Facebook engineer purifies Search Plus Your World

Facebook hits back at Google+ centric search results
The 'don't be evil' bookmarklet purifies SPYW results

Facebook engineer Blake Ross has led the creation of a web tool which allows users to by-pass Google's controversial Search Plus Your World feature.

The 'focus on the user' project which is compatible with Chrome, IE and Firefox replaces the Google+ inspired results with more prominent results from the social web.

The fix is made possible by a piece of code, or bookmarklet, called "don't be evil" written by Ross and a team of engineers over the weekend.

Now, by dragging the bookmarklet into your bookmarks bar, you can update the Google+ social search results with more important links from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Tumblr.

Google+ content will remain part of the process, but social results are shown in a more organic heirarchy based on Google's own algorithms with no bias to any one service.

More inclusive

The aim of the project, which Blake and his team created independently of Facebook, is to prove that Google can be more inclusive with its Search Plus Your World feature, which has sparked controversy and anger across the web.

The search giant had said that it has prioritised results from G+, despite Facebook and Twitter entries being far more popular, as it wasn't able to get enough data from those social networks.

The 'focus on the user' project shows otherwise.

You can see a demonstration of the project in the video below and also find out how to get it.

Via: AllThingsD

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.