5 ms·

Quora is only one of many garbage domains that clutter google results. Pinterest is another big one. Google needs a "block this domain from my search results"-

by nullc 7y ago

Quora is only one of many garbage domains that clutter google results. Pinterest is another big one. Google needs a "block this domain from my search results"-- they even had it, for a brief period of a few months a number of years ago. (maybe only for some users?)

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
browser key shortcut that searches google and adds -site:pinterest.com -site:quora.com done! (mostly)
- tempguy9999 7y ago
  IDK but do a search with https://www.gmbmg.com/ https://www.gmbmg.com/ and check the URL it uses. It may be a useful trick.
_def 7y ago
I'd love to have this feature. Does anyone know if this is somehow possible with ddg?
mixmastamyk 7y ago
Yelp is another I’d rather not see since it is crippled on mobile.
maire 7y ago
I suspect google is already filtering your search results based on your behavior. I have no proof of this - only suspicion. I purposefully don't click on quora or pinterest. Lately I see them much less on my results feed.
equasar 7y ago
I would gladly pay a monthly payment to have this type of feature on my Google searches and more stuff.
kfrzcode 7y ago
Uhm, you can do this simply by appending to your search query: `-site:quora.com`
- rhizome 7y ago
  That's a hassle to type every time, not to mention the typing itself being a little high on the difficulty scale, what with two shift characters and a left-pinky letter.
- Arainach 7y ago
  The request is for a way to have that automatically added. It gets rather tiring adding -site:pinterest.com to every image search I do.
  - iteratorloopmap 7y ago
    In some browsers which store search urls as string with a %s qualifier it should be easy I guess.
GraemeL 7y ago
I've been using a userscript called Googles Hit Hider by Domain from Jefferson Scher that allows you to blacklist sites since Google removed the ability to do it natively (it works with all the major search engines, not just Google as the name implies) : http://www.jeffersonscher.com/gm/google-hit-hider/ http://www.jeffersonscher.com/gm/google-hit-hider/ [Edit: credit the author of the script]
- felubra 7y ago
  Thanks for sharing, I found it very useful.
cowmoo728 7y ago
And yelp! Search for "generic food item" and yelp will come up with these auto-generated lists refreshed monthly to catch the attention of the google crawler. 1. top 10 X near you August 2019 2. top 10 X near you July 2019 3. top 10 X near you June 2019 etc. They're just taking the top 10 reviewed places on yelp that may or may not serve that food item and then publishing these monthly "posts" to be indexed. If I wanted to look on yelp I would search yelp!
- jjeaff 7y ago
  I know. It's so frustrating. And it can't be that effective. I mean how many people actually live in an area where "Top 10 Cambodian Restaurants Near You" isn't nonsensical? Which is what I see anytime I am trying to lookup ideas for some niche restaurant genre.
- lokedhs 7y ago
