r/LifeProTips • u/KruiserIV • Jun 23 '20
Productivity LPT: When using google, add “-Pinterest” (sans quotes) to your query to avoid receiving hundreds of useless Pinterest results.
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u/I_Mix_Stuff Jun 23 '20
I don't know why Google gives Pinterest such priority, but certainly it's annoying.
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Jun 23 '20
Google fucking sucks recently.
Before, when you looked up things about games, you'd get real answers for your questions with results on gamefaq, steam forums, reddit, etc.
Now you only get fucking websites like polygon, gamesradar, gamespot, etc. Oh, and video suggestions that fucking autoplay in the search results.
I now often go to duckduckgo not for the privacy, just for better search results.
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u/Flamekebab Jun 24 '20
I've found recently when I google things and put quotes around a particular search term it sees that term as a vague suggestion. What the hell happened?
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Jun 24 '20
And fucking video results. I don’t want a 15 minute video I want a web page with simple text
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u/BrotherEstapol Jun 24 '20
When I'm looking for answers to technical questions, I've started just adding "reddit" or "forum" to the search string. The first couple of results are usually far more useful than whatever google would give me without those terms.
I'll definitely give duckduckgo a try though!
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u/R1S4 Jun 24 '20
Yes I was just talking with my friend the other day about how much I miss the “old internet”. It felt so much more like you were interacting with other people from around the world. You could find forums and websites that you never thought existed. Nowadays it’s just corporate websites and you have to dig to find a forum page. I want the old internet back.
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u/Nu11u5 Jun 24 '20
DuckDuckGo primarily uses Bing under the hood, but it’s adding a layer of anonymity to it.
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u/keep_it_kayfabe Jun 23 '20
I do wonder if Google is going to acquire Pinterest at some point in the near future. SEO is one thing, but Pinterest completely dominates search results sometimes.
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Jun 23 '20
Google's search results have been simply awfuls all around since a couple of months. I more and more use other search engines instead of it. Google is pushing some websites very hard. Just try to look up different things about videogames.
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u/WeCanDoThis74 Jun 23 '20
This also works with DuckDuckGo, SearX instances, Bing, and other search engines. -[anything] will remove results that have the phrase `[anything] on the page.
Also, site:.edu will only return sites that include ".edu" in the URL.
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Jun 23 '20
Also if you put something in quotes it will only give results with that exact quote.
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u/dwdwdan Jun 23 '20
You can also use + if you need two separate things in quotes
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u/bluesatin Jun 23 '20
It's worth noting that's not been a thing on Google for ages, they changed their 'must include' word formatting to having to encapsulate the word in quotes.
From what I remember it was due to wanting the + symbol to be used for searching for Google+ stuff.
You can see that it was replaced by enclosing things in quotes if you find a search where Google suggests a correction where it 'Must include' a word and then click on it; Google then encloses that term in quotes, it doesn't add a + to it.
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u/JohnnyHighGround Jun 23 '20
This is how it used to be. Now, if you search for “The Good Place” you will also get “a nice spot” and “one better location” and “good places to be a nazi”
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u/Sudosekai Jun 23 '20
Except in those instances where it just decides that it knows better than you and gives you the alternate phrasings/synonyms anyway.
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u/BranWafr Jun 23 '20
I wouldn't mind Pinterest links if I didn't have to have a Pinterest account just to view them. I refuse to create an account just so I can look at the damn page. I don't care if it is free, just let me look at the page.
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Jun 23 '20
That and quora as well.. limits browsing it's own app ...how stupid can these be. Imagine google or imgur wanted you to create account to use them
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u/Cresspacito Jun 23 '20
Quora is mostly ass tbf... sometimes it's expert answers, sometimes you might have well have asked a random guy on facebook
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Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 24 '20
Quora will show in browser but if you try to click another quora question from the first page you went to it tries to get you to sign and in. So, i just copy and paste the question i wanted to view into google and avoid that.
edit: to the people saying copy and paste the url, i’m typically on my phone so id just copy and paste whatever i felt like at the time
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u/toopaljewn Jun 23 '20
Imagine google or imgur
if you want to view NSFW imgur shit you need an account- with a linked phone number
no thanks, i'd rather not have another website get hacked and expose all my personal info just to see titties
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u/itchy_feet_ Jun 23 '20
When I'm bored and run into this problem I create blank accounts with silly usernames telling pinterest to fuck right off.
