google annoyance.....

[Baz]

....for me any way is this new?? google instant thing they have.It predicts what you want to search for and gives you ideas.

Dont know why but I just do not like these things.There seems to be no way to turn it off.The preferences in google wont turn it off,FF settings wont ,I have emptied cookies/cache,that didnt work.

I dont know 

Google must have just introduced it without asking

[Rik]

Google has it in for you, Baz.

[Baz]

I think you might have something there  Rik.heres the odd thing though,if I use good old IE    it doesnt give me the suggestions 

[Rik]

Firefox addon at work?

[Baz]

dont think so. a few searches does suggest that its the same for loads of people and doesnt seem to be a turn off option that works.Are you getting it too?

[pctech]

Don't think you can switch it off unless you register with them perhaps?

[DorsetBoy]

You can stop it in Search Settings.

[Baz]

That doesnt work Dorset.tried it loads of times   

[DorsetBoy]

Works for me, though if you run CCleaner or similar your settings will be wiped.

Having tried FirePox it fails to remove the instant search, I notice also that the Google search and controls are different in Firefox , answer is to use a proper browser.

[Baz]

Works for me, though if you run CCleaner or similar your settings will be wiped.

is that in Firefox too

[DorsetBoy]

Just edited my post Baz, Firefox is the problem........... cr*ppy horrible browser.

[pctech]

Works for me too although it does not stop the suggestions when typing, just the list of results.

[Baz]

.... answer is to use a proper browser.

which one   

[pctech]

Dorset's choice is IE I think.

I found a new one recently called Lunarscape that can emulate IE, FF or Safari http://www.lunascape.tv/

[armadillo]

....for me any way is this new?? google instant thing they have.It predicts what you want to search for and gives you ideas.

Dont know why but I just do not like these things.There seems to be no way to turn it off.The preferences in google wont turn it off,FF settings wont ,I have emptied cookies/cache,that didnt work.

Easy peasy to get rid of it in Firefox. Two easy methods to choose from

1.

You have Adblock Plus.
Add the following filter
|http://clients1.google.co.uk/complete/*

(If you do not want to type the filter in, you can do it by going to the google search page, click the ABP red icon in the FF toolbar, then, in the Adblock Plus window, right click any of the entries with a /complete/ in them, and click Block this item. ABP will add the filter for you.)

2.
You can use the google advanced search instead
http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search?hl=en

I just have a bookmark for that. It is easier and more powerful than the standard google search and has no annoyances. I never use the standard one, or a google toolbar.

[Baz]

I dont get a ABP window Armadillo just a 'right click type' context menu

and a manual add doesnt work

[armadillo]

Don't you have an ABP button in your FF toolbar, like the far right of this?







When you left click it, you get the window

[Baz]

yes I have the button but clicking gives me this

[Steve]

You need to click on open blockable items Baz

[armadillo]

yes I have the button but clicking gives me this

Not sure why you get that on left click. That's what I get on right click.

Anyway, on that menu, left click "Open blockable items" and you will get the window that you need.

[armadillo]

Snap!

[Steve]

 

[D-Dan]

In FF I get a little link to the right of the search box on the Google home page that says "Instant is on". Click it and it turns off.

Simples (As a meerkat would say).

Steve

[Gary]

In FF I get a little link to the right of the search box on the Google home page that says "Instant is on". Click it and it turns off.

Simples (As a meerkat would say).

Steve

I do the same thing, its easy.

[Gary]

Just edited my post Baz, Firefox is the problem........... cr*ppy horrible browser.

Firefox works for me, not like that cr*ppy browser named after some Italian for of musical entertainment   

[Rik]

There's a browser called A Capella? 

[DorsetBoy]

There's a browser called A Capella? 

No Rik you missed out an "R" 

[Gary]

No Rik you missed out an "R" 

Opera has an "R" in it 

[DorsetBoy]

Opera has an "R" in it 

Yup, R for ready, it works fine without having all these bits tacked on 

[armadillo]

Yup, R for ready, it works fine without having all these bits tacked on 

Not really. It depends on what you want to do with it.

