Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

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v_v
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Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by v_v »

Has anybody else noticed or experienced that the Google search results page in SeaMonkey appears to be different all of a sudden? It used to be (as of seemingly just two days ago 4-23-2022) that the quantity of search results used to be listed near the top of the page, and at the bottom of the page there was a list of page numbers right under the long "Goooooooooogle" banner.

Now, again seemingly as of today 4-25-2022, there is no listing of the quantity of search results at the top, and at the bottom of the page the long "Goooooooooogle" banner has disappeared and been replaced by a faint box with a hot-linked word "Next" in it.

In other browsers, Firefox and its clones, PaleMoon, and the Chromium-based browsers the results show up just like they used to.

I doubt that this is a SeaMonkey bug, but probably Google has made some change in the last few days that is not recognizing SeaMonkey like it used to.

[Edit - just for clarification I mean searches obtained at " google.com ".]

[I somehow suspect that this issue is related to the "Google Search mozillazine Forums" post by morat at " http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3091331 ".]

Any thoughts and/or suggestions?

v_v
v_v
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by v_v »

Hmmm, I am getting a few views but no comments. So nobody else is experiencing this? Maybe I am not making the issue clear enough!

Perhaps I should give some definite examples. Do a search on "hermeneutic" or let's say "germany" at google.com in SeaMonkey. Now do those same searches in any other browser (Firefox and its clones, PaleMoon, or one of the Chromium-based browsers). Then compare the results page obtained in SeaMonkey with the results page obtained in the other browser. Especially note in SeaMonkey that there is no indication of the quantity of results at the top of the page, nor an indication of how many pages of results there are at the bottom of the page. In the other browser you will see both of these kinds of items. In addition the layout of the page in SeaMonkey is somewhat different and the long "Goooooooooogle" banner is missing at the bottom. At least as of last Saturday 4-23-2022 the SeaMonkey results page used to look just like the one in the other browsers. But as of Monday morning 4-25-2022 the search results page at google.com now has that current different look in SeaMonkey.

I am of the view that something changed at google.com over the weekend and whatever it was that changed somehow has eliminated the recognition of SeaMonkey.

So I ask again: has anybody else experienced this?; and does anyone have any thoughts, observations, and/or suggestions?

v_v
v_v
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by v_v »

Okay, just in case somebody else experiences this problem or issue, I have solved the problem with a user agent fix even though I do not really know what caused the problem in the first place. Especially since everything was fine just four days ago.

My "general.useragent.override" has the value of: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1".

Changing the Firefox value from 60.0 to 78.0 as in "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/78.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1" --- DID NOT WORK.

However setting up a separate "general.useragent.override.google.com" with a value of "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/78.0" --- DID WORK.

So my guess is that over last weekend google.com decided that Firefox 60.0 was too old and there needs to be something newer that it recognizes, such as Firefox 78.0. But why it would not recognize Firefox 78.0 when it was part of the "general.useragent.override" is a mystery to me---and maybe just the words "SeaMonkey" throws it into a tizzy!!

Anyway, the problem is solved for the time being.

[Edit - after posting the above I opened the PaleMoon browser "about:config" and found that there are some 40 different site specific overrides there. I certainly never set any of those up, so I guess that they just come with the browser or are somehow set automatically. At any rate for "google.com" they are using a value of "Firefox 71.0". So maybe it is true that now Firefox 60.0 is too old and perhaps I did not have to go all the way to 78.0 and could have stopped at 71.0. But for now I will stick with 78.0 since it is working like it is supposed to.]

v_v
Last edited by v_v on May 5th, 2022, 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Frank Lion
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by Frank Lion »

v_v wrote: My "general.useragent.override" has the value of: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1".
Why did you change this? The default UA string is for Firefox/68.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1
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ndebord
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by ndebord »

v_v wrote:Hmmm, I am getting a few views but no comments. So nobody else is experiencing this? Maybe I am not making the issue clear enough!

v_v
v_v

As this default useragent works with 68 not 60, I am not experiencing the problem you have documented here.
User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1


Nick
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v_v
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by v_v »

Frank Lion wrote:
v_v wrote: My "general.useragent.override" has the value of: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1".
Why did you change this? The default UA string is for Firefox/68.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1
Frank, at this exact moment I do not remember that mine was ever "Firefox/68.0" and I do not remember changing it strictly from 68.0 to 60.0 specifically. But if you say the default was 68.0 I will take your word for it---I don't ever look at things like that until something isn't working right!

What I do remember was that there were some user agent issues back some time ago where certain higher versions of Firefox were not working effectively for some web sites. I do not remember what the problems were. But I was not the only one experiencing them. I remember experimentally changing from 60.0 to 78.0 and then back to 60.0 once, and from 60.0 to 68.0 and then back to 60.0 at another time. All of these experimental change sequences occurred to fix some problem with various web sites but at this moment I do not remember what those web sites were. What I found through all of this AT THAT TIME was that 60.0 worked the best and did not cause any problems. If I remember correctly there were a lot of comments on the board here indicating that 60.0 was the safest bet at that time. So whenever that last change sequence occurred of going back to 60.0 that was when it stayed. Assuredly all this was done in earlier versions of SeaMonkey and right now I do not remember which versions---but it was at least after the 2.49.5 version, therefore probably in one of the earlier 2.53.x versions.

So to follow up on your question Frank, I will ask, "when a new version of SeaMonkey is released does it automatically update the 'general.useragent.override' value?" I ask because I am pretty sure that the browser has been updated at least twice if not three times or more, since I made that last experimental change sequence, going from Firefox 60.0 to 68.0 and then back to 60.0. It has been many many months since I have made any changes of that nature.


