Google search only works with Javascript
If you use Google search in Firefox, Chrome and the like, you won't get very far without JavaScript. But there are exceptions.
No search without Javascript: With GUI browsers, Google's search engine can only be used with Javascript enabled. Tested here on google.de with the Chromium-based browser Vivaldi.
"Activate Javascript to continue the search" – This message has recently been sent to users in this country who want to access Google search with a conventional browser without having activated Javascript. This apparently affects all browsers with a graphical user interface (GUI), i.e. Chrome, Firefox etc. Google justifies the change with better protection against certain threats. However, some users have good reasons for wanting to access the search function without JavaScript.
In an interview with the news portal Techcrunch, a Google spokesperson justified the move with better protection against malicious activities such as bots and spam as well as an improved user experience when using the search engine. Without Javascript, many Google search features would not work correctly and the quality of search results would tend to be lower. Statistically speaking, only 0.1 percent of users would use Google without Javascript, which, given the billions of search queries the service receives every day, is likely to be several million people.
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More and more users are being forced to use Javascript
Lately, more and more users have reported that they can no longer use the search function without Javascript enabled. A Reddit thread from October 2024 refers to the Canadian site google.ca, but recently many have also reported that google.com is also affected.
A short test with the browsers Firefox, Chromium and Vivaldi corresponds to the experience reports: Neither google.com, nor google.de can be opened without activated Javascript. Instead, there is the aforementioned information text plus links to instructions on how to activate Javascript in Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera.
However, the search could be called up and carried out without any problems using the Lynx and w3m console browsers. Google may make exceptions here because these browsers generally do not support JavaScript, which is why it cannot be switched on or off there.
Javascript is the standard scripting language of the web and is used, among other things, to implement dynamic elements in websites. It is used by the vast majority of all websites today. Whether and how well pages can be used without Javascript varies greatly from website to website. Many pages do not work whatsoever without the scripting language. Nevertheless, some users leave Javascript deactivated in their browser, mostly due to security concerns. This is because Javascript also represents an attack surface through which malicious or poorly programmed websites can bring malicious code onto the computers of site visitors. This happened on a large scale with the JavaScript service Polyfill.io, for example. Users without JavaScript are not exposed to such threats, but they do have to accept restrictions in the user experience.
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