I love Google, I seriously do. What I don’t like too much is them adding more and more fluff to my search result pages (or SERPs) that I really don’t want or need. Most of us know about their new Terms of Service now, right? No reason to show me that box all the bloody time.
I also hate the suggested person box. I understand I could (and probably do) drive traffic through that, but I don’t need it. And I hate their new ad sitelinks even more. The first organic result is almost below the fold now…
Luckily, this is all easily fixed. Most browsers support a feature that’s called a user stylesheets. This is a CSS file on your computer that is applied to each page you’re looking at, on top of that page’s stylesheets. The location is different for each browser / operating system combination, so you might need to Google a bit if you’re not using Chrome, for which I’ve listed them below:
- Chrome on Mac:
~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/User\ StyleSheets/Custom.css
- Chrome on PC:
C://Users/Username/AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\User StyleSheets/custom.css
This article (while a bit old) seems to have good ways of making a user stylesheet for other browsers.
User styles to hide ads, TOS warnings and suggested persons
So with this small addition to that stylesheet, you can hide the specific sections you don’t like:
/* Hide the Ads */
#tads, #mbEnd, #bottomads {
display: none;
}
/* Hide the suggested person box */
#rhs_block {
display: none;
}
/* Hide the TOS warning nonsense */
#bb_pp_tos_ack {
display: none;
}
Now my search result pages are nice and clean again, gotta love it.
Here’s another suggestion:
/* Hide "Hot on Google+" */
.Te.ch {
display: none;
}
which I use to clean up the clutter on Google+.
There is this Chrome Extension called Stylebot which enables you to restyle (say: hide) every element you want on any website and save it. It works quite easy due to wysiwyg-ish editing: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oiaejidbmkiecgbjeifoejpgmdaleoha
Stylebot http://stylebot.me/ goes social today: share your restyled css tweaks of any website. (I don’t have any interest, I just think it’s way more convenient using stylebot :) )
And make a bookmark, when you want to see the items.
javascript:document.getElementById(‘tads’).style.display=’block’;alert(‘done’);
Any chance that you could post a before and after screenshot?
I appreciate ads can be annoying, and companies need to use them wisely, without taking the p**s, but an internet without ads is a dead internet. How would you like your ads stripped out? I know my site would not be on the internet without ads and I believe my site is a valuable resource – as is Google..
I agree about leaving ads on when possible. If a site has ad pollution I don’t turn the ads off, I go to a different website.
Personally, I think it’s rude to use content without giving the site a chance to make money, but likewise I don’t have to stick around and be abused by pop-ups, et al. It’s a balance, treat your visitors with respect and, hopefully, they will do likewise.
@Erik, great tip about bookmarking. Always good to keep your options open! ;)
Thanks for this…the main point I wanted to make was that I really love your email. You dont clutter them with loads of articles and I always want to read the ones that you put in the emails. Less is definitely more in your case. Thanks.
Nice one — Removing the ads makes a huge difference. Thanks for the tip.
Great stuff,
Is there any custom css for gmail?.. or wound that be ‘having a free lunch’ while using their email services.
Let’s hope google isn’t watching :) nice info though new SERP are getting busy alright.
This is what I really want, now I’m happy with clean results.
Also if you want to browse without any clutters, here are few more options. Check this
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Checkout comment rules, use tags properly.
I was searching for it..Thanks for this great tweak :)
Yep, have to agree with the others, adds can be a pain in the kneck sometimes but the internet would sure be a bit lifeless without them. Like a lot of things that can be bad, ok in moderation!
Yeah almost every internet user is aware about the privacy policy of Google so it shout not pop up every time we search any thing!
What I really want to know is how you make your search result have your website and sections of your website below it. I see it for some websites but not mine.
OMG…. Yes, this is so annoying! Thank you for the fix, I am going to try that.
By the way, I got alot of great tips from this site since I have found it! ~ Mark