Janmakarta
Ernie SmithEDIT: Deleted the entire post because people shared it anyway even though I made it clear it no longer works
EDIT: This method no longer works, please disregard
I didn’t uncover this. This was spotted via a Reddit thread—but I will note that it appears to be new, as I did not see it when I looked through every udm code in March.
The thread is here if you want to see it: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1le5ibq/googles_udm56_parameter_unlocks_cleaner_and/
mikeTesteLinuxQlub@ernie Thx for the sharing anyway!
voxel@ernie I'm guessing that should read 'Want a Google search' rather than 'What a Google search'?
Thanks for your efforts!
@voxel LOL figures, I did this fast! Will fix.
Pusher of Pixels@ernie any idea if there's a local way to do this? I'm wondering about a browser plugin or something
@pixelpusher220 It’s an easy tweak if you’re on chrome—you can add it to the browser yourself. The basic format looks like this. You can add this yourself. Safari doesn’t support this though, sadly.
There is a search.xml on the site for autodetection, but it doesn’t seem to be kicking in on Firefox yet.
@pixelpusher220 I do plan on opening up the code for this as I did udm14.com
�@ernie @pixelpusher220 is there a eli5 for udm14 and udm56 or udm in general?
@ernie 'add it to the browser' meaning some other way than just typing it in the url as pictured?
@pixelpusher220 Yes, you can add custom search engines to your browser. That URL is the code you would need to put into Chrome or Vivaldi. Here’s how I do it in Vivaldi.
My post from last year explains the process: https://tedium.co/2024/05/17/google-web-search-make-default/
@pixelpusher220 I originally built this as a way so people who aren’t tech-savvy could use these search engines without going into settings or installing extensions.
@ernie gotcha, thx!
Paul Chambers🚧@ernie This is how I created the search from the browser bar. One can set it as default or start and search with UDM from the bar @pixelpusher220
Code is also in the alt text for the URL
Ω 🌍 Gus Posey
Canvases By Peter@ernie Hmmmmm, NoScript blocked domain 'servedby-buysellads . com' when I opened that link, lol
@CanvasesByPeter there is an ad on it to just cover server costs (as the prior udm14 had), feel free to block
@ernie Ah I see 👍
Nat@ernie ok I'm saving this the AI 95% of the time I find so unnecessary and annoying.
Laurent 🦄@ernie works really great. Thank you
iveyline@ernie Works well!
CodeByJeff
Arik@ernie The interface is cool, if only it could get the quality of the results to how they were 15 years ago.
Rihards Olups
Cassian [main]@ernie Once you've done a search the search bar disappears, which is weird, BUT I just worked out how to add it as a default search engine on Firefox, which is pretty good. 🤔 Thanks!
@cassolotl yep the missing search bar is what makes it minimalist!
@cassolotl @ernie How did you do it? Would like to join in.
Mokorana@ernie great work. Used it already without knowing who made it.
Bub'sS'il faut utiliser Google autant le faire sans IA
Marius Gundersen - mdg 🌻@ernie I'm surprised (not really) how fast this page loads, compared to the regular results page. Seems I'm conditioned to wait for my Google response now, but it really doesn't need to be that slow, apparently!
blhue@ernie Why do people still use Google? Genuinely curious.
@blhue Google has a large amount of information resources that other search engines do not—such as an easy-to-search patent library, millions of scanned books, and a freely accessible archive of Usenet posts. (They don’t promote it much these days, but they also have a printed newspaper archive.) Other search engines may be better at pulling up relevant results from the Web, but Google built up a very strong moat before its quality went downhill.
Paul Palinkas@blhue it’s the most popular search engine in the world by a large margin. This question makes you sound like a Martian.
Logan Fick@ernie So how long until Google deletes this flag silently and it turns back into normal search results?
@logan No clue, but I will note I also run udm14.com (which offers a different search view) and it hasn’t changed in more than a year
@ernie Good to know! I guess it stays under the radar enough for them to not really care. Thanks for putting this together! 😁
@logan Seemingly every news outlet reported on udm14 (including a bunch of big ones), so I don’t know if it’s that. This one is different in that there’s not really an equivalent view you can grab directly from the standard Google interface. But we’ll see.
J.D. MacLeod 🇨🇦@ernie does this mean i shouldn't use udm14 anymore?
@johncomic Nope—this is just another option that solves one of the biggest complaints about udm14 (no knowledge panels). I think udm56 might be a good mobile option but udm14 might be better for web. Both work!
@ernie ta very much
Clot@ernie seems interesting but i have no idea what udm is
@clot27 It‘s a code that Google uses in its url tags for its various different views. The best known is udm=14 (the web view) but this is another one. Google makes these hard to find. This website simplifies using them, and refers to them by the udm name to make the process transparent.
David Fleetwood - RG Admin@ernie Possible to self host/toss into a docker container?
@reflex Yes. It’s just a static site. I have not polished it up yet but the code is in the udm14 repo:
https://github.com/readtedium/udm14/tree/udm56
I would recommend removing any analytics or ad stuff from it if you can.
@ernie Awesome, thank you!
Neville Park@ernie sick!! thank you for making this.
fooxl@ernie Another thing related to this topic I found recently: You can revive the "Add search engine" button in Firefox settings:
add the key `browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh` in about:config and set it `true`.
Apicultor 🐝@ernie Replacing what's at the _beginning_ of the URL is even better:
Gruber even compares it to what you suggest (more or less): https://daringfireball.net/2025/04/try_switching_to_kagi
@apicultor @kagihq I have been running udm14 for over a year. I have heard every single variation of this argument.
It's okay if you're not the target audience.
@apicultor @kagihq I care about quality search results. What I don’t like is the brow-beating.
Only one search platform has a freely accessible archive of Usenet posts, an embedded patent search, and the ability to search through millions of books. As someone who does a lot of historic research, I care a lot about those things.
All I said is that this isn’t for you and I have heard this argument hundreds of times. And you decided to be an asshole about it. That’s not a me problem.
@ernie I never said you shouldn't ever visit patents.google.com. My point was that divining various parameters to disable or modify various aspects of Google's search results does not change the fact that Google is shitty and has shitty results (and has for many years now).
Did you even read what Gruber or Doctorow have said about it? No amount of query parameters is going to keep the shit off your hands.
If saying it like it is makes me an asshole, then so be it. At least I don't hold any GOOG stock to worry about.
@apicultor @kagihq dude, he wrote about my site! Of course I read it!
My point is that these tools are just that, tools. And that browbeating people is asshole behavior.
You are not principled. You are just trying to force your point of view on someone who is literally just trying to make the Google experience slightly better for non-technical people.
Stop being rude on the internet because someone told you your argument is boring and unoriginal.
@apicultor @kagihq and to the Kagi team, you do not want this guy Stanning for you.
It should be noted that I interviewed your founder a few years ago.
https://tedium.co/2022/01/19/orion-web-browser-macos-kagi-profile/
Jack Yan (甄爵恩)@ernie @apicultor @kagihq After discussions on Reddit and seeing this thread, Iʼm totally put off Kagi. Itʼs a meta-search that sources from a bunch of engines, including @Mojeek. So I just use Mojeek.
@ernie >You are just trying to force your point of view on someone who is literally just trying to make the Google experience slightly better for non-technical people.
That, my good man, is my point: the search results are still shit (and in many cases dangerous) regardless of what else is or is not on the page, and promoting that experience as "better" is misleading and potentially dangerous to people who, in many cases, don't know better because it's not their area of expertise. You're taking something which can literally be dangerous and making it appear safer without actually being safer; in a way, it's similar to the attractive nuisance doctrine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractive_nuisance_doctrine
If you don't believe search deserves to be paid for, then at least you could be talking up DDG or Qwant or Ecosia or Searx or whatever.
I don't recommend to my friends that they eat shit even if is handed to them on a plate that had been squeaky-clean until the shit was scooped onto it. You shouldn't either. We can do better.
Justin Pot@ernie this is amazing