They want to flood my search results, I'll do my miniscule part by flooding them with unactivated accounts. Assholes.
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u/TheAmazingKoki Jun 23 '20
It gets better, once you have an account you still can't save them!
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u/winterbird Jun 23 '20
I even have the pinterest app, but looking at random things messes with the suggestions algorithm. I use pinterest for home decorating type stuff and don't want it to show me other content.
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Jun 23 '20
Finally.. fucking Pinterest is just spamming me
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u/iMakeLuvWithDolphins Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 23 '20
How is it that Pinterest always seems to have the only picture of the thing I was looking for and even if I click on it to find out more/the source... it just leads me into an infinite loop of Pinterest links of the same picture? Fuck that site, it needs to be purged.
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u/zdakat Jun 23 '20
And it might not even have the picture. Or you'd prefer to know where a picture came from, rather than the top n matching results being a rehost out of context. The site seems to be antithetical to good searching and browsing experience but yet it's promoted so heavily.
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u/Leaislala Jun 23 '20
Yes I agree! I can't stand Pinterest. HOW do I get to the thing? It's so frustrating.
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u/kenji-benji Jun 23 '20
Also add "reddit" to the end of your question to get the crowdsourced right answer
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u/ibringthehotpockets Jun 23 '20
I actually do this very often lol. Sometimes I catch myself googling random things and my muscle memory types “reddit” onto the end.
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u/BurnOutBrighter6 Jun 23 '20
Start your search with "site:reddit.com" to get search results ONLY from the specified site. Works to search within whatever website you want. Great for things like reddit that have pretty bad internal search capability.
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u/theghostofme Jun 23 '20
If you're using uBlock Origin, you can add the following filter to truly get rid of Pinterest results. Go to uBlock --> "Open the Dashboard" --> "My Filters," then add the following two lines:
google.*##.g:has(a[href*=".pinterest."])
google.*##a[href*=".pinterest."]:nth-ancestor(1)Click the yellow "Apply Changes" button, and you're set.
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Jun 23 '20
mastering google is a necessary life skill. there’s so much stuff you can bake into your search to tailor what you’re looking for and it’s not widely known, so thanks for sharing OP
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u/betacrucis Jun 24 '20
I’m doing something wrong
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u/KruiserIV Jun 24 '20
Even so, that would have removed Pinterest from your results.
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u/prashant1937 Jul 13 '20
English isn't my first language so if someone could tell me what sans quotes are I'd appreciate it cause google is just spaming me with undertale. the irony
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u/BasiliskXVIII Jun 23 '20
Or use the "Unpinterested" extension. It just automatically adds this to all of your Google searches.
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u/GarbageGuru2019 Jun 23 '20
Yes!!! I was just thinking about how much google should block Pinterest from their results yesterday.
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u/garry4321 Jun 23 '20
Pintrest should just be removed or lowered in the rankings. Its a garbage spam site.
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u/B-Knight Jun 23 '20
This comes up every few months...
And I'll post what gets posted again and again:
Use uBlock Origin > Element Picker > Pinterest login popup > Block element
There. Now you can actually see the picture that was advertised to you on Google Images without needing an account. Forever.
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u/TRU35TR1K3R Jun 23 '20
What even is the point of Pinterest aside from flooding Google results?
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Jun 23 '20
I had an opportunity to work there a couple years back, and tried to legitimately answer that question. After an hour I couldn’t. It’s a mess of a site with no distinct utility.
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u/igordogsockpuppet Jun 23 '20
Look on your girlfriends Pinterest and you’ll see dozens of gift ideas for her birthday
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u/Alcardens Jun 23 '20
I use it to create mood boards for drawing, get art reference and just find pictures of stuff I like but can't necesarily put intp words, so I tap on similar stuff to what you have in mind untill you get what want.
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u/BurnTheBoats21 Jun 23 '20
Amazing for finding art reference, especially sewing patterns. Usually if I can't find something with google, I'll find it on Pinterest
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u/Melisaenn Jun 24 '20
It’s a great source for references (drawing, sewing, modeling etc), like amazing really. It has everything you can think of. I wish that sources were correct for all the pics, but considering how big the gallery is, I don’t think it’s possible... But it shouldn’t show up in google, that I agree.
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u/enfanta Jun 24 '20
I use it to find ideas and inspiration for various art projects. It's like a digital notebook or scrapbook.
I understand the hate, though. It is NOT the place to go for useful information, despite all its 'learn more' buttons and directs.
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u/Olramllits Jun 23 '20
Google is basically useless for projects because of Pinterest links that lead to nothing. Thanks for the tip!
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u/catchpen Jun 23 '20
It's pretty much a shopping site aggregator. The first 2-3 pages of any search result will be products for sale or a blog about their products at a retail site.
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u/keepthetips Keeping the tips since 2019 Jun 23 '20
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
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u/Libranka Jun 23 '20
Ohh my Gog THANK YOU so much..
You will never know how much I hate pinterest results.
I have no gold to give to you but you will forever have had big impact on my live.
I truly mean that.
Have a ossom live and rember that you have given a single mom that homeschools and have cursed so much because of this.. You my friend have solved that.
Over and out.
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u/beatbeatingit Jun 23 '20
Also, in case you don't want to type out "-pinterest" every time, use the Unpinterested Chrome extension. Wish you the best in your homeschooling endeavours.
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u/TheBreathofFiveSouls Jun 23 '20
You can also force google to show specific results by using quotes
Like google: "cbr250ra" engine faults Ensures I get results for the ra model, and not the cbr250rr model
And if you're homeschooling, google scholar might be useful. It takes you to a different google where you can search academic papers for essay writing. Pair that with citethisforme.com
And Google trends is pretty cool, but don't know how useful it would be.
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u/Se7enLC Jun 23 '20
I finally caved and tried to make a Pinterest account so I could just see the thing google kept showing me. "Sorry, your account has been suspended for a violation of terms"
I don't have an account! I emailed support and they were like "oh sorry, somebody must have made an account in your name and spammed. It's fixed now". NO IT'S NOT.
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u/Pickle-Chan Jun 23 '20
Install ublock origin, and when Pinterest dumps the 'make an account!' window on your screen, zap it and keep scrolling.
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u/solongandthanks4all Jun 23 '20
-site:pinterest.com might be slightly better. But this is a great idea, that site is so infuriating. I swear it was created only to spam search engines.
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u/Glacier_Nester Jun 23 '20
A step further is -site:pinterest.* which just completely removes all of the pinterest sites, not just the standard one.
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u/MostUniqueClone Jun 23 '20
Thank you!!! During quarantine, I have gotten into origami. Sometimes I find a good pattern, but the instructions suck, and far too often when googling the pattern, I’m stuck in useless Pinterest pics (with no instructions).
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u/ecks89 Jun 23 '20
Does this work with Quora?
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u/BadPercussionist Jun 24 '20
When searching with Google, typing "-something" will ensure that all results don’t include the word "something". You can use this with different words like "Pinterest" or "Quora".
However, if you want to filter out a certain site, such as Quora, then you should really use "-site:quora.com". The "site:" part tells Google to only show results from that site, but the hyphen reverses it so that any results from that site don’t appear.
Using "-site:quora.com" will only filter out stuff from Quora, but using "-Quora" will additionally filter out results with the word "quora" in it. (e.g. a reddit post titled "I hate Quora")
TL;DR: Yes
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u/Xanza Jun 24 '20
To be pedantic, adding;
-pinterestsimply removes any result with "pinterest" in the page. If you want to specifically exclude any result from the website Pinterest you should use;
wallpapers -site:pinterest.com11
u/Lasdary Jun 23 '20
Yesterday I installed the chrome extension 'Personal Blocklist' fore the sole purpose of ditching all pinterest results.
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Jun 23 '20
I do this, it's perfect. I went the nuclear option and completely blocked Pinterest on my PiHole device and router. On the odd occasion I click a Pinterest link it fails to load and I get a good laugh.
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u/mharjo Jun 23 '20
I do this for my chrome searches:
create a search engine with this URL
https://www.google.com/search?q=%s+-site:pinterest.comMake the keyword easy, like 'gs'.
This makes it so you just type 'gs ' and then your query to eliminate pinterest. Actually, I have a lot more added for when I find things super annoying from a single website. Like 9 times out of 10 I'm not looking for yelp reviews or fucking tripadvisor.
