How to Block Wikipedia from Your Google Searches
If you conduct a lot of Internet research, you may frequently turn up Wikipedia articles. However, many professional researchers don't find Wikipedia's content particularly useful. You can customize your Google search engine to eliminate or block Wikipedia search results altogether.
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Instructions
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Visit the Wikipedia home page and click on the 'English' link to reach the English edition of this online encyclopedia (see the Resources section below).
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Enter the search terms 'Mirrors and Forks' into the 'Search' field and hit the 'Go' button.
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Scroll down in the article to the section titled 'Wikimedia' and select the link to the 'Meta:Mirror Filter' article.
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Install the 'CustomizeGoogle' extension for Firefox by clicking on the 'CustomizeGoogle' link.
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Reboot your Firefox browser upon completing installation.
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Create a text file containing the URL for Wikipedia.
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Add any additional URLs for other Web sites you wish to block to the text file. You will find a list of Web sites which mirror content from Wikipedia in the 'Mirror Filter' article on Wikimedia.
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Save the file with a distinctive file name you will easily recognize when you browse, such as 'WikipediaandMirrors' or another set of descriptive terms.
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Go to the 'Tools' menu of your Firefox browser and select 'Customize Google Options.'
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Select the 'Filter' tab and click on the 'Import' button.
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Browse for the file you have created with Wikipedia's URL and any other URLs and select it to add the text to the 'Import' window.
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Click the 'OK' button to perform the block. All content generated by Wikipedia should now be blocked when you search the Internet via Google.
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Tips & Warnings
Wikipedia as a resource is not generally accepted by schools and academic institutions. As a parent, you may find that blocking Wikipedia from search results may allow your kids to focus on information more appropriate for school. You can read more about why Wikipedia may not be an appropriate resource for your child in the site's General Disclaimer.
Resources
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Comments
View all 7 Comments-
and how annoying this is when you are searching on something, the first thing that comes is always some ridiculous article from wikepedia to tell you what "think" means or what "upset" means. This is basically a form of spam and self-promotion from those who run this wiki thing.
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Wikepedia is bad not only for schools. It is most inappropriate resource for any serious researcher. It is full of errors, defamations and is edited by random so called volunteers, anonymously and often with no editorial experience of any kind. Wikepedia's own site states that they DO NOT HAVE AN EDITORIAL POLICY. What a joke!
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I hate how ppl think wikipedia isn't a reliable source. It's basically research papers already finished with all sources cited.
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cmfwyp
Jul 20, 2010
erm... why not just append -wikipedia to your search? -
bugbugbugbugbug
May 05, 2010
CustomizeGoogle is no longer supported by firefox and it seems that the project has been abandoned since 2008. OptimizeGoogle, a clone version, was created to maintain and improve the CustomizeGoogle extension. Please update your article.
