Said honestly, it annoys me that whenever I perform a search on any search engine that Wikipedia results show up first so often.
How to get Wikipedia Google search results to not show up can be done the manual way or the fancy way.
Manual Way
Simply add -wikipedia to any Google search term. The dash in front of wikipedia must be included. This tells Google, "Don’t show results with that term in them."
Here’s an example searching for the term computer:
Fancy Way
The fancy way is using a custom search specific to your browser.
Here’s how to do it using Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome:
Internet Explorer
Go to this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/searchguide/en-en/default.mspx
On the right side is Create Your Own. Next to 3, copy and paste in the following URL:
http://www.google.com/search?q=TEST%20-wikipedia
Next to 4, input the name as "Google without Wikipedia".
When done it should look like this:
Click the Install button next to 5.
You’ll receive this notice:
It’s most likely true you won’t want this as your default search, so leave that box unchecked and click Add.
This custom search will now be in your list of engines to use.
You may already have Google as a search provider in Internet Explorer, which will obviously use the exact same icon as Google itself, and that can be confusing. To figure out which one you’re using, simply hover over the icon for a small tooltip:
..and then perform your search. I searched for computer, and the result should be this:
Mozilla Firefox
There is unfortunately no simple way to have a custom Google search with operators in the search bar in Firefox. The popular Add to Search Bar add-on, while easy, cannot be used to add in custom searches with operators, and it’s the operator you need in order to make this work.
Instead what you have to do is use a bookmark activated by a keyword.
There are a ton of different ways to do bookmarks in Firefox, but this is the simplest way to describe how it’s done:
- Add a bookmark in Firefox and edit it.
- Input "Location" as http://www.google.com/search?q=%s%20-wikipedia
- Input "Keyword" as nw for "No Wikipedia".
When you want to search Google without Wikipedia results, enter "nw [search term here]" in your Firefox address bar. For example, if I wanted to search Google for computer without Wikipedia results, I would type nw computer in the address bar and press Enter.
Google Chrome
Chrome’s way of searching is to use the address bar as there isn’t any search bar provided with the browser whatsoever. As far as Chrome is concerned, the address bar is the search bar, so in order to use it like that we need to create a custom search by means of inputting a custom search engine activated by a keyword. This is similar to the way Firefox does it but uses "management" for custom searches instead of bookmarks.
1. Click the wrench icon at top right.
2. Click Options.
3. Click the tab Basics.
4. Click the button Manage next to Default search.
5. On the next screen click Add.
6. On the next screen, enter the name as Google without Wikipedia, Keyword as nw and in URL copy and paste in http://www.google.com/search?q=%s%20-wikipedia
When finished it should look similar to this:
Click OK.
In the address bar of Chrome, type nw. Chrome will tell you to tap the TAB key to use this search on the right side of the address bar:
Press TAB.
The address bar changes to this:
Type in your search term. If I type in computer, it will look like this:
..and then I press Enter.
It would be easier if Chrome had a search bar.
Would you rather have a traditional search bar in Chrome?
You can get one use the Chrome extension Search Box.
When you install Search Box, you’ll see a magnifying glass icon at top right. This can be clicked on to bring up search options:
To add in a custom search, click the Manage Search Engines… blue link at the bottom of the box.
Enter in a name and URL (the exact same URL as noted in step 6 above). It will look like this when finished:
..then click Add.
From there just click the magnifying glass icon, choose your Google without Wikipedia search, and search as you normally would:
Which browser do you think does custom searches best? IE, Firefox or Chrome?
Like what you read?
If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below:
