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uBlacklist is a great tool to block sites you don't want from showing up on your search results on google (and a couple others including bing and duckduckgo).

uBlacklist is a great tool to block sites you don't want from showing up on your search results on google (and a couple others including bing and duckduckgo). It supports regular expressions as well, I use /pinterest\..*/ to block all pinterest-related content. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublacklist/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublacklist/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmialoiaghdehhbnbhkkgmjanfhe?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmi...

pixelgeek 5y ago
If you are using Safari, the DevonAgent app[1] that was linked to in another thread also has a denylist feature [1]:https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonagent https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonagent
shever73 5y ago
That's a great tool, thanks for the recommendation. Pity it doesn't work with Ecosia's image search. I wrote my own extension to remove Pinterest from image results, and I've been thinking of extending it to block Instagram and Facebook too. I hate how these companies point their sewer pipe at search engines, so you get into a walled garden where you have to sign up to see the indexed content.
jetrink 5y ago
I wish Google would add that feature natively. Google could even use it to help detect spam sites.
- bserge 5y ago
  Oh dear God, no. Don't need Google to have even more control. Imagine blocking something and it shows up anyway because Google decided so. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine, just use Gmail on Android. "Spam? That's not spam" - Google. Or just Android with it's fucking "notifications" from all the garbage news sites. Tbf, my fault for using Google apps. Honestly, blocking shit you don't want to see locally is the best solution. Decentralized, under your control, no need to trust BigCorp number 294.
- enobrev 5y ago
  Google used to make it possible to filter domains from results. I was sad to see it disappear
  - leephillips 5y ago
    You can still do "-site:spam.com".
    - enobrev 5y ago
      For sure! Thanks for the reminder. There was a point (as you may know) when the domains were saved into your profile, so you didn't have to add it.
      - leephillips 5y ago
        I didn’t know.
        kdot 5y ago
        When they removed the domain blacklist feature search went down hill fast. https://searchengineland.com/google-brings-back-blocking-sites-in-search-results-67723 https://searchengineland.com/google-brings-back-blocking-sit...
    - thesuitonym 5y ago
      This works, but bad actors like pinterest have found a way around that by having a domain on every TLD and ccTLD out there.
      - cuspycode 5y ago
        I found out by experiment that wildcards work, e.g. -site:pinterest.*
- donmcronald 5y ago
  They used to have personal blocklist [1] and blocking garbage domains actually had an impact on search results. 1. https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-chrome-extension-block-sites-from.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-chrome-extension...
BizarroLand 5y ago
There's also Personal Blocklist, which appends a small "block site.etc" under every google search result. If there is a site that is clogging up your search results, just click it and it's gone. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/personal-blocklist/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/personal-bloc...
- riezebos 5y ago
  To me, this comment made it sound like this "block site.etc" was a feature that Personal Blocklist has and uBlacklist doesn't, but if I open the ublacklist page the first screenshot of the extension shows "Block this site" next to each search result. Is the "block site.etc" in Personal Blocklist different from the one in uBlacklist?
  - BizarroLand 5y ago
    I haven't used uBlacklist, this was a solution I had independently stumbled into and I wanted to share it. Based on the dialogue from the posters I was responding to, it seemed like uBlacklist would require some ongoing maintenance or memorization of input fields to work. If it also offers a single-click permanent block of all sites in a domain from a Google search then that's just as cool, but that feature wasn't obvious from the conversation.
nerdponx 5y ago
It'd be pretty neat if DDG let you configure this as a setting. They don't have "accounts" as such, but they do provide users with a one-time password that lets you save and restore settings. Alternatively, if they at least supported "do not include" filters in regular searches, you could build a client that stored those kinds of search defaults locally. The best you can do now is strip out those results on the client side, which isn't bad but seems like a hack.
- Kiro 5y ago
  They can't do that since they are getting their results from Bing.
- freediver 5y ago
  We built this into Kagi Search, natively, I invite you to try it out. You can both “mute” and “prefer” domains in your searches. Currently in beta!
phil294 5y ago
Do you have any subscription lists you would recommend? [1] is the only related information I could find. Would be great to expand this. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27994059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27994059
DavideNL 5y ago
Great thanks, it even supports iOS. Will try it! https://github.com/iorate/uBlacklist https://github.com/iorate/uBlacklist

