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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by mim@lemmy.sdf.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I am currently self-hosting a meta search engine instance (searxng), which allows me combine searches from different engines (e.g. Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc), but also to filter out websites that I don't want to show up.

The only website to make my blacklist so far is slant.co (useless SEO-riddled site that always comes up when I search for software comparisons). I also automatically redirect all reddit.com links to old.reddit.com.

I'm looking to expand this list. So, which websites do you blacklist? Either using software, or just mentally.

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[-] shapesandstuff@feddit.de 232 points 11 months ago
[-] sprl@lemm.ee 101 points 11 months ago

I’d add Quora to that list of fuck you websites

[-] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago

They added Quora+ subscription service now, you have to pay to see the actually correct answers. Free only gets you wrong answers.

[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The worst, hey we noticed you got a really hard to solve problem, well we got the answer right here, but we’re gonna dim it till you make an account, oh sorry that’s not really the answer thanks for the account sucker!

[-] mctit@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I made the mistake of making an account one time. Unsubscribing from all the shit they email is an unbelievably annoying task.

[-] squaresinger@feddit.de 36 points 11 months ago

It's the worst. There's even a browser extension to blacklist them: unpinterested.

[-] livus@kbin.social 10 points 11 months ago

I had to get that because I got so tired of having to put minus pinterest in all my image searches.

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 15 points 11 months ago

I don't explicitly block any, but I usually avoid clicking on pinterest and quora links. From experience, I never get what I'm looking for even without the annoying user interface.

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[-] EthanolParty@lemmy.sdf.org 72 points 11 months ago

It's tough because I almost feel like I need a whitelist at this point. 90% of the first page of Google results usually read like AI-generated fluff that doesn't actually even answer my question. There are a handful of websites I trust now to give me real information and not just clickbait SEO nonsense.

I'm at the point where I add "reddit" to the end of every search just to try and find something that was written by a real person. Maybe someday I can start adding "lemmy" instead.

[-] DrQuint@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago

Seriously, 10 years ago, the best way to find any info on a video game was to go on gamefaqs, ign guides, the steam community or a dedicated wiki.

Nowadays, it objectively still is the exact same, but google will give results for NONE OF THEM unless if you specify. There's a truckload of those SEO garbage.

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[-] jman6495@lemmy.ml 67 points 11 months ago
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[-] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 56 points 11 months ago

Glad to see Quora as a common blocked site.

It's fascinating seeing a answer about physics being the highest rated by a guy who "loves cheeses" with a degree in "Deez Nuts"

[-] droans@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

But where else can I pretend to be the CEO of Ford, Chief of Staff for the Obama Administration, President of ACLU, and King of the European Union?

[-] Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 11 months ago

Genuine answer? Most places on the internet.

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[-] dexahtm@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

This website is so bad.. it wants to make an account so badly lol

[-] Steeve@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

Hey, I wouldn't have passed first year calculus without the help of a physics forums user named DickHandy

[-] Ghoelian@feddit.nl 49 points 11 months ago

codegrepper.com and all its shitty clones.

All they do is scrape websites like stack overflow and github issues and present them in a more shitty way, and they somehow manage to get ranked pretty high.

[-] dexahtm@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

https://www.grepper.com/images/reviews/review2.png "Review" on their own page. So obviously fake (alignment is off and it doesn't follow fonts?) Plus, they misspelled their own name. This has got to be a joke

Edit: It may not be fake but i hate this website so i'd like to imagine it is

[-] Huhni@lemmy.world 41 points 11 months ago
[-] KernelAddict@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago

Never had heard of this site. I just kept skipping over but thus makes it so easy that I'm getting onboard!

[-] Blizzard@lemmy.zip 5 points 11 months ago

This is great!

[-] jherazob@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago
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[-] mat3ck@lemmy.ml 28 points 11 months ago

I've been using a Firefox extension instead that has fairly good filters by default, because I kept getting crap results when looking at technical questions (ie. landing on over-simplified examples without details instead of official documentation).

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublacklist/

They publish some subscription lists of things blocked that you can chose from: splogs of GitHub/Stack overflow, Pinterest... And then you can add custom blocks directly from your results list (Quora...). It can be a nice point to start with to use their filter even out of the extension imo.

[-] promodel@kbin.social 25 points 11 months ago

The kagi search engine allows you block sites, they have a leader board of what the tops ones are here: https://kagi.com/stats?stat=leaderboard pintrest is getting a fucking.

