Blocked Search extension for Chrome
February 25, 2023 1:56 PM Subscribe
'Blocked Search' - The Chrome extension that finally, sort of, lets you block Google's terrible search-result games. Blocking IP addresses won't stop Google from handing you a solitaire game every time you reflexively search for one -- but this extension can. It makes you do an "unblocking" step for every keyword search that you haven't previously done (soft blocking it), which actually can help a LOT. Only seems to work on The Goog. (Helpful Firefox extension covered in an AskMe).
I wanted to find a doctor but had to do three word searches before I got the answer. The medical emergency had gotten worse by then, but I couldn't get information on any specialists until I'd beaten them in Scrabble. And afterward, simply running down insurance information required 5 rounds of Wordle and winning 10 rounds of Tempest. These search result games are getting really unmanageable.
posted by hippybear at 2:38 PM on February 25, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 2:38 PM on February 25, 2023 [6 favorites]
hippybear: You should talk to your parents about loosening those controls. Assuming they can win enough Tetris to get to the settings menu.
posted by amtho at 2:40 PM on February 25, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by amtho at 2:40 PM on February 25, 2023 [6 favorites]
My parents are in their 80s and can't win Tetris to save their lives. And I pray they don't have to!
posted by hippybear at 2:42 PM on February 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 2:42 PM on February 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Well, then, in case you have another medical event, I searched for How to Order a Phone Book so you won't have to.
posted by amtho at 3:12 PM on February 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by amtho at 3:12 PM on February 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
...I think I'm dumb. Can someone explain this extension to me like I'm a nine-year-old?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:27 PM on February 25, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:27 PM on February 25, 2023 [8 favorites]
The extension blocks Google searches, unless they include specific words you have told it to allow.
Other extensions let you block specific sites. For example, if you have a gambling problem you might block specific online casinos, or if you get distracted by social media you might block Twitter and Instagram on your work computer.
But you don't want to block Google completely, since you might need to search something for work. To stop you from using Google to find distractions (or as a distraction in itself), you can use this extension in addition to those other extensions that block specific web sites. Give it a list of "allowed" searches, and it will block everything else. The Overview page for the extension has more info and a demonstration.
posted by mbrubeck at 5:44 PM on February 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Other extensions let you block specific sites. For example, if you have a gambling problem you might block specific online casinos, or if you get distracted by social media you might block Twitter and Instagram on your work computer.
But you don't want to block Google completely, since you might need to search something for work. To stop you from using Google to find distractions (or as a distraction in itself), you can use this extension in addition to those other extensions that block specific web sites. Give it a list of "allowed" searches, and it will block everything else. The Overview page for the extension has more info and a demonstration.
posted by mbrubeck at 5:44 PM on February 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Okay, but where does the talk of "terrible search result games" come in? I thought that meant that this somehow blocked some cruft that Google shoves at you when you want to search for something specific (so you have to get more specific-er to stop Google from doing that usually, and this alleviates the need for that), but it sounds like....this stops you from searching Google unless you...white-list it?
I DON'T UNDERSTAND.....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:24 PM on February 25, 2023 [21 favorites]
I DON'T UNDERSTAND.....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:24 PM on February 25, 2023 [21 favorites]
Haha I have to search for all kinds if idiotic stuff or my job there is no way this would be useful to me. Also I don't find myself wasting time idly googling for stuff so much that I need to rein it in. Actually hang on looking at my search history maybe I do. "It's graupeling men, hallelujah" didn't end up being a very useful query.
posted by aubilenon at 8:55 PM on February 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 8:55 PM on February 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Is this something I would need not to have switched to DuckDuckGo a year ago to understand?
posted by flabdablet at 9:37 PM on February 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 9:37 PM on February 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
EmpressCallipygos: Do a Google search for "solitaire". You get presented with a working solitaire game _at the top of the Google results_ coded by Google and deployed by Google.
Links to other pages with solitaire are _below_ that.
flabdablet - Not necessarily -- I think the games-in-relevant-search-results has been going on for a while.
