Blocking specific sites from appearing in the Google search?

[carolinae]

Can you recommend any addon for Chrome or Firefox to block certain sites from appearing in the Google search?

 

[Bg260]

On a desktop sure, add an extension. On an Android phone, not as easy. In Chrome tap the three dot menu>settings>privacy>tap the question mark in the upper right corner >then follow the directions.
Not exactly what you are looking for, but it's a start.

 

[no one]

The google cares not for your blasphemy. The googlebots continually search for those that commit such heresy, and hand out the appropriate punishment. REMEMBER: The google knows what you want better than you do! DON'T EVER QUESTION THE GOOGLE, EVER

 

[no one]

XX

 

[zuben el genub]

The minus sign works in Startpage and Duck. It even works on Play Stores search.

I got tired of all the skins for the Go launcher appearing. They aren't real apps and should not appear if searching for launchers only. I finally used the -sign and got rid of them.

 

[svim]

Can you recommend any addon for Chrome or Firefox to block certain sites from appearing in the Google search?

It sounds as if you want to implement some kind of content filtering, perhaps for a child?

Depending on what version of Android you might want to look into enabling Parental Control:
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/google-android/parental-control-on-android-image-3461359/
Its content filtering is more general in nature but if you need more robust monitoring, there are a lot of apps in the Google Play store that have more extensive controls. Do a search for 'content filtering' or 'parental control'

Another option is to add a service called 'OpenDNS'. You'd add this into your home router and then you can use it's configurable menu to setup content filtering to what you feel necessary. Note this will affect the WiFi connectivity only as it applies only to your home network, if your child knows enough to just use mobile data (cellular) connectivity to bypass the WiFi restrictions, you need to look at some kind of filtering applied to their device.
http://www.howtogeek.com/201312/how-to-use-opendns-on-your-router-pc-tablet-or-smartphone/
https://www.opendns.com/

 

[carolinae]

Hi, thanks for all the replies

It sounds as if you want to implement some kind of content filtering, perhaps for a child?

No it's not for a child but for an essay that I'm writing Sorry should have added that in the OP. I'm currently doing an extensive research for a major essay that I have to write for university, where I have to filter through a lot of news sources. In my field of research there are some sites that always use catchy headlines that promise useful and informational content, but the articles themselves turn out to be mostly superficial or sensationalist. Therefore there are a few sites that I would like to block from appearing in the search results, at least as long as I'm doing this research.

Thanks for the link on how to use OpenDNS. The whole process seems quite technical (and I'm not the most tech-minded person) but I might give it a try.

The minus sign works in Startpage and Duck. It even works on Play Stores search.

I got tired of all the skins for the Go launcher appearing. They aren't real apps and should not appear if only searching for launchers. I finally used the -sign and got rid of them.

Thanks for your suggestion. I've found this very useful. I've noticed that it is even possible to use this search operator for multiple sites. For example "search term -website1 -website2 -website3" seems to work to block multiple sites. I've saved the search query as a bookmark so that I can go back to it quickly and don't need to type in everything again. Might not be the most elegant solution, but it seems to be working.

I've also found a good article on the most common search operators for Google: https://www.1and1.com/digitalguide/...earch-more-effectively-with-google-operators/

The "site:" search operator seems to be quite useful for my research too, since it limits the search to a specific domain. Do you know if there is any option of how to list multiple domains into the "site:" search operator, just like with the minus sign? Didn't find an option for that yet.

 

[svim]

I've also found a good article on the most common search operators for Google: https://www.1and1.com/digitalguide/...earch-more-effectively-with-google-operators/

This is more general usage than that search operator site:
http://lifehacker.com/this-infographic-crams-in-over-30-essential-google-sear-1783855855
https://www.google.com/advanced_search
And since your university student I.D. opens up access to a lot of other non-Google databases, you probably use some of these already but just in case:
JStor
http://www.jstor.org/
SSRN
https://www.ssrn.com/en/index.cfm?
Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com/
ERIC
http://eric.ed.gov/
Project MUSE
http://muse.jhu.edu/
SAGE journals
http://online.sagepub.com/
If your studies involve any kind of criminal activity, there's this FOID site
https://www.muckrock.com/

The OpenDNS suggestion was focused more on managing a local network. I've relied on this 'ProCon Latte' Firefox addon for years now. It might suit your needs better as instead of applying content filtering to a network, it's just for an individual computer. It's targeting adult content but you can freely edit its blacklists and whitelists to re-purpose the filtering to suit your needs:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/procon-latte/

 

[svim]

Nice listing of academic search engine/database alternatives:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_search_engines