{"id":46522,"date":"2025-01-24T14:52:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T19:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=46522"},"modified":"2025-01-25T15:10:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T20:10:56","slug":"google-search-now-requires-javascript","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/24\/google-search-now-requires-javascript\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Search Now Requires JavaScript"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Wiggers<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Google says it has begun requiring users to turn on JavaScript, the widely used programming language to make web pages interactive, in order to use Google Search.<\/p>

In an email to TechCrunch, a company spokesperson claimed that the change is intended to “better protect” Google Search against malicious activity, such as bots and spam, and to improve the overall Google Search experience for users.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

One of Google’s motivations here may be inhibiting third-party tools that give insights into Google Search trends and traffic. According<\/a> to a post on Search Engine Roundtable on Friday, a number of “rank-checking” tools — tools that indicate how websites are performing in search engines — began experiencing issues with Google Search around the time Google’s JavaScript requirement came into force.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

But the bottom line is that with this change, Google Search is more of an app than it is a website.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Whether it’s a justifiable decision or not, I don’t buy for a second that it’s a necessary<\/em> decision on Google’s part. Thus I find this decision sad, but given the course Google has been on for the last 15 years or so, I’m also unsurprised. Old original Google was a company of<\/em> and for<\/em> the open web. Post 2010-or-so Google is a company that sees the web as a de facto proprietary platform that it owns and controls. Those who experience the web through Google Chrome and Google Search are on that proprietary not-closed-per-se-but-not-really-open web.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Here’s a good thread on Hacker News discussing the change<\/a>, with some interesting commentary on the state of the no-JavaScript web. Also worth pointing out that Kagi<\/a>, the best search engine in the world, works fine without JavaScript<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n