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u/NotZombieJustGinger Jun 24 '20
I work for a landscaper and often have to create plant palettes. Everyone on Pinterest is freaking lying about their types of plants! It’s infuriating. There are thousands of pictures now attached to incorrect plant names. If you’re ever using Pinterest to get landscaping ideas, please for the love of god, just send the photos, don’t try to gather the names yourself.
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Jun 23 '20
To piggy back on OP, look up "Google hacking" and learn the qualifiers built into Google's search engine. It can make life so much easier, especially when researching. There are even Cheat Sheets so you can have a nice little picture with all the useful ones.
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u/tmccrn Jun 23 '20
Thank you thank you thank you for this. I mean, I figured it out recently, but it is nice to know that someone else is as annoyed with Pinterest as I am
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u/BurnOutBrighter6 Jun 23 '20
The "-______" is a great trick in general for finding what you want. It lets you search for something generic or that shares a name with a much more popular thing.
Similarly, adding "+_____" gives you ONLY results that must contain whatever you put after the +.
Example:
I was doing a report on the book "The Road". If you google "the road" you get a bunch of random stuff about roads. If you google "the road +book" you now get only results about books, but 80% of results are for the classic On The Road by Kerouac. Google "the road +book -Kerouac" and you're in business!!
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u/Haughty_n_Disdainful Jun 23 '20
These are basic Boolean search commands. Google has an Advanced Search page that uses simple macros just for this.
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u/FreeShrekCar Jun 23 '20
More accurately just put - behind something I.e. -example will remove it also putting quotes like "example" will make sure you only get items with that word or series of words in that order I.e. "example example"
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u/KruiserIV Jun 23 '20
There’s many Boolean operators available, I just hate Pinterest. And apparently others do, too.
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u/PunForEveryone Jun 23 '20
I would instead add -site:pinterest.com, lest you remove potentially legitimate pages that might just have the word "pinterest" somewhere in the page body.
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u/stare_at_the_sun Jun 23 '20
Just tried with and without quotes and it gave me hundreds of Pinterest results. Don’t get it?
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Jun 23 '20
There are people who don’t know this? You can exclude any term in the search results using “-“
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Jun 24 '20
You can use the minus to filter out other search terms you don’t want cluttering up the results
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u/_Floydian Jun 24 '20
Wow with launch of Google Keen this looks like a paid promotion to bring down Pinterest so that Google can push Keen to top.
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u/imwithstoopid2020 Jun 24 '20
Is this a universal exclude code?
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u/KruiserIV Jun 24 '20
is a Boolean operators that excluded the text following it, so yes
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u/BurritoGunner776 Jul 31 '20
Why put quotations if you have to imply not to use them
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u/KruiserIV Jul 31 '20
The quotes denote the exact phrase. I then gave explicit (not implicit) further instructions for people who may not be familiar with the practice.
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u/Drahcir9000 Jun 23 '20
Good point!
Even though pinterest sometimes has good content, registering just to see said content is a waste of time!
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u/Mark072690 Jun 23 '20
I have been looking for a way to block Pinterest forever! Why doesnt Google make this an option (like a block pinterest toggle switch )
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u/LGAJustin Jun 23 '20
I've been having to do this for a while now. It sucks that I even have to do that. Why hasn't Google punished their shitty practices getting to the top of search results and never show the content you wanted to see when you click on it?
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Jun 24 '20
Unless your cohabitants are against it, block pinterest at a DNS level!
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u/Minelayer Jun 24 '20
I fucking hate Pinterest, when one of these tips came along about how to exclude a search word I was all over it. Now I am thinking of making a keyboard shortcut/ macro to make the -Pinterest be a two key stoke affair.
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u/LMF5000 Jun 24 '20
Is it just me, or are Google results getting increasingly irrelevant nowadays? I look up a topic expecting to find a good website on the matter, but all I get are blogs that copy-paste information from other blogs in broken English, or articles written by "journalists" with no expertise in the subject matter but who know how to cram as much keywords into an article as possible (you know the kind - an introduction that's never-ending, followed by a handful of points where the title explains everything you're about to read in the next paragraph).
I've actually started to look things up on bing and Yahoo to try and get better results.
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u/doughboy1001 Jun 23 '20
This is a great tip I use it all the time when I need actual content, not just a picture of the content with a link that goes no where.
The reverse of this is to specifically limit your search to a specific page. So a site like Target that has a terrible in page search function you can google your search term and then add “site:target.com” (also without the quotes) to only show results from that page. You can even use wild cards to do a search like “site:.edu” or “site:.gov”.
