Exclude Websites in Your Searches / Custom Searches
I've been doing quite a bit of research lately on technical topics, where the results would frequently include results from a pay site, Expert Exchange. If you;re familiar with Expert Exchange, they've been very successful in getting their pages to return high in the list of Google results. I have found it very frustrating when I inadvertently click-through on one of their pages.
With a little research, I found that Google has a custom search option, where you can include and exclude certain websites. I have created a custom search that includes all Google results with the exception of Expert Exchange. To make it really useful though, I needed it to be in my search bar in Firefox, which I use almost exclusively for new searches. I found a Firefox Add-on to do that too.
Here's how you can make your own custom search.
With a little research, I found that Google has a custom search option, where you can include and exclude certain websites. I have created a custom search that includes all Google results with the exception of Expert Exchange. To make it really useful though, I needed it to be in my search bar in Firefox, which I use almost exclusively for new searches. I found a Firefox Add-on to do that too.
Here's how you can make your own custom search.
- If you don't already have one, you must have a Google account.
- Go to the Google Custom Search page and click "Create a Custom Search"
- I had to start with a search that favored a site, and then returned to their Control Panel to remove the favored search and add the Expert Exchange exclusion.
- Test the search
- Add the "Add to Search Bar" Add-on to Firefox
- After restarting Firefox, right-click on the search box and select "Add to Search Bar..."
- Click the down arrow on the search box and select "Manage Search Engines..." so I could move my new custom search to the top.
- Test from the Firefox search box.
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