[-] grue@lemmy.ml 7 points 11 months ago

Aww, alternativeto.net isn't that bad...

[-] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

It is in my book. It's awful

It frequently compares things like apples vs oranges. And the comparison is just wrong. A real example is comparing a photo editing app vs a photo album app. Or something ridiculous like MySQL vs CSS.

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[-] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 5 points 11 months ago

Kagi users HATE pinterest.

Perfectly reasonable.

[-] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 24 points 11 months ago

I never bothered actually creating blacklists for my browser. Mentally though, those weird websites that only rehost stack overflow replies.

[-] Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz 22 points 11 months ago

Reddit. I blocked the domain when the blackout started and haven’t been back.

[-] jecht360@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

Same. Even if I did want to find answers there, so many people have deleted comments that it can be useless at times.

[-] dexahtm@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

I want to so bad but i end up finding answers there so often and using it for human responses i can't. Damn You reddit.

[-] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Geeksforgeeks.org

The kicker was the aggressive popups to login and share your location.

At least w3schools made a effort to improve.

I typically Blocklist it. But when I'm coaching juniors and see them search, I remember how annoyed I am with that site.

[-] LufyCZ@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago

geeksforgeeks

I've just killed the popup with uBlock and it's pretty usable, was driving me mad before though, fuck that shit

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[-] TotoroTheGreat@lemmy.ml 17 points 11 months ago

Pinterest. It is the sole reason I use the Google Hit Hider script.

[-] cmysmiaczxotoy@lemm.ee 17 points 11 months ago

I don't blacklist on the ip level but I do use a userscript to blacklist domains from showing up in my search results

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/1682-google-hit-hider-by-domain-search-filter-block-sites

These are the domains currently blocked

9to5google.com
about.fb.com
about.instagram.com
business.instagram.com
cnet.com
developer.android.com
developers.google.com
ebay.com
facebook.com
facebookbrand.com
fileproinfo.com
gadgets.ndtv.com
guidebooks.google.com
help.instagram.com
lifehacker.com
microsoft.com
orangefreesounds.com
research.fb.com
rover.ebay.com
support.google.com
support.ring.com
twitter.com
www.addictivetips.com
www.androidauthority.com
www.androidheadlines.com
www.collectorsweekly.com
www.digitaltrends.com
www.howtogeek.com
www.instagram.com
www.lifewire.com
www.quora.com
www.storyblocks.com
www.theverge.com
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[-] Underpay@feddit.nl 13 points 11 months ago

I don't host an instance but I would definitely block userbenchmark

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[-] Zapp@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 months ago

Pinterest. Hands down the best quality of life site block.

Before I found an extension to silence them, that putrid site would infest all of my image searches with its gatekeeping bullshit.

[-] argentcorvid@midwest.social 10 points 11 months ago

*://picclick.com/*

Just reposts old ebay listings as far as I can tell. I guess it could come in handy if you want some historical price data or something, but it mostly just craps up the search results.

[-] NENathaniel@lemmy.ca 10 points 10 months ago

I’ve never considered black listing a site before tbh. Do you guys find it worth the effort when you could just, not click on the links?

[-] nom@nom.mom 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not op, but I have been doing this for years with a userscript. Getting rid of SEO garbage, pintrest, quora, etc links makes more room for the helpful results.

It is also a good way to ensure you don't land on any recipe sites that are built more for wasting your time than helping you cook.

I just got into the habit of permabanning any site that had anti-user patterns, annoying popups, right click/back button blocking, or clickbait headlines. I don't see a lot of that stuff anymore. Makes the net a bit more useful. Or at least less frustrating.

[-] Fleppensteijn@feddit.nl 9 points 11 months ago

I'd be happy if there is a way to block webshops. You can block e.g. Amazon but then there will be another shop in its place.

I wasn't so happy with Searx but I think I'll have a look at SearXNG if blocking is an option

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[-] SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org 6 points 11 months ago

If you ever do web dev (even just occasionally edit HTML), I highly recommend blocking w3cschools.com. it's not just lacking, it's often flat wrong.

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[-] ChopArts@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Dailymail.co.uk

Fucking crazy propaganda

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[-] WittyProfileName2@hexbear.net 5 points 11 months ago
[-] Addfwyn@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago

You don't want to use a wiki that makes your battery start to visibly drain away?

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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
264 points (99.3% liked)

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