Remove Google search form
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	Samwilson
	Jan 24 2025, 6:25 AM

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	Jan 28 2025, 1:22 PM

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	Jan 24 2025, 6:25 AM

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Description

With $wgDisableTextSearch = true and $wgSearchForwardUrl = false MediaWiki search falls back to Google for site searches:

The search engine used (and the entire HTML of the form) can be customized with the searchdisabled and googlesearch messages, but it seems unusual that MediaWiki would include a proprietary service like this as default (albeit as a fallback).

We could use DuckDuckGo instead, or any other privacy-preserving search engine, but removing the feature may be more sensible.

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Author	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
i18n: Fix qqq.json for searchdisabled to be an actual link	Krinkle	mediawiki/core	master	+1 -1
Update searchdisabled message with docs and better link target	Samwilson	mediawiki/core	master	+2 -2
Remove Google search fallback for external search	Samwilson	mediawiki/core	master	+12 -35

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Mentioned Here: T184619: Error message displayed when Commons cannot access the database proposes users to search on Google
T208871: Google search form shows up when error happens, even if site isn't Google-searchable

Event Timeline

Samwilson created this task.Jan 24 2025, 6:25 AM

Restricted Application added a project: Discovery-Search. · View Herald TranscriptJan 24 2025, 6:25 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald Transcript

I will suggest remove the search form completely for following reasons:

We should not assume Google or DuckDuckGo has indexed the website (cf T208871: Google search form shows up when error happens, even if site isn't Google-searchable and T184619: Error message displayed when Commons cannot access the database proposes users to search on Google)
googlesearch is the last $wgRawHtmlMessages which is an anti-pattern.

Restricted Application added a subscriber: jhsoby. · View Herald TranscriptJan 24 2025, 7:13 AM

Yep removing it completely does sound like probably a simpler way to go. If anyone wants to use an external search engine, they can use $wgSearchForwardUrl.

Change #1114710 had a related patch set uploaded (by Samwilson; author: Samwilson):

[mediawiki/core@master] Remove Google search fallback for external search

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1114710

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Jan 28 2025, 12:46 PM

Does this message sound okay? "Dev wiki1 search is disabled, and no external search URL has been configured."

Samwilson renamed this task from Use DuckDuckGo instead of Google search to Remove Google search form .Jan 28 2025, 2:25 PM

Samwilson updated the task description. (Show Details)

jhsoby awarded a token.Jan 28 2025, 3:04 PM

In T384678#10500497, @Samwilson wrote:

Does this message sound okay? "Dev wiki1 search is disabled, and no external search URL has been configured."

I would try to avoid the sitename if possible. Maybe something like: Search is disabled on this wiki, and no external search URL has been configured.

Perhaps the message should link to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgSearchForwardUrl too?

That's a good idea. How about this:

Search is disabled on this wiki, and no external search URL has been [[mw:Manual:$wgSearchForwardUrl|configured]].

(The mw prefix is permitted in core messages.)

Change #1114710 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] Remove Google search fallback for external search

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1114710

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.15; 2025-02-04).Jan 29 2025, 6:00 AM

Samwilson closed this task as Resolved.Jan 29 2025, 6:15 AM

Samwilson claimed this task.

Tacsipacsi subscribed.Jan 29 2025, 11:00 AM

Samwilson reopened this task as Open.Jan 29 2025, 1:15 PM

Change #1115027 had a related patch set uploaded (by Samwilson; author: Samwilson):

[mediawiki/core@master] Update searchdisabled message with docs and better link target

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1115027

Change #1115027 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] Update searchdisabled message with docs and better link target

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1115027

ReleaseTaggerBot edited projects, added: MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.16; 2025-02-11); removed: MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.15; 2025-02-04).Feb 10 2025, 1:00 PM

Okay I think this time it's all done! :)

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Feb 10 2025, 1:31 PM

Gehel edited projects, added: Discovery-Search (Current work); removed: Discovery-Search.Feb 11 2025, 3:24 PM

Change #1119824 had a related patch set uploaded (by Krinkle; author: Krinkle):

[mediawiki/core@master] i18n: Fix qqq.json for searchdisabled to be an actual link

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1119824

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Feb 15 2025, 9:18 PM

Change #1119824 merged by jenkins-bot: