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Comment by myfonj | Hacker News Reader

Anybody else here remembers times when Google search supported blocking domains in personal setting? Along with so many advanced search operators? Oh, days of yore…

Anyway, you can still use prevailing `site:` operator with "minus" negation (e.g.[1]) , so you can have bookmarked search with your custom blocklist in query [2]

[1] no SO and no w3schools example, non-personalized ("verabatim"): https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+merge+arrays+javascri... [2] place `%s` into query and set bookmark keyword (Firefox) or chrome://settings/searchEngines - Add: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s+-site:stackoverflow.com+-...

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I use Tampermonkey[1] with the "Google Hit Hider by Domain"[2] plugin to de-crapify my search results.

In spite of the name, it works on all search engine sites I've tried it on; Google, Startpage, DuckDuckGo, Qwant. It adds a "Block" button beside each search result which allows you to block sites from appearing in that particular search result. Or to 'perma-ban' them from ever showing in future search results.

No affiliation. Just a satisfied customer.

[1] https://www.tampermonkey.net

[2] https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/1682-google-hit-hider-by-d...

Unfortunately it can't do anything about search results returning precisely the opposite of what you searched for; eg.

SEARCH: "How to completely uninstall XXX from YYY"

RESULT: "How to install XXX on ZZZ"

SEARCH: "How to completely +uninstall -install +XXX +from -on +YYY -ZZZ

RESULT: "Install YYY on ZZZ with this howto"

[Insert sound of computer being thrown across room]

And, while I'm on the subject, my tuppence worth for the list. Fucking You-fucking-Tube being returned as the first dozen search results for some crappy one liner which you've forgotten and need to look up quickly...

SEARCH: "cheatsheet keyboard shortcut for function Z in app Y"

WHAT I WANT THE SEARCH TO RETURN: "App Y Keyboard shortcut cheatsheet"

WHAT THE SEARCH ACTUALLY RETURNS: [almost an entire page of] "Take zen ninja mastery of Application Y in minutes by learning this arse-sum keyboard shortcut!" --a 45 minute unedited epic, filmed by a monosyllabic arsehole on a shaking, continually auto-focussing phone camera, orientated vertically. Featuring 20 minutes of "er... um... well..." mumbling at the beginning, telling the viewer how "arse-sum" this keyboard shortcut is going to be --if the fucker ever gets around to actually showing you it!

Followed by the actual clicking of the shortcut which the narrator manages to do while the camera is pointed at the wrong part of the screen and out of focus.

"Unfortunately it can't do anything about search results returning precisely the opposite of what you searched for"

Try this: https://www.runnaroo.com/search?term=cheatsheet+keyboard+sho...

I built it with heavy influence [0] from this and similar comments on HN. Quotes are respected, and it will directly include Stack Overflow results (also saw that mentioned in this thread).

[0] https://www.runnaroo.com/blog/the-search-engine-hacker-news-...

Under the box on the righthand side there's a link with the text "See more on Stock Overflow"

Obviously a just small typo but I suppose I'm surprised this text was typed by a human in the first place. FWIW it's spelled correctly just above.

>See more on Stock Overflow

In a just world this would redirect you to the Seasoned Advice Stackexchange [1]

[1] https://cooking.stackexchange.com/

Good eye, thank you. It is fixed.

Every "Deep Search" is manually tuned and added as a search within the search, and each one is slightly different depending on the type of information that data source returns.

Good suggestion, although I would propose to use FireMonkey instead of Tempermonkey/Violentmonkey as the former is more lightweight and privacy friendly than the latter.

If you are interested, here's an article: https://www.ghacks.net/2019/09/10/firemonkey-uses-firefoxs-o...

I use Yandex Browser [Chromium-based] so, unfortunately, FireMonkey isn't an option.

The article you linked to is quite vague as to what the security implications might be. It says that FireMonkey extensions run in a sandbox. But you're still being asked the usual "This extension wants to see and modify your data on all websites.." [or whatever the exact wording is]. So, you're still letting the installed scripts have access to your browsing.