....and I just realized that all those other sites that have their own solitaire games? Google's eating their traffic. What is up with that.
The more I think about this, the more I don't like it... sorry, fun Google coders.
posted by amtho at 10:45 PM on February 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Links to other pages with solitaire are _below_ that.
flabdablet - Not necessarily -- I think the games-in-relevant-search-results has been going on for a while.
....and I just realized that all those other sites that have their own solitaire games? Google's eating their traffic. What is up with that.
The more I think about this, the more I don't like it... sorry, fun Google coders.
posted by amtho at 10:45 PM on February 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
aubilenon - If you ended up wanting to try it, it's actually not that much of an impediment to searching for random stuff. You try to search, then you get a results page with an "allow what you just searched for" button right there - you can select that and search again immediately. It's pretty fast.
However, I'm not sure how much of a burden will be added by having a very very large "allowed search words" list saved.
posted by amtho at 10:47 PM on February 25, 2023
However, I'm not sure how much of a burden will be added by having a very very large "allowed search words" list saved.
posted by amtho at 10:47 PM on February 25, 2023
...Sorry y'all. I am clearly not yet excellent at FPPs (I think this is my eighth one ever), and I'm super sleep-deprived lately. I was just really, really excited about this -- I posted an AskMe about _how to do this exact thing_ recently, and finally today it occurred to me to search for 'how to block searches' or something like that.
posted by amtho at 10:50 PM on February 25, 2023
posted by amtho at 10:50 PM on February 25, 2023
EmpressCallipygos: Do a Google search for "solitaire". You get presented with a working solitaire game _at the top of the Google results_ coded by Google and deployed by Google.
Links to other pages with solitaire are _below_ that.
Right, but it sounds like the way this extension works is by stopping you from being able to search for solitaire games altogether unless you whitelist the word "soltaire" in the extension. And....wouldn't that just allow the game still happening? And all that's happened is that you've tried to search but then you get the extension saying "nope" and you realize that oh, yeah, crap, I have to whitelist it....and you still get the game?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Links to other pages with solitaire are _below_ that.
Right, but it sounds like the way this extension works is by stopping you from being able to search for solitaire games altogether unless you whitelist the word "soltaire" in the extension. And....wouldn't that just allow the game still happening? And all that's happened is that you've tried to search but then you get the extension saying "nope" and you realize that oh, yeah, crap, I have to whitelist it....and you still get the game?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
I don't have this extension but I do have uBlock Origin installed in every browser I control as a matter of course, and I was able to block Google's solitaire game and others like it (spin a dreidel, dice roller and whatnot) by right-clicking on the game, choosing "Block element..." from the context menu, clicking ##block-component in the resulting list of candidates, then clicking the Create button.
As a DuckDuckGo user I've not subjected this element block to extensive testing so it might block other things that you might perhaps find valuable. If it does, it's easy enough to undo: click the uBlock Origin toolbar icon, click the "Open the dashboard" control (the one with the stack of sliders icon), choose the "My filters" tab, delete the filter line that reads www.google.com##block-component and click "Apply changes".
posted by flabdablet at 5:07 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
As a DuckDuckGo user I've not subjected this element block to extensive testing so it might block other things that you might perhaps find valuable. If it does, it's easy enough to undo: click the uBlock Origin toolbar icon, click the "Open the dashboard" control (the one with the stack of sliders icon), choose the "My filters" tab, delete the filter line that reads www.google.com##block-component and click "Apply changes".
posted by flabdablet at 5:07 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
EmpressCallipygos: The fact is that even a little tiny speedbump can stop behavior that's otherwise not well thought out. Hence gun permits, mindfulness, 12-step sponsors, putting the cookies on the top shelf in the back. Yes, this one is tinier than almost all the others -- but sometimes it's enough. Often it's enough.
Plus, you know that once you whitelist that word, it stays whitelisted and the whole thing is rendered useless.
posted by amtho at 12:00 PM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Plus, you know that once you whitelist that word, it stays whitelisted and the whole thing is rendered useless.
posted by amtho at 12:00 PM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
We were warned about Google search games by the prophet Sedaka.
