uBlacklist: Blocking Specific Sites from Google and Other Search Engines

The problem uBlacklist solves and who it is for

Search engines return results from sites a user never wants to see again: content farms, SEO spam, forum threads that surface for every query, or domains that have become irrelevant to the user's work. Search engines offer no durable per-user block list. uBlacklist fills that gap by letting a user specify sites that should not appear in search results at all. The README describes it plainly: "This extension prevents the sites you specify from appearing in Google search results." The target user is someone who searches often and has a stable set of domains to exclude, not someone looking for a general content blocker. It is also for people who want to share or subscribe to block lists rather than maintain rules by hand.

How the blocking mechanism works: match patterns, expressions and SERPINFO

Rules are not limited to exact domains. The README states that rules can be written as match patterns such as `*://*.example.com/*`, or as expressions that include regular expressions, variables and string matchers. The examples given are `/example\.(net|org)/`, `path*="example"i`, and `$category = "images" & title ^= "Example"`. That last form shows the rule engine can key off the category of the result (images, for instance) and off the title text, not just the URL. Rules can be added directly on a search result page via the toolbar icon, which lowers the cost of building a list incrementally. Search engine support is table-driven: the README lists Google, Bing, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Kagi, SearXNG, Startpage, Yahoo! JAPAN and Yandex, with per-engine coverage for Web, Images, Videos and News. The README is explicit that no additional builtin search engine support is planned, and points to SERPINFO as the extension point for adding any engine yourself. The extension periodically downloads the latest SERPINFO from the ublacklist/builtin repository, so engine definitions can be updated without a new extension release.

Installing uBlacklist and adding your first rule

Installation is through the browser's own store, not a package manager. The README lists four distribution channels: Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons, Edge Add-ons, and the App Store for Safari on macOS and iOS. The Safari port is credited to Group-Leafy, so it is a separate build rather than the same artifact. After installing, open a search result page and click the toolbar icon to add a rule for a site you no longer want to see. For a rule you want to keep in a file, the syntax is a match pattern per line. The README's subscription example shows a ruleset with optional YAML frontmatter:

---
name: Your ruleset name
---
*://*.example.com/*

To publish that file as a subscription, the README instructs placing a UTF-8 encoded ruleset on an HTTP(S) server and publishing the URL. It gives a GitHub-hosted example at `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iorate/ublacklist-example-subscription/master/uBlacklist.txt`. Rules can also be synchronized across devices through Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, or browser sync, so a list built on one machine does not have to be rebuilt on another.

The SERPINFO escape hatch and its cost

The supported engine table is finite, and the README says no further builtin engines are planned. That is a deliberate boundary, not an oversight. The alternative is SERPINFO, which the README describes as the way to add support for any search engine yourself. This shifts effort onto the user: someone who wants uBlacklist to work on an engine not in the table has to write and maintain a SERPINFO definition, and that definition can break when the search engine changes its result markup. The extension does download builtin SERPINFO files periodically, which helps for the engines that are covered, but it does not remove the maintenance burden for engines outside the table. If your primary search engine is not listed, budget for that work before adopting.

Where uBlacklist is the wrong tool

uBlacklist operates on search result pages. It does not block ads, trackers, or scripts on the sites you visit, and it does not stop a site from appearing in a link someone sends you directly. Anyone looking for an ad blocker or a general content filter is looking at the wrong category of extension. A second limitation is browser coverage. The README states that uBlacklist supports only the latest stable version of Chrome, the latest stable and latest ESR of Firefox, the latest stable version of Edge, and the latest stable version of Safari on macOS and iOS. Support for browsers outside that list depends on community contributions, and the README asks for a concrete implementation proposal in Discussions, noting that reports without one are unlikely to be addressed. So a user on an older browser build, or on a browser not in the list, has no supported path. A third constraint is that rules are only as good as the list behind them. An empty or stale ruleset produces no blocking, and the extension does not invent rules on its own.

uBlacklist compared with uBlock Origin

uBlock Origin is a general-purpose network and content blocker; it filters requests and elements across the web. uBlacklist does one thing: it removes specified sites from search result pages. The two differ in scope rather than in strength. uBlock Origin's filter lists are community-maintained and aimed at ads and trackers; uBlacklist's rulesets are aimed at search result entries and can be written by a single person in a text file. If you want to stop ad networks from loading, uBlacklist will not help. If you want to stop a specific domain from appearing whenever you search, uBlock Origin's element-hiding rules are a clumsier fit because they are not built around search result structure. The practical answer for many users is to run both, since they do not overlap in function.

Maintenance, releases and licence

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-20. The most recent release listed is v10.1.1 on 2026-09-19, following v10.1.0 on 2026-09-13 and v10.0.4 on 2026-09-06. The project is a pnpm workspace with a TypeScript source tree, Playwright end-to-end tests under e2e/, and a build script run through `node scripts/build.ts`. Contributors can run `pnpm test` for the Node test runner and `pnpm e2e` for the Playwright suite. The extension is licensed under the MIT License, which permits reuse and redistribution with the licence text retained; that is a statement about the licence file, not legal advice. One upgrade consideration is the dependency on SERPINFO definitions from the ublacklist/builtin repository, which the extension downloads periodically. A change in a search engine's result page can require a SERPINFO update, so upgrades are not purely a matter of the extension version.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt uBlacklist if you want to permanently remove specific domains from search results and are willing to maintain a ruleset, either your own or a subscribed one. Do not adopt it as a replacement for uBlock Origin; it does not block ads and only operates on search result pages. Before relying on it, verify that your browser is on the supported list (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari), that your target search engine is covered by the built-in list or by a SERPINFO file, and that your subscription URLs are reachable over HTTPS. The MIT licence means you can fork and redistribute it, but the Safari build is maintained by a third party, not the main repository.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. iorate/ublacklist on GitHub
2. License: MIT
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases