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3 Absolutely Gold Greasemonkey Scripts for Searching Google

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 06:30 AM PST

I search Google all the time; that’s my profession and my hobby. For me it’s easier to use Google to find an article I wrote back in 2010 on something-I-don’t-remember-exactly than to find a pen on my desk (yes, my desk is usually a mess; I say it proves that I am creative)

I am not searching as a regular user, I suppose. Years of searching have made me a search geek: I play with queries, examine results; make good use of operators etc; I am using Google for more than just finding the answers… I am happy that the following userscripts give me the required flexibility!

1. Get URLs from Search Results Plugin Tool

This simple userscript will extract all direct URLs from Google and Bing SERPs and list them below the search results.

Why do I love it?
It’s the most non-intrusive way to quickly check if any domain is ranked in top 10 (using Ctrl+F on your keyboard)
Get URLs from Search Results Plugin Tool

2. Google Cache Continue Redux

I love using Google Cache. I often check both “normal” and text-only cached versions of any web page when diagnosing a problem. I am looking at cache date, how different text cache is, what Google is “able to see” on a page, etc. What always bugs me is that whenever you click a link within Google cache, you’ll be brought back to the site.

This userscript adds a yellow “cache” icon to each link on the cached page; clicking that yellow icon takes you to the cached version of the linked page.
Google Cache Continue Redux
Why do I love it?
It’s a very helpful tool for diagnostics: You can keep browsing the site using Google cache almost infinitely (well, until you land on a page that’s not cached by Google, of course).

3. NoCrap Google Search Bar

This userscript adds a handy search control panel whenever you search. It includes:

The ability to quickly switch to exact-match search
The ability to quickly change the number of results per page
The ability to quickly switch to image, video, blog, etc search
The ability to quickly set the search time frame (“past 24 hours”, “past week”, etc)
The ability to set the “format” of returned results (search for mp3, pdf, etc files).

NoCrap Google Search Bar
Why do I love it?
Ever since Google killed + operator that forced it to include any word in search results, I was looking for an easy way to switch to exact-match. This script turned out to be perfect!