For instance, the only two browsers that are colour-managed are Firefox and Safari. All the others ignore embedded ICC profiles, the monitor profile or both.

There are also addons for Firefox to do things that Opera, Safari and Chrome cannot do, such as a good download manager that supports queuing, pause, resume, choice of how many to do simultaneously, where the list will be remembered even across a restart of the OS, tools like Adblock Plus that allow you to block selected scripts not just set a blacklist/whitelist of particular sites. There are many more. The reason for the addons is to provide extra things that some users want and that are not available as standard in any browser. Firefox has thousands of these addons. If you do not need or want any of those features, that is fine but no browser has the functions of those addons built in.

Sure, I have Opera, Safari, Chrome, IE and Firefox but the only one that meets all my needs is Firefox.

I have no problem with anyone preferring a different browser though.

[Baz]

right..this gets stranger    turned on today and the google instant thing has stopped but now cant get the suggestions to stop  never used to do that before so I thought it was all part of the instant thing.

you know the ones, like predictive text


Armadillo   when I get the "Open blockable items" window there is no entries with the filter in.All that happens when I type a letter into the search is some entry shows in the ABP window, in green font, as a script if that makes sense.when I delete the letter/word the entries delete too.

[pctech]

Don't think you can stop those Baz unless you use something like NoScript.

[armadillo]

Armadillo   when I get the "Open blockable items" window there is no entries with the filter in.All that happens when I type a letter into the search is some entry shows in the ABP window, in green font, as a script if that makes sense.when I delete the letter/word the entries delete too.

OK, here is a step by step guide.

You are on the google page with the ABP window open and you type something into the google search.
Point the cursor at one of the ABP entries with the word "complete" in it and it looks like this



There are no filters at this stage.

Right click that entry and a context menu pops up. Click Block this item.




The filter rule pops up. Click Add filter.





That is all you need to do to configure ABP.



To see it has worked, refresh the google page.

Now type something into the search box

None of the predictive stuff appears.

Look in the ABP window and you will see a red script, together with its filter, and it repeats as you type more letters in.



Obviously, you can now close the ABP window.

BTW, you can bring up the ABP window by left clicking the actual red ABP icon, not the dropdown arrow to the right of the icon.

I am interested to know how you get on with this. I hope the screenshots are readable. They don't resize very well.

Don't think you can stop those Baz unless you use something like NoScript.

Oh yes you can! Adblock Plus does it just fine. NoScript is a bit more broad brushed and can block all scripts on a page. Adblock Plus is better when you want to do something very focused on a particular annoyance.

[Rik]

Nice tutorial, Dill.

[armadillo]

Thanks Rik. Tutorials are quite fun to write.

[Rik]

Quick, do one on running a forum.

[armadillo]

That's beyond my pay grade.

[Rik]

You're no fun.

[Baz]

nice tutorial again Armadillo 

this is what I get when I type in google and then mouse over an entry notice the text is green.when I then right click the 'Block this item' is greyed out so doesnt work.

I did manage to manually add the rule to ABP so maybe its that.

But I have also found a work around for it, If you use http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0  it works without the drop downs and if you prefer a .co.uk google,if it makes any difference, switch the .com to .co.uk but keep the extra bits on the end.


Many thanks for your time again Armadillo,I will go back to this and try your way to see if I can crack it that way too.

Thanks to all who helped too

[armadillo]

nice tutorial again Armadillo 

this is what I get when I type in google and then mouse over an entry notice the text is green.when I then right click the 'Block this item' is greyed out so doesnt work.

I did manage to manually add the rule to ABP so maybe its that.

Many thanks for your time again Armadillo,I will go back to this and try your way to see if I can crack it that way too.