pixelgeek 5y ago

If you are using Safari, the DevonAgent app[1] that was linked to in another thread also has a denylist feature [1]:https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonagent https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonagent

shever73 5y ago

That's a great tool, thanks for the recommendation. Pity it doesn't work with Ecosia's image search. I wrote my own extension to remove Pinterest from image results, and I've been thinking of extending it to block Instagram and Facebook too. I hate how these companies point their sewer pipe at search engines, so you get into a walled garden where you have to sign up to see the indexed content.

jetrink 5y ago

I wish Google would add that feature natively. Google could even use it to help detect spam sites.

bserge 5y ago
Oh dear God, no. Don't need Google to have even more control. Imagine blocking something and it shows up anyway because Google decided so. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine, just use Gmail on Android. "Spam? That's not spam" - Google. Or just Android with it's fucking "notifications" from all the garbage news sites. Tbf, my fault for using Google apps. Honestly, blocking shit you don't want to see locally is the best solution. Decentralized, under your control, no need to trust BigCorp number 294.
enobrev 5y ago
Google used to make it possible to filter domains from results. I was sad to see it disappear
- leephillips 5y ago
  You can still do "-site:spam.com".
  - enobrev 5y ago
    For sure! Thanks for the reminder. There was a point (as you may know) when the domains were saved into your profile, so you didn't have to add it.
    - leephillips 5y ago
      I didn’t know.
      - kdot 5y ago
        When they removed the domain blacklist feature search went down hill fast. https://searchengineland.com/google-brings-back-blocking-sites-in-search-results-67723 https://searchengineland.com/google-brings-back-blocking-sit...
  - thesuitonym 5y ago
    This works, but bad actors like pinterest have found a way around that by having a domain on every TLD and ccTLD out there.
    - cuspycode 5y ago
      I found out by experiment that wildcards work, e.g. -site:pinterest.*
donmcronald 5y ago
They used to have personal blocklist [1] and blocking garbage domains actually had an impact on search results. 1. https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-chrome-extension-block-sites-from.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-chrome-extension...

BizarroLand 5y ago

There's also Personal Blocklist, which appends a small "block site.etc" under every google search result. If there is a site that is clogging up your search results, just click it and it's gone. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/personal-blocklist/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/personal-bloc...

riezebos 5y ago
To me, this comment made it sound like this "block site.etc" was a feature that Personal Blocklist has and uBlacklist doesn't, but if I open the ublacklist page the first screenshot of the extension shows "Block this site" next to each search result. Is the "block site.etc" in Personal Blocklist different from the one in uBlacklist?
- BizarroLand 5y ago
  I haven't used uBlacklist, this was a solution I had independently stumbled into and I wanted to share it. Based on the dialogue from the posters I was responding to, it seemed like uBlacklist would require some ongoing maintenance or memorization of input fields to work. If it also offers a single-click permanent block of all sites in a domain from a Google search then that's just as cool, but that feature wasn't obvious from the conversation.

nerdponx 5y ago

It'd be pretty neat if DDG let you configure this as a setting. They don't have "accounts" as such, but they do provide users with a one-time password that lets you save and restore settings. Alternatively, if they at least supported "do not include" filters in regular searches, you could build a client that stored those kinds of search defaults locally. The best you can do now is strip out those results on the client side, which isn't bad but seems like a hack.

Kiro 5y ago
They can't do that since they are getting their results from Bing.
freediver 5y ago
We built this into Kagi Search, natively, I invite you to try it out. You can both “mute” and “prefer” domains in your searches. Currently in beta!

phil294 5y ago

Do you have any subscription lists you would recommend? [1] is the only related information I could find. Would be great to expand this. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27994059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27994059

DavideNL 5y ago

Great thanks, it even supports iOS. Will try it! https://github.com/iorate/uBlacklist https://github.com/iorate/uBlacklist