  I decided to try to search for “Sushi” on both Google and DDG. Top results on Google: Sushi in Singapore (thehoneycombers.net) 9 BEST Places To Get Affordable Sushi In Singapore UNDER ... (thefinder.com.sg) Sushi (wikipedia.org) Best Sushi in Singapore, 2019 (burpple.com) The 11 Best Affordable Sushi Bars in Singapore (timeout.com) The Best Singapore Sushi (tripadvisor.com.sg) On DDG: Sakae (sakaesushi.com.sg) Sushi (wikipedia.org) Sushi Tei (sushitei.com) Umisushi (umisushi.com.sg) Sushi (japan-guide.com) Sushi Recipes (sushirecipies.org) The Different Kinds of Sushi (delishably.com) Google displays the spammy list articles you mentioned, while DDG generally lists Sushi chains. I think I prefer the DDG results, but I guess that depends on the quality of the list links that Google provided. I guess the differences can be explained by Google being much more targeted by SEO tricks.
hftf 7y ago
I entirely agree. Quora and Pinterest are particularly routine spam sites in my search results. They rank just below word reference site spam, like dictionaries, thesauruses, or translation dictionaries (sites which I do benefit occasionally from), and below Wikipedia mirrors (which I feel has become so bad that I can't even get legitimate results talking about the problem itself! Try searching something like: search results spam wikipedia mirror "revolvy" "wikiwand"). But for me, the worst (and most obvious!) offenders by far are "pronunciation guide" spam sites. Just a few examples: howtopronounce.com howtopronounce.co.in pronouncekiwi.com pronouncenames.com pronunciationof.com rightpronunciation.com plus the scourge of 16-second YouTube videos on channels with names like Pronunciation Guide or Emma Saying. (If you search for something like "Deidesheimer pronunciation" or "pronounce Canynge" on Google, the vast majority of results will be those spam sites, plus maybe an ancient forum thread from 2004 that veered off topic before anyone even tried to give a serious yet uninformed answer.) These ad-infested spam sites purport to teach you how to pronounce an unfamiliar name or tricky word (an important and underappreciated service that many people use!). But usually they merely contain computer-generated bullshit, as if fed directly into all available text-to-speech algorithms. Even the ostensibly human-generated recordings and sites are often flagrantly wrong, unsourced, and untrustworthy. There are a few legitimate sites (such as Forvo, Youglish, etc.), but too often they are woefully incomplete (by nature of their being crowdsourced). Forvo even contributes to the spam with "do you know how to pronounce this word?" false positives. I once blocked all of the spam sites when the domain-blocking feature you mentioned was built into Google Search; then had to do it once again when I needed a browser add-on to replace the removed feature (which naturally only worked on desktop); and recently I was astonished to find that the add-on also stopped working! The spam never ends.
- raphlinus 7y ago
  I know, right? How hard would it be for someone to make a wiki-style site with UGC, a reputation system (I speak this language natively and vouch / do not vouch for this content), a tracker for trending words, fun articles for Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and the like? The Web I used to know seems to be gone or at least in steep decline, supplanted by garbage like this.
- mguerville 7y ago
CJefferson 7y ago
I can't imagine google adding it, but it would be something which would finally make me move to duckduckgo.
- fnord123 7y ago
  I use DDG and rarely see pinterest or quora results.

