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A while ago I got fed up with continuously finding w3schools in my search results when I wanted detailed, technically correct information.

To fix this without having to continuously append -site:w3schools.com to my search queries, I used Google's Manage Blocked Sites page.

For a while this worked perfectly, no more results from unwanted sites. Recently, however, I've been seeing w3schools litter my search results.

Is there a new way to remove a site from Google search results?
-or-
Is this just a bug that I should report?

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  • 8
    This would be good to know for that other bugbear of mine, experts-exchange.com...
    – Graham Wager
    Nov 21, 2012 at 20:38
  • While I understand the similarity of the questions, I do not believe them to be duplicates. I suppose the title of this one should/could be changed, as it probably caused confusion to people who must not have actually read the body of the question.
    – zzzzBov
    Nov 26, 2012 at 14:51
  • 2
    I am having this issue too. There is no indication from Google that they removed the feature, it's still in their help pages here: support.google.com/websearch/bin/… You can do what I did and send feedback/bug report on the article by rating it at the bottom.
    – DisgruntledGoat
    Dec 12, 2012 at 13:17
  • @Al Everett, I understand you were trying to be helpful, but the statement itself was flawed. Not having the right answers isn't the appropriate reason to ask a new question. The questions themselves are inherently different. If the answers on the other questions weren't working for me, I would have opened a bounty on the existing questions.
    – zzzzBov
    Dec 12, 2012 at 14:56
  • 1
    I arrived at this answer because I got tired of seeing w3schools in my search results. So I googled "remove website from search results". I love the internet.
    – tvanc
    Mar 15, 2020 at 17:28

8 Answers 8

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+50

This is a known bug that showed up past year. Google is aware of it as you can read on google groups:

We're aware that this is an issue and I'll post an update as soon as I have one. In the meantime, thanks for your patience.

The only solution you have for now is a browser script/extension.

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  • If you are looking for an extension, Google's extension "Personal Blocklist" no longer works as of 2018-10.
    – Brian C.
    Oct 18, 2018 at 15:01
  • 2
    @BrianC.: uBlacklist that you suggested still works.
    – jfs
    May 24, 2019 at 4:50
15

For the Chrome browser, there is an extension for this: Personal Blocklist. I use it at expert-exchange.com etc. You can read about it here.

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  • 1
    A great recommendation, but this does not answer the question.
    – Jeroen
    Jan 6, 2013 at 11:05
  • As of 2015-07-30, this extension no longer functions. It looks like Google stopped updating it almost a year ago, and it stopped working in a subsequent version of Chrome.
    – coredumperror
    Jul 30, 2015 at 22:36
  • 1
    As of 2018-10-18 it is still not working.
    – Brian C.
    Oct 18, 2018 at 15:04
6

Now that Google's extension "Personal Block List" is broken you'll need a different extension.

The Chrome extension uBlacklist works to block sites from Google Search results.

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1
  • As of 2020-12 uBlacklist still works.
    – Brian C.
    Dec 18, 2020 at 14:02
5

Google has discontinued support for their "Manage Blocked Sites" feature, and explicitly recommends using the Chrome extension for blocking sites.

Manage Blocked Sites (DISCONTINUED) Dear users, We have discontinued offering the blocked sites feature for now. We continue to offer the Chrome extension for blocking sites, and will reconsider features for blocking unwanted search results in the future

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  • 2
    The extension recommend in this answer has not worked for years.
    – Brian C.
    Oct 18, 2018 at 15:06
5

If you go to chrome://settings/searchEngines you can set your personal search engine and prefix every search you enter in the address field with -site:w3schools.com:

Set personal search engine in chrome

I added the following, which prefixes all my address field searches to exclude results from w3schools.com:

Google

google.com

{google:baseURL}search?q=-site:w3schools.com %s&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:iOSSearchLanguage}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}{google:instantExtendedEnabledParameter}{google:contextualSearchVersion}ie={inputEncoding}

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  • 1
    This works but it adds -site:w3schools.com to the search box which is pretty annoying.
    – Timmmm
    Apr 29, 2020 at 17:17
0

Addon for Firefox: Hide Unwanted Results of Google Search

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  • 1
    This doesn't answer the question. The question is if Google's blocking algorithm has a bug or they've changed it.
    – ale
    Jan 14, 2016 at 16:33
-1

You can add the -w3schools keyword to your search query if you only want to remove it for certain queries.

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  • 2
    "To fix this without having to continuously append -site:w3schools.com to my search queries, I used Google's Manage Blocked Sites page."
    – reducing activity
    Oct 19, 2018 at 14:50
  • That is specifically what OP doesn't want to do though.
    – Owl
    Aug 6, 2020 at 10:59
-1

This personal block list extension is a life saver. All of this annoying search results which google provides hitting the top list is extremely aggravating.

Like such basic common articles news, new york times wants me to pay when I can get the same material (hundreds of them) for free.

Also search results containing massive adware's and dumb information

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1
  • Welcome to [webapp.se]! This looks like it's a reply to this answer rather than an answer on its own.
    – Glorfindel
    Apr 19, 2021 at 6:56

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