Filter to block Google Suggest

[Oddysey]

ProxRocks;

(Sep. 11, 2008 04:16 PM)ProxRocks Wrote:  ........

the 'g' for Google registry bit, are you talking a URL "alias" where 'g' in the address bar takes you to www dot google dot com or are you talking "g proxo" doing a Google Search for "proxo"?

Technically, the answer is yes to both parts.

Within the Windows Registry, there are several keys for Internet Explorer. It doesn't matter if you use some other browser, these keys come from the original Windows installation. And this goes for every OS since '95, right up to Vista.... trust me on this, I've personally checked.

It's found under various major headings, but the subkey is always called SearchURL. Any subkey under that, the name is the alias that you will type into the address bar. The default value for that subkey is the website's main address, but you can modify that to include the query string that will be suppled to the website in question, and the parameters you add after the name will be appended as your search terms.

Actually, there is an easy method of doing this, something like a wizard or some-such, but I've long since forgotten most of those "user-friendly" ways of doing things. Give me a text editor any time, and I can make Windows sing, dance and clean the kitchen sink!

Anyways, here's a sample SearchURL:

Code:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\G]
@="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%s"

Note that all I did was look at the address of a Google results page, figure out what they inserted before my search terms, then entered that into the key's default value. The trick lays in the %s, this is what the Registry uses to pick up your search terms from the address bar.

Here's another example, for those that prefer Scroogle:

Code:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\S]
@="http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi/search?q=%s"

If I'm looking for a specific image, here's Google to the rescue:

Code:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\pix]
@="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%s&sa=N&tab=wi&gbv=1"

In this case, I wrote the query string just like Google, with the %s in the middle, instead of at the end. Works like a charm.

I use eBay a lot to check the probable price of various items. Rather than go through all the razz-a-matazz:

Code:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\ebay]
@="search.ebay.com/%s"

Nice and simple, eh?

One more, to show that you can complicate the query string as much as you like:

Code:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\Tunes]
@="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=tabs lyrics chords -shopping -eshopping -musicnotes %s"

The address bar is case insensitive, you can title your subkey name in either case, and it will still work. Also, note that in those cases where a character set is called for, as in the Google links, I make sure that ISO-8859-1 is spelled out!


I don't know about other browsers and how they might or might not access those keys, but I should think that any browser built on top of IE would have a decent chance of doing this too.

HTH



Oddysey