It has been a heck of a long time in the asking but at last Google have gone a small way into preventing those sites that fill their results with trash, see http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/hide-sites-to-find-more-of-what-you.html for more detail.

Perhaps now they have that out the way they can do something about the overwhelming amount of time wasting rubbish that continues to plague them.  This morning I was curious about the cost of rail between Stuttgart and Ditzingen and no matter how I worded it I just got pages and pages of hotel information.

I’m fed up with searching, it’s about time someone invented a “Find Engine” instead.  Google is not the only culprit, here’s what I got for all three:

rail%20stuttgart%20to%20ditzingen How to hide unwanted search results in Google

 

bing%20rail%20stuttgart%20to%20ditzingen How to hide unwanted search results in Google

 

rail%20stuttgart%20to%20ditzingen How to hide unwanted search results in Google

 

Have I done something wrong? I tried in FF, IE and Chrome but this is what I get now when I try change to https:-

sgoog Google no longer offers encrypted search?

It flips right back ignoring my search preferences and even typing it manually makes no difference.

I was using it to debug a local proxy handling SSL requests and it took a while to realise why I could see nothing on 443.

I think I can live with out it but those folks performing searches they do not want their ISP or any of the node-holders in between to see might be upset at this silent change. While we freely give (and trust) Google with our search string the thought our ISP can store it and pass it on to third parties can be a disturbing.

If BT see a lot of people searching for a new broadband provider in a particular area that information could be used to decide on the viability of investing in better equipment. Is that fair?

I don’t know what fair use is but they could use the data in other ways. What if they detect people are not happy with a local supplier, your ISP could use that to bring in a new supplier. The locals then get more options, so that has to be good right?

Sometimes it’s good to stop and think about things we take for granted.

 

I just helped with some of the Javascript behind a twitter and Google Mashup called Questioon.

questioon Do you have any Questioons?

Currently available only on the .co.uk but Tunde, the owner, intends to update the .com soon.  Some of the features I added include:

  • A default set of 7 searches on the front page (called quick links)
  • Default searches replaces with the last 7 searches you made
  • Ability to delete an individual search
  • Ability to reset all quick links
  • Used Juitter to embed twitter feed on the results page

The design was created by another developer.

© 2011 Martyn Walker | Software Architect | Hiker And Hacker Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha