explorer allows you to permanently hide sites from your search engine results:

    http://www.calvert.ch/affine

    ReplyDelete
  24. AnonymousMarch 17, 2010 at 2:53 AM

    This feature is pathetic. Scrap it Google you boof-heads.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Alex ChituMarch 17, 2010 at 3:09 AM

    The good news for you is that SearchWiki is no longer available. I'll miss it.

    ReplyDelete

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