After Google changes left it inoperable

May 12, 2010 14:27 GMT  ·  By

Scroogle, a website that promised its users anonymous Google Searches, has had a rough few days since the massive Google redesign rolled out. Due to some changes Google introduced on Monday, the site couldn’t scrape search results and had to shut down. The owners didn’t believe there was a way of saving it, but Scroogle is alive again, at least for now.

The service aims to make Google searches anonymous, providing users concerned about their online privacy with a useful tool. Scroogle doesn’t leave behind any cookies and the IP of the searcher is obfuscated. There is no way for Google to keep track of the user, something that appeals to some.

It worked by scraping Google search results from www.google.com/ie, a page dedicated to Internet Explorer 6 users. If you had the Google Toolbar installed in IE6, you would be able to get the results in a pop-up window/sidebar. This had a simplified view, due to the space constrains, which made it easy to scrape. It allowed Scroogle developers to grab just the clean search results, no ads or anything else, and display them.

The IE6 interface was discontinued, though, and the URL now redirects users to a page encouraging them to update to IE8. Google has been building a campaign to get users to upgrade or switch from IE6, which was launched in 2001. Google says that the closure had nothing to do with Scroogle, but with the dwindling traffic the feature was getting and with the push to drop support for IE6.

With this search tool gone, it looked like Scroogle was finished, as no other viable alternative was found at the time. But it didn’t take long for an option to arise. With the help of a few Scroogle users, the developers found that utilizing www.google.com/search?output=ie would generate the same simplified interface used so far. It’s unclear how long this alternative will work, but, for now, Scroogle is back in business.