Nick, thanks for at least testing it out!

v_v
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Frank Lion
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by Frank Lion »

v_v wrote:Frank, at this exact moment I do not remember that mine was ever "Firefox/68.0" and I do not remember changing it strictly from 68.0 to 60.0 specifically. .......snipped<lot of stuff>/snipped.............-but it was at least after the 2.49.5 version, therefore probably in one of the earlier 2.53.x versions.
v_v
Don't worry about it, this stuff is hard to keep up with.

I don't expect you, or anyone else, to understand this override stuff, simply because there is no logic to it. Logically, a more recent browser version will work better than an older one, right? - No. Often that's the case, but sometimes not.

Therefore a better approach is just 'Find what works and use that'. The 'finding' part means you have to quickly try a lot of UA strings and use what works and THEN monitor those changes as often things change, as here.

As I've mentioned many times, general useragent overrides lead to a world of confusion and pain and so, I would suggest, that people only use site specific general useragent overrides, which at least confines any problems to just one site. For the entire Internet with SM, I use no general useragent override and just 6 site specific ones.
So to follow up on your question Frank, I will ask, "when a new version of SeaMonkey is released does it automatically update the 'general.useragent.override' value?".
No.

The default UA is overriden (clue?) by your manually added general.useragent.override, which is an entry that doesn't exist by default.. Both can be, in turn, overriden by a site specific override, i.e. general.useragent.override.youtube.com will always give YouTube the UA string you give it, no matter what.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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v_v
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by v_v »

Frank, thank you for the clarifications and information. Everything that I have learned---what little that is!---about user agent overrides has come from this site. Exactly as you have stated a lot of my problem-solving has come through trial and error.

Up until now I have managed to avoid site specific overrides by using the general override with Firefox 60.0 as mentioned above, but as of Monday 4-25-2022 this "google.com" issue seems to require the site-specific solution. What remains a mystery to me is why everything worked fine on 4-23-2022 but then on 4-25-2022 it stopped working. But whatever. . . .

Sigh, and now it appears that I am experiencing the exact same problem with the chat feature at "youtube.com" (another Google property!) The youtube pages load and play but not the chat feature. It worked last week and now it doesn't! Oh well, never a dull moment!

v_v
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Frank Lion
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by Frank Lion »

v_v wrote:Up until now I have managed to avoid site specific overrides by using the general override with Firefox 60.0 as mentioned above
You've also managed to avoid, or failed to notice, the hundreds of other websites that don't work correctly or not at all by using your 'magic bullet' general override solution.
The youtube pages load and play but not the chat feature.
Just as a suggestion, and I don't mean this as strong as it will sound, but why not save the time on writing really long posts here by instead searching these very forums for solutions?

Point is, there is only a finite number of times that people are willing to repeat themselves and I do note that at least three other really experienced SM members just don't post here any longer. I suspect/know that's why.

So, and only because I've already written it, here's the solution to that one -

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14914614

.ie. Fix - about:config>right click any entry>New>String> and then this -

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14914645

Frank :)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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v_v
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by v_v »

Frank, you need not worry about being to "strong" with your phrasing, at least in my case. (Smile)

About searching the site, actually I do but sometimes unless you get the keywords just right or close you might not find the posts that you need. For instance in this youtube case I used "youtube chat seamonkey".

Your post at " http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14914645 " did supply an answer that worked at " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_Fs_2644WA ". I used the "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0" as a youtube.com site specific fix.

I remember your referred to thread and others similar to it from long ago. Those threads were the primary reason why I had my general.useragent.override as "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1" to answer the question in your first post in this thread. It was this latter user agent string that stopped working correctly four days ago on google-related sites, whereas it did work correctly seven days ago.

So looking at the two strings the only differences seem to be that I was using it as a general string and not site specific, and that the general string had "SeaMonkey/2.53.11.1" in it. But again it worked fine until four days ago.

Oh well, onward and upward!

Thanks again.

v_v
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Frank Lion
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by Frank Lion »

v_v wrote: But again it worked fine until four days ago.
Things change. Website coding often changes as well. When they change adversely, there is always a period 4 days after that where it is still an adverse change.

In the interests of completeness on this thread, let's properly sort the default SM 'just fine' Google search results. i.e. the (as of today) default SM does sort out all that site's problems, as people would know if they checked in other browsers.

tl;dr ? You need to do a site specific for google.com and a UA of Firefox 68 ONLY.

Background reading : https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1748686
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14914258
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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v_v
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by v_v »

Frank,

Ha ha ha! I remember that http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14914258 thread when it was first active. At the time it did not seem to apply to me because I was not having any problems with either google.com or youtube.com (I was using the Firefox 60 ua at that point), and then the later postings in the thread got way more technical than I could handle. But as you said, "things change"!

I know that it is asking too much for this forum but it seems like it would nice if there were some sort of sticky thread for the major problem web sites (maybe one for each site) with posts of proven successful fixes, listed in most recent order. But that is probably redundant to the search feature and the support forum itself---just thinking out loud! (Smile)

At any rate I certainly appreciate all of the thoughts and assistance that you and everyone else provide at this site, and I have learned a lot! I only wish that I could remember it all! (Smile)

v_v
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Re: Google Search page changes in SeaMonkey

Post by Peter Creasey »

v_v wrote:I know that it is asking too much for this forum but it seems like it would nice if there were some sort of sticky thread for the major problem web sites (maybe one for each site) with posts of proven successful fixes, listed in most recent order.
This would be a major benefit. I am ever more constantly having to switch to another browser because I have no idea what would make main-stream sites work for me with SeaMonkey (DropBox is an example I ran across today).
. . . . . . . . . . Pete
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