Google launched Instant Previews few days ago – a feature which adds screenshots along with the search results. Though they claim that Instant Previews will help the users to find the results more precisely, personally, I found this feature to be annoying. Unfortunately, there is no option available yet to turn off “Instant Previews”. Turning off “Instant” search feature has no effect on “Instant Previews” either. I am surprised that not many technical journalists have raised concerns about this UI clutter so far. I have written a simple script to toggle the Instant Previews.
Compatible Browsers: Firefox 3+, Chrome 4+
Firefox
- Install the GreaseMonkey add-on for Firefox from here and restart the browser.
- Get the script by pointing your browser to this.
- GreaseMonkey Installation dialog box will appear. Please click on the “Install” button.
- You are all set to use the script. Open Google and perform a search. Click on the link “Disable Instant Previews” at the right top to disable the Instant Previews.
Chrome
- Chrome has native support for GreaseMonkey scripts.No additional extensions are needed to use the script.
- Get the script by pointing your browser to this.
- You will be prompted with a security alert. Please click on the ‘Continue’ button.
- The script will be installed as an extension. Open Google and perform a search. Click on the link “Disable Instant Previews” at the right top to disable the Instant Previews.
Please write to me if you find any issues with the script.
Update:
New version (V 1.1) is available now.
- Instant Previews will be disabled by default.
- Remember 'Instant Previews' setting across sessions. For e.g., if you have disabled the Instant Previews in the current session, the same setting will be remembered for the next session as well.
Userscripts.org seems to go down frequently these days. Here is an alternate link to the script.
-- Varun
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