One good thing about <whatever>Monkey and userscripts is that they make it trivially easy to inspect the scripts and see what exactly is being done. Whereas a browser extension is more of a 'black box'. So, there is more potential to spot potentially nefarious code in a userscript.js.

For some reason the usescript script only works with Violentmonkey but not FireMonkey for me. (FF 76.0.1)

Tampermonkey is the one that has privacy issues but what's the problem with Violentmonkey?

Well that does sound like a typical query I would not use Google for.

Generally Google gets the questions where I feel like I'm an idiot for asking, or when I feel like the question is best answered as if one were an idiot. Don't worry about spelling or formulation. Google gets to flex its AI "I know what you want" muscles, and you get an answer without having to think about the question very much.

I don't get any videos: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cheat%20sheet%20functi...

>You-f*ing-Tube being returned as the first dozen search results for some crappy one liner which you've forgotten and need to look up quickly

Since Google can monetize YouTube results, I'm afraid this is only going to get worse.

> SEARCH: "cheatsheet keyboard shortcut for function Z in app Y"

Maybe worthwhile to document these on a GH markdown file or contribute cheat sheets to DuckDuckGo.

It is probably just me, but I have noticed a marked drop in rank for Stack Overflow links in search results, even on programming-type questions.

If in fact this is more of a general trend and not my little bubble, then I wonder if this is caused by Stack Overflow mods closing any question that may have an opinion in the answer and since these answers have not shown activity for years, perhaps other links and sites are slowly starting to eat SO's lunch.

Pure speculation on my side.

I would take a wild guess that it's less of Stack Overflow's actions and more that Stack Overflow's shitacular competition takes the highest ranked questions and SEOs the shit out of them to point to less useful more-malvertised sites

I'm no expert, but I can imagine that for sites like Google, Twitter, etc, having a blocklist adds a little complexity, but at their scale, a lot of CPU cycles in overhead. I'm pretty simple in my thought processes though, I'm just thinking that they'd need a unique query for every user, assuming a plain database (works as a mental model). In practice I guess there's one dataset which gets filtered out on its way through the network of servers to the user?

> assuming a plain database (works as a mental model). In practice I guess there's one dataset which gets filtered out on its way through the network of servers to the user?

Google search doesn't work like this anymore. Search results for everyone are custom based on what they know about your. For example check out filter bubbles[1]. A blacklist would probably help their models. As for why it got removed we can only guess. I'm guessing it has to do with either bad UX (if you forgot you added domains they will never show up) or them wanting to be in full control of your search experience.

[1]: https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_b...

The SEO community tried to game the shit out of the blacklist feature.

People with 1000 fake accounts were charging to blacklist a specific domain. Because so few actual search users made use of the feature, it didn’t take many accounts to impact search rank. So that feature had a short lifespan.

I don't understand what you mean. The blacklist feature was for an individual to avoid sites they didn't want to see. It wouldn't affect page rank, so what would be the advantage of paying someone to blacklist it in their own settings?

But you can still do it with search operators? It’s just more inconvenient but the feature is still there. Doubt that was why

Besides that, they can just stop using the blacklist as a signal for their results, but keep the feature.

We discussed this here on HN Almost ten years ago with Matt Cuts who was the face of Google Search at the time.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2128557

"No."

> Anybody else here remembers times when Google search supported blocking domains in personal setting?

from memory, the period when this feature actually worked, wasn't very long?

but I agree about the advanced search operators, and just generally paying better attention to my keywords.

Out of curiosity, what do you prefer over StackOverflow? Official documentation, blogs...?

That was just an example based on some comment around here -- quite surprising for me. Personally I even mostly prefer SO for majority of "quick/shallow/how-do-I" technical questions and I think my google persona is well attuned for this. Back in times I've been blocking w3schools.com (very rarely seen in my SERPs nowadays, and seems they somewhat improved over time) and expertsexchange.com (:shivers:). For web platform docs I primarily use `%s site:developer.mozilla.org` in Google and devdocs.io for the rest.

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