This Safari Extension Removes Ads and Tracking From Google Search.
Google search has been steadily getting worse over the past few years . Questionable sponsored results , AI-generated junk , and misleading low-quality web pages are on the rise, making it increasingly difficult to find useful things online. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way.
If you’re nostalgic for the Google of the past, when a search results page returned 10 links and nothing more, you should try Lucky . This Safari extension was created by Zhenyi Tan, the developer of Vinegar , a Safari extension that forces YouTube to run in an HTML5 player. Just as Vinegar improved my YouTube experience, Lucky made big changes to my Google search experience. Although Lucky is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, I use it most often on my iPhone since there are many other ways to block ads and tracking on the Mac .
Installation and configuration of Lucky
Setting up Lucky requires a few steps, but it’s a quick, one-time process. First, install Lucky from the App Store. (The app costs $2.99.) Then on your iPhone, go to Settings > Safari > Extensions > Lucky and turn on the extension by clicking the switch next to Allow Extension . On the same page, under Permissions, select search.yahoo.com and select Allow . Finally, you will need to go to Settings > Safari > Search Engines and select Yahoo .
This doesn’t change the default search engine, but it is necessary because Lucky gets results from Google and shows them on Yahoo. Tan explained this in detail in his blog , but the gist is that this workaround allows you to use other Google sites (e.g. Flights, Hotels, etc.) without any problems. This also prevents Lucky from accessing any data on Google.com , which helps prevent tracking.
Using Lucky to Improve Google Search
Once setup is complete, use Safari’s address bar to search as usual. However, when Google appears, you will see 10 search results on the page. There is no infinite scrolling here. Once you reach the bottom of the page, you can click the button to see the next 10 results. These results appear without any advertising posts, images, videos or shopping links in between. It’s not flashy, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing: now you can focus on the results, click what you want, and leave the page.
In addition to scraping the search results page, Lucky also blocks tracking: Typically, when you click a link in Google’s search results, the search engine tracks your click and uses that data to build a profile of what interests you. Google will also tell websites that you reached a particular page through Google. This does not apply to installed Lucky.
If you find spam sites in your search results, you can also block them. To do this, open the Lucky app and click on Blocked Domains . Click the + button in the top right corner and add as many domains as you like. In the future, all these sites will be excluded from search results. Your blocklist syncs across all devices, so what you block on your iPhone won’t show up on your Mac.
At the top of the search results page, you’ll notice that Lucky displays several other search shortcuts. These links lead to Google images, news, maps and videos. You can customize these settings by opening Lucky and going to the Search Shortcuts section .