Aha, all is now clear from your screenshot. The reason the 'Block this item' is greyed out is because of the filter that is in green on your screenshot. That green one is a whitelist entry. It is there to specifically allow scripts with the specified content to execute. It has got there because you have applied a published ABP pre-configured list (a subscription) called Easylist. Whoever wrote that list decided that everybody on earth would love google's new predictive entry feature and would want it to be protected against any attempt to block it! LOL.

If you want to add the blocking filter I said you needed, you will first have to delete that green whitelist filter. To do that, display the adblock window just like on your screenshot, and right  click that green entry.

Click "disable filter"

Now skip past the actions between the lines of asterisks
***************************************


click "Edit filter in effect"

That pops up another window.
In that window, again right click that green filter (it might not be green this time, not sure about that)
That gives a context menu.
Click delete.

Hallelujah! They don't make it easy to do that.

********************************************

You should be able to select "Block this item" on the one I suggested.
If you did manage to add that manually (which I actually doubt) then that should now work without your needing to add it again.

Without checking through the entire syntax of the whole Easylist, I cannot be sure that there is not also another whitelist entry that will thwart you but what I have said will probably do the trick.

If that did not help, go back and perform the actions I have put between the lines of asterisks to actually delete the green filter rather than disable it.

But I have also found a work around for it, If you use http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0  it works without the drop downs and if you prefer a .co.uk google,if it makes any difference, switch the .com to .co.uk but keep the extra bits on the end.

That looks like a great workaround. What that is doing is starting google with a switch in their own server-side script to turn off the "complete" feature. Remember my blocking filter was meant to block the "complete" feature. I didn't know they had that switch available in their script. If you have a link to where they have documented their switches, it would be interesting to see it.

[Gary]

Aha, all is now clear from your screenshot. The reason the 'Block this item' is greyed out is because of the filter that is in green on your screenshot. That green one is a whitelist entry. It is there to specifically allow scripts with the specified content to execute. It has got there because you have applied a published ABP pre-configured list (a subscription) called Easylist. Whoever wrote that list decided that everybody on earth would love google's new predictive entry feature and would want it to be protected against any attempt to block it! LOL.

If you want to add the blocking filter I said you needed, you will first have to delete that green whitelist filter. To do that, display the adblock window just like on your screenshot, and right  click that green entry.

Click "disable filter"

Now skip past the actions between the lines of asterisks
***************************************


click "Edit filter in effect"

That pops up another window.
In that window, again right click that green filter (it might not be green this time, not sure about that)
That gives a context menu.
Click delete.

Hallelujah! They don't make it easy to do that.

********************************************

You should be able to select "Block this item" on the one I suggested.
If you did manage to add that manually (which I actually doubt) then that should now work without your needing to add it again.

Without checking through the entire syntax of the whole Easylist, I cannot be sure that there is not also another whitelist entry that will thwart you but what I have said will probably do the trick.

If that did not help, go back and perform the actions I have put between the lines of asterisks to actually delete the green filter rather than disable it.

That looks like a great workaround. What that is doing is starting google with a switch in their own server-side script to turn off the "complete" feature. Remember my blocking filter was meant to block the "complete" feature. I didn't know they had that switch available in their script. If you have a link to where they have documented their switches, it would be interesting to see it.

Or just use this URL for google, its simpler http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0 and wont muck up other pages that use google.

[drummer]

Or just use this URL for google, its simpler http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0 and wont muck up other pages that use google.

Brilliant - that one actually did the trick. 

Using "google.co.uk" with the same /suffix also works.

[Gary]

Brilliant - that one actually did the trick. 

Using "google.co.uk" with the same /suffix also works.

Glad it helped, Drummer 

[armadillo]

Or just use this URL for google, its simpler http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0 and wont muck up other pages that use google.

Indeed. Baz actually posted that solution himself in reply #38, about 5 hours before you and I acknowledged it in reply #39. So, credit to Baz for getting there first

It set me wondering whether google publish a list of their switches that would enable us to find all the other things like complete=0 that might be useful? Did you find one somewhere?