by nullc 7y ago

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago

browser key shortcut that searches google and adds -site:pinterest.com -site:quora.com done! (mostly)

tempguy9999 7y ago
IDK but do a search with https://www.gmbmg.com/ https://www.gmbmg.com/ and check the URL it uses. It may be a useful trick.

_def 7y ago

I'd love to have this feature. Does anyone know if this is somehow possible with ddg?

mixmastamyk 7y ago

Yelp is another I’d rather not see since it is crippled on mobile.

maire 7y ago

I suspect google is already filtering your search results based on your behavior. I have no proof of this - only suspicion. I purposefully don't click on quora or pinterest. Lately I see them much less on my results feed.

equasar 7y ago

I would gladly pay a monthly payment to have this type of feature on my Google searches and more stuff.

kfrzcode 7y ago

Uhm, you can do this simply by appending to your search query: `-site:quora.com`

rhizome 7y ago
That's a hassle to type every time, not to mention the typing itself being a little high on the difficulty scale, what with two shift characters and a left-pinky letter.
Arainach 7y ago
The request is for a way to have that automatically added. It gets rather tiring adding -site:pinterest.com to every image search I do.
- iteratorloopmap 7y ago
  In some browsers which store search urls as string with a %s qualifier it should be easy I guess.

GraemeL 7y ago

I've been using a userscript called Googles Hit Hider by Domain from Jefferson Scher that allows you to blacklist sites since Google removed the ability to do it natively (it works with all the major search engines, not just Google as the name implies) : http://www.jeffersonscher.com/gm/google-hit-hider/ http://www.jeffersonscher.com/gm/google-hit-hider/ [Edit: credit the author of the script]

felubra 7y ago
Thanks for sharing, I found it very useful.

cowmoo728 7y ago

And yelp! Search for "generic food item" and yelp will come up with these auto-generated lists refreshed monthly to catch the attention of the google crawler. 1. top 10 X near you August 2019 2. top 10 X near you July 2019 3. top 10 X near you June 2019 etc. They're just taking the top 10 reviewed places on yelp that may or may not serve that food item and then publishing these monthly "posts" to be indexed. If I wanted to look on yelp I would search yelp!

jjeaff 7y ago
I know. It's so frustrating. And it can't be that effective. I mean how many people actually live in an area where "Top 10 Cambodian Restaurants Near You" isn't nonsensical? Which is what I see anytime I am trying to lookup ideas for some niche restaurant genre.
lokedhs 7y ago
I decided to try to search for “Sushi” on both Google and DDG. Top results on Google: Sushi in Singapore (thehoneycombers.net) 9 BEST Places To Get Affordable Sushi In Singapore UNDER ... (thefinder.com.sg) Sushi (wikipedia.org) Best Sushi in Singapore, 2019 (burpple.com) The 11 Best Affordable Sushi Bars in Singapore (timeout.com) The Best Singapore Sushi (tripadvisor.com.sg) On DDG: Sakae (sakaesushi.com.sg) Sushi (wikipedia.org) Sushi Tei (sushitei.com) Umisushi (umisushi.com.sg) Sushi (japan-guide.com) Sushi Recipes (sushirecipies.org) The Different Kinds of Sushi (delishably.com) Google displays the spammy list articles you mentioned, while DDG generally lists Sushi chains. I think I prefer the DDG results, but I guess that depends on the quality of the list links that Google provided. I guess the differences can be explained by Google being much more targeted by SEO tricks.

hftf 7y ago

I entirely agree. Quora and Pinterest are particularly routine spam sites in my search results. They rank just below word reference site spam, like dictionaries, thesauruses, or translation dictionaries (sites which I do benefit occasionally from), and below Wikipedia mirrors (which I feel has become so bad that I can't even get legitimate results talking about the problem itself! Try searching something like: search results spam wikipedia mirror "revolvy" "wikiwand"). But for me, the worst (and most obvious!) offenders by far are "pronunciation guide" spam sites. Just a few examples: howtopronounce.com howtopronounce.co.in pronouncekiwi.com pronouncenames.com pronunciationof.com rightpronunciation.com plus the scourge of 16-second YouTube videos on channels with names like Pronunciation Guide or Emma Saying. (If you search for something like "Deidesheimer pronunciation" or "pronounce Canynge" on Google, the vast majority of results will be those spam sites, plus maybe an ancient forum thread from 2004 that veered off topic before anyone even tried to give a serious yet uninformed answer.) These ad-infested spam sites purport to teach you how to pronounce an unfamiliar name or tricky word (an important and underappreciated service that many people use!). But usually they merely contain computer-generated bullshit, as if fed directly into all available text-to-speech algorithms. Even the ostensibly human-generated recordings and sites are often flagrantly wrong, unsourced, and untrustworthy. There are a few legitimate sites (such as Forvo, Youglish, etc.), but too often they are woefully incomplete (by nature of their being crowdsourced). Forvo even contributes to the spam with "do you know how to pronounce this word?" false positives. I once blocked all of the spam sites when the domain-blocking feature you mentioned was built into Google Search; then had to do it once again when I needed a browser add-on to replace the removed feature (which naturally only worked on desktop); and recently I was astonished to find that the add-on also stopped working! The spam never ends.

raphlinus 7y ago
I know, right? How hard would it be for someone to make a wiki-style site with UGC, a reputation system (I speak this language natively and vouch / do not vouch for this content), a tracker for trending words, fun articles for Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and the like? The Web I used to know seems to be gone or at least in steep decline, supplanted by garbage like this.
mguerville 7y ago

CJefferson 7y ago

I can't imagine google adding it, but it would be something which would finally make me move to duckduckgo.

fnord123 7y ago
I use DDG and rarely see pinterest or quora results.