How To Turn Off Google’s Personal Search Results & Get Back To Enjoying Life
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Has your entire life become a frustrating chore since last week, when Google added “Personal Search“? Have you been taking your rage out on innocent squirrels and kittens, most of whom had nothing to do with Google’s decision to integrate a social network most people aren’t using with the search engine everyone is? Stop kicking cuddly creatures. There’s a simple way to stem the tide of nonsense pouring into your search results and we’re happy to share it with you.
Have you ever looked through your Facebook feed and thought to yourself “It would be really awesome if all of this useless crap came up when I was searching for something?” Me neither! Google seems to think differently though, so last week they started flooding everyone’s search results with a bunch of nonsense. Happily they’re not complete idiots – they did provide a way to turn this crap off. Let’s get right to that.
The Fix
Are you ready to restore sanity to your search results? Pull up a Google search. See the personalized results at top, then swear (loudly if you’re at home or quietly if you’re at work). When you’re done swearing, click the gear in the top-right corner. Click “Search Settings“, and you’ll find this amazing option:
Click the “Do not use personal results” button with the enthusiasm of a kid stealing candy. Make sure you click “Save” before leaving this page, or the frustration during your next search will be immense.
That’s it! Google is back to not sucking, and you can go back to being a well-adjusted person (if you were well-adjusted before, of course).
Some Background
What was Google thinking? Well, here’s the story so far. Google fears Facebook, because Facebook is the only company on earth with comparable amounts of your personal information to exploit. Which brings us to Google Plus, the latest of Google’s many freaking attempts to create a repository of your personal preferences, friendships and interactions social network.
Plus is different than previous attempts, though, in that Google is pushing it, hard. Sure, Buzz was integrated with Gmail, but Plus goes way beyond that – we’re talking about TV ads, integration with Android, and even a big freaking arrow on the Google homepage:
And then, last week, Google decided they really wanted to piss off their user base. Now Google Plus posts are now integrated with Google search itself. That’s right – the totality of human knowledge, filtered through your friends and family.
No offense to the people I know; most of you guys are perfectly acceptable human beings. I just don’t want your input on the hundreds of searches I run each day. It clutters my search for information, and puts me inside a social bubble instead of helping me engage with the wider world.
Conclusion
Did you turn this off? Did it somewhat improve the quality of your life? Let us know in the comments below. Also feel free to rant about this being a bad decision on Google’s part, because that’s totally what I just did.
Did you not turn this off? Then, please add us on Google Plus to clutter your search results with our articles get awesome updates from us!
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:31:26 GMT
Tags: Google, google search, How-To Articles, privacy, search, search results, search tips,
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