Solitaire's the only game in town
And every search that takes him, takes him down
And by himself it's easy to pretend
He'll never search again
And keeping to himself he plays the game
Without her love it always ends the same
While life goes on around him everywhere
He's playing solitaire
posted by srboisvert at 2:51 AM on February 27, 2023
Solitaire's the only game in town
And every search that takes him, takes him down
And by himself it's easy to pretend
He'll never search again
And keeping to himself he plays the game
Without her love it always ends the same
While life goes on around him everywhere
He's playing solitaire
posted by srboisvert at 2:51 AM on February 27, 2023
I swear I'm not trying to be obtuse, everyone.
The fact is that even a little tiny speedbump can stop behavior that's otherwise not well thought out. Hence gun permits, mindfulness, 12-step sponsors, putting the cookies on the top shelf in the back.
Okay, but the disconnect I'm having is:
Lately Google has been using a vaguely AI-ish thing to give you what it assumes is the answer to your question when you search for something. Like here: I've done a search for "avatar way of water", and the first thing I get is this HUGE box of cruft with pictures of the cast, a list of "questions people also ask", and a link to local showtimes, and only UNDERNEATH THAT do I get links about the damn thing. Or here: I did a search for "solitaire" and the first hit is a solitaire game, and THEN I get links to solitaire.
From amtho's introduction to this post, it SOUNDED like this extension would be removing those initial Google-generated blocks, so that I would be able to do a search or "solitaire" or "avatar way of water" and have it just give me links. But - from the description of the app, it sounds like it is blocking my ability to search for "avatar way of water" altogether, unless I whitelist it - in which case I would still get the cast pictures, "people also search for," and show times before a list of links.
So does this app block the cast pictures and other cruft without blocking the links themselves or not?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:58 AM on February 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
The fact is that even a little tiny speedbump can stop behavior that's otherwise not well thought out. Hence gun permits, mindfulness, 12-step sponsors, putting the cookies on the top shelf in the back.
Okay, but the disconnect I'm having is:
Lately Google has been using a vaguely AI-ish thing to give you what it assumes is the answer to your question when you search for something. Like here: I've done a search for "avatar way of water", and the first thing I get is this HUGE box of cruft with pictures of the cast, a list of "questions people also ask", and a link to local showtimes, and only UNDERNEATH THAT do I get links about the damn thing. Or here: I did a search for "solitaire" and the first hit is a solitaire game, and THEN I get links to solitaire.
From amtho's introduction to this post, it SOUNDED like this extension would be removing those initial Google-generated blocks, so that I would be able to do a search or "solitaire" or "avatar way of water" and have it just give me links. But - from the description of the app, it sounds like it is blocking my ability to search for "avatar way of water" altogether, unless I whitelist it - in which case I would still get the cast pictures, "people also search for," and show times before a list of links.
So does this app block the cast pictures and other cruft without blocking the links themselves or not?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:58 AM on February 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
It blocks the entire search results page, not just the "answer box" stuff. (The solitaire thing was just an example, and then the initial comments here were riffing on that instead of talking about the actual Chrome extension.)
You can install the extension and do a Google search to see exactly how it works, or glance at the video from its home page.
posted by mbrubeck at 6:22 AM on February 27, 2023
You can install the extension and do a Google search to see exactly how it works, or glance at the video from its home page.
posted by mbrubeck at 6:22 AM on February 27, 2023
It blocks the entire search results page, not just the "answer box" stuff.
Thank you.
(The solitaire thing was just an example, and then the initial comments here were riffing on that instead of talking about the actual Chrome extension.)
It was a hella confusing example, if that's the case!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:44 AM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
Thank you.
(The solitaire thing was just an example, and then the initial comments here were riffing on that instead of talking about the actual Chrome extension.)
It was a hella confusing example, if that's the case!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:44 AM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by amtho at 2:30 PM on February 25, 2023 [2 favorites]