Script Summary: Old-fashioned Google top and side bars and much more! Gives you a clean, crisp and soothing blue and white Google stripped of all link-tracking with none of the Christmas tree look of the 2011/2012 redesign(s). Restores missing sidebar, turns Google black bar to white, hides grey background around search box, widens search results, removes link and click-tracking and URL redirects, restores missing "cache" and "similar" links, hides location data and some ads for Google's products and special occasion/holiday logos, works with Google Instant and displays Result Stats, Safe Search links, Advanced Search link, and all other top-level links and information that you need.
Install button not working? Install script from link below:
Install my script from here: http://userscripts.org/scripts/versions/113067 (choose script at top of list for the latest code)Features
This script gives you "old Google" back - with a more modern look and feel. Works signed in or out on Google Search, Plus, Images, Maps, Translate, Accounts, Support, News, Finance, Video, Blogs, Documents, Applications, Offers, Shopping, Products, Books, Discussions, Recipes, Patents, Scholar, and with Google Instant. Also works on all sidebar search, map, and preview results. Limited (navbar-only) support for many other Google page views, such as GMail, Google Play and much more.
8-26-12: Matagus, an add-on developer for Mozilla.org, has kindly chosen to share his link-tracking/click-tracking remover code with us for use in this script. The add-on the code is taken from can be found here and works perfectly.
This userscript also works in Google Chrome if you install this first: Blank Canvas Script Handler
4-13-13: OK, so, install counts are obviously not updating and haven't been for weeks. Not just my script is affected; it's almost everybody's. I've been keeping quiet as has almost everyone, hoping it would get fixed without a fuss since it's such a glaring omission, but apparently the site admins envision a possibly far off date in the future for fixing counts, if at all. So yes, my script, if the damn page was counting right, probably broke 20k installs this week, which does give me a small rush of joy, and yes, every script that doesn't update its install count still works, as far as I know, because it's two separate issues; one got fixed soon after the site went haywire a few weeks back, while the other one, over some caching issues with this site's web hosting service, didn't. Just a small heads up...
Screenshot (updated 7-11-12 - current look may vary slightly)
More Screen Shots
Google Bar Classic - Redone! v2.3 - a few signed-in and signed-out views at various screen sizes (last updated 7-11-12)View changelog
Changelog has been moved to http://marahmarie.dreamwidth.org/115687.htmlKnown Issues for v.2.3 as of April 2013
- Winter 2013:
Script currently uses a dropdown in the sidebar.As of March 1st, script tentatively - for now - does not use a dropdown in the sidebar. Please leave your thoughts on this in the forum - do you like it, love it, or hate it, with sidebar lists fully expanded now by default?Currently the sidebar in Image results sits too low as a result of pushing the dropdown into the sidebar; working on the fix.This issue is FIXED - resultStats will display above instead of below search box on right-to-left and some left-to-right .tlds (an issue for non-English-speaking countries; in the US it occurs only on drop-image-here results)
- #ab_ctls are moving down then back up on Image results (this comes and goes and I can't find a clear cause but #tophdr only shows up on .tbo, not on .tbo.vsh, so I'm looking that way)
- on right-to-left .tlds, snippets run off right-hand side of page (known issue going back to much earlier versions of script)
- Spring/Summer 2012: Google's running an alternate design that you can see if you 1) disable JavaScript, 2) visit Google Play or 3) peruse "drop image here" search results. Unresolved issues include logo and top navbar mis-positioning and a reduced amount of links, smaller images seen on top right by signed-in users, and regular search results running into resultStats
- top bar "freezes" for some of you (two users reporting in Jan. and April of 2012)
Known Add-on and/or Userscript Conflicts as of April 2013
- running the now-defunct OptimizeGoogle add-on with this script will cause OG's "show links to other sites" option to break the header in Google search results. Also, OG's links to Yahoo, Cuil, etc. will be unclickable.
- GoogleMonkeyR might show a major error while running with my script (along with some minor ones mostly involving mis-positioning of center column and search results): it will not clear columns correctly; here's the fix for that
Troubleshooting
- please use only the latest version of my script - running v2.21 and v2.3 together is like running two different scripts at once (which address two different Google page designs, at that!) - it will mess up your Google entirely
- other userscripts and add-ons that people make for Google might cause my script to fail or have problems so before you do anything else, please disable all other Google-related scripts and add-ons to see if that solves the problem you're having with my script - if it does, please notify me of the specific script or add-on conflict you're having so I can add it to my list of known issues - thanks!
If you're submitting a bug report or issue...
I need all the information you can give me. I make this script as a hobby and use it for my own pleasure so I may be willing to live with bugs that you're not (especially because I try not to ever sign into Google, while maybe you try not to ever sign out). You're always free to use other scripts that match your needs better.
Please submit bug reports and issues this way for the fastest response:
- Script version/update number (for example: "v2.21/update 48")
- How long you've been having the issue, since I update often, and will sometimes fix an issue before you can mention it
- Browser version (for example: "Firefox 19.0", "Firefox 14.2")
- What the issue is - please be as precise as possible; include or link to screen shots if applicable, and explain exactly what part of the page isn't working (for example: "the white Google bar along the top") when you do exactly what thing (for example: "when I click the links in that bar, nothing happens!").
- Bonus points if you can also tell me a) what page the problem happens on (for example: "the results page" or "on all pages I've checked: Maps, Images, Blogs") and b) if the problem happens on some pages but not others (super-valuable info because Google doesn't use the same code on all pages)
How to contact me...
I like feedback and really want to hear from you, so go ahead and hit the forum (politely, please - this site has already deleted one user's comments from my forum for being less than civil) or my review page to let me know of any issues or script breakdowns.
I prefer email because I log in only to update my scripts, so I may miss a private message from you or not reply to it in a timely fashion. Hit me up at marahmarie a/t rocketmail .dotcom for a more timely response.