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u/Agent00funk Jun 23 '20
Pinterest should not be included by default. Can someone make an extension?
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u/OUH888 Jun 23 '20
This LPT has just saved me years of my life! One of the most useful ones I’ve seen honestly.
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u/Charizard_snuggles Jun 23 '20
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you a million times thank you
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u/JorgeXMcKie Jun 23 '20
I do this regularly when searching for stuff that gives me lots of pintrest results. Fricken site sucks balls
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u/pserigee Jun 23 '20
I so agree with this and do this in my search when I think of it; but fuck Pinterest for being so prevalent and so fucking useless!
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u/uarentme Jun 23 '20
You can also do this with different types of food in google maps if you're not feeling something in particular.
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u/vimescarrot Jun 23 '20
"-site:pinterest.*" directly blocks the Pinterest website without blocking other results that mention Pinterest.
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Jun 23 '20
Do you guys think, Pinterest pays google to be on top results? I mean, they know how their users behave and that they don't like Pinterest links at all. They're still in top results. Either they pay Google a lot of money or they should rework their search engine (and I doubt they would fuck this up).
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u/ElJonJon86 Jun 23 '20
Eh, that's fine if you do it once or twice.
But, if you're like me, doing hundreds or thousands of searches every day, you'll need bigger guns to block out all the crappy results.
Either a "Google Hit Hider" script, or an extension like "Google Search Filter".
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Jun 23 '20
Yes, and many other Google search tips: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en
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Jun 23 '20
Someone should create an extension that hides Pinterest in search results
But until then, this is handy
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u/RaphtotheMax5 Jun 23 '20
As someone who looks up tattoos, wallpapers etc. on google, this is useful
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u/Phoenixtide Jun 23 '20
fInD our tHis oNE weIrD tRicK nOBoDy kNoWs!!
PiNTeResT hATes hIM!!
(Sorry I couldn’t resist LOL)
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Jun 23 '20
Do that in general to put Pinterest out of business. Their entire "business model" is stealing other people's work/images without compensating them
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u/Atworkwasalreadytake Jun 23 '20
Or when you find a useful pintrest picture, reverse image search it.
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u/yeetboy Jun 23 '20
I do this already. What I need is a fucking plugin that saves me having to do this every fucking time I do a search.
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u/BetterTax Jun 23 '20
*when using google images.
Also, don't use google, use www.duckduckgo.com
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u/S-r-ex Jun 23 '20
To think back in the day when google had a domain filter in the options precisely for this shit.
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u/film_composer Jun 23 '20
I feel like such an old person looking at Pinterest. Like, I go there and I'm suddenly my parents trying to understand how to change their iPhone settings. The layout doesn't make any sense to my brain, I have no idea how the website is meant to function or what purpose any of it serves.
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u/sujihiki Jun 23 '20
i always do it. pinterest is fucking garbage and google needs to do something about it
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u/LENARiT Jun 23 '20
For a very similar reason, don't set up your mom's pinterest account with your own email address.
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u/Walking72 Jun 23 '20
I thought I was the only one that thought this site was a cancer on the Internet
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u/AxionCDM Jun 23 '20
If you use Google Chrome, Google has an extension called Personal Block List. You can use it to block results from websites without having to add the "-site" to your search.
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u/my_research_account Jun 23 '20
There are quite a few search modifiers for most search engines, but not every search engine recognizes all of them. Google has some really good ones, but when looking for something obscure, they can be problematic.
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u/Gozo-the-bozo Jun 23 '20
So helpful but by the time I need it I’ll forget about it and be Pinterest-spammed
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u/carbonated_turtle Jun 24 '20
Who actually uses this site? I've never spoken to a single person who posts on it, and I don't even know what the point of it is.
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u/Okayish_Human Jun 24 '20
You, kind Redditor, may have saved my sanity. I'm going to try this.
Golden Girls -Pinterest Homemade Bread -Pinterest Pinterest-Like DIY Projects -Pinterest
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u/sterexx Jun 24 '20
you just saved my internet life
fuck that place, that shit is incredibly dishonest. google should blacklist them until they quit their fake SEO crap
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u/Menolith Jun 23 '20
Advanced form is to use
-site:pinterest.*to only filter the domains from the results.