The purpose of my antics with Adblock Plus was to turn off all google scripts with the "complete" in them, provided they are within the clients1.google.co.uk domain. The switch "complete=0" in the google.co.uk url presumably does the same thing.

[Gary]

Indeed. Baz actually posted that solution himself in reply #38, about 5 hours before you and I acknowledged it in reply #39. So, credit to Baz for getting there first

I'm not claiming anything or taking anything from Baz I just had not looked back that far that's all, anyway its not a contest. 

[armadillo]

No, I know it's not a contest. I just felt a bit miffed on behalf of Baz that nobody noticed when he posted that solution. It was actually included at the end of my post that you quoted in full, so you had looked back that far. It looked a bit dismissive to quote an entire half page post and then counter it with the "simpler" and "won't muck up" parts, when the simpler bit was already there. Not a contest but it looked too much like a bit of competitive "my solutions are best" kind of style. Everyone wants to help and I think it is a bit off to quote a whole post in order to dismiss it without reading it.

Anyway. I do not want there to be ill feeling.

Any chance you know the answer to the question I asked, as I think it would help a lot of people - this bit.

It set me wondering whether google publish a list of their switches that would enable us to find all the other things like complete=0 that might be useful? Did you find one somewhere?

I waded through much of the google help but saw nothing documenting the switches.

[Baz]

Sorry Armadillo dont know where the switches may be listed,I just stumbled across it while trying to find a solution then it kept cropping up in a rew sites so I tried it,then tried it with the .co.uk and it worked 

[drummer]

My apologies to Baz as I also missed your comment, so thanks to you too. 

[Baz]

thanks Drummer no bother caused.These things easy get overlooked sometimes.



thanks to another walk through from Armadillo,even though I found a solution he still took the time to explain it   

[armadillo]

Thanks Baz. It can be so frustrating when you stumble across something on a site and then cannot remember where and cannot find it again. I do it all the time. It drives me nuts. I try to bookmark anything interesting as I go along but you can end up with hundreds of bookmarks that you can make no sense of anyway and still cannot find what you wanted.

I am glad the follow up explanation for ABP was worthwhile. I only did it because you said you wanted to have a try at getting ABP to work even though you had already found the simpler solution.

While I was browsing for anywhere that might list the google switches, I stumbled across some google forum posts (which I am sure I could never find again!) where people were getting ridiculously angry about the things google introduce with no easy means to turn them off. There were several Adblock Plus workarounds described for some of those. So other people are also resorting to doing it that way. Most things do not have a nice simple switch available in google, or at least not one that anybody can find.

[Gary]

No, I know it's not a contest. I just felt a bit miffed on behalf of Baz that nobody noticed when he posted that solution

I would hope that if Baz was upset he would have contacted me directly, but I am sorry Baz if this has caused you any offence and I apologise for that, I simply did not see your post, and it was not my intention to take away from you any merit for finding the solution.

[Simon]

I wouldn't worry, guys, Rik's always pinching my ideas. 

[Baz]

Gary, I was not upset or offended or any thing about what happened,these things happen some time.In fact I think if I was upset and had gone to the trouble of saying to you that you stole my tip it would have caused more bother...not worth it.

hope it has or may help some one else in the future 



and Simon is right, you have to watch that Rik for idea pinching 

[Gary]

I wouldn't worry, guys, Rik's always pinching my ideas. 

[Gary]

Gary, I was not upset or offended or any thing about what happened,these things happen some time.In fact I think if I was upset and had gone to the trouble of saying to you that you stole my tip it would have caused more bother...not worth it.

hope it has or may help some one else in the future 



and Simon is right, you have to watch that Rik for idea pinching 

No worries Baz, I really just did not see your post.

[armadillo]

I apologise to Gary and Baz for causing bother. I got the wrong end of the stick. Sometimes, I wish the "post" button would respond with a Windows-like "are you sure you want to post?"

[Baz]

No harm done at all Armadillo.

every one see's posts their own way dont they,it happens 

[Rik]

Exactly, Baz, it's a limitation of online communication.