We’ve dropped Google search from Ourlocality. Ourlocality has employed Google search tools, but very discretely as set out in its terms and conditions. So discretely that there is little evidence that people used the search (our in site search is pretty darn good) and it didn’t raise any money (we’ll be celebrating with a half pint).
Going forward, it would have also have meant that every website that we host and that used search tool would have had to seek the user’s consent, which means cookies on your computer.
We didn’t think that was either practical or desirable.
So, as of this morning:
WeeGreen.co.uk (a collection of green websites powered by Google Co-op)
and
Search.Ourlocality.Org
have gone offline.
We’ve also dropped the Google Search box in the We Love Ourlocality advert/widget, which appears by default in the sidebar of any website using the standard Ourlocality template, and is available as an optional widget.
Many of you never figured out how to get rid of it – so here is how: simply replace with a blank text box or a desired widget and the default widget will go away)!
Goodbye Google Search and Goodbye Google Adverts.
