Google Enforces Users To Switch on JavaScript To Stay Protected Against Malicious Activity

Search engine giant Google says it’s forcing users to turn to JavaScript if they wish to continue using its search services.

JavaScript is the most popular used programming language to transform web pages into a more interactive platform. So if you want to use Google Search, you have to switch it on. This was confirmed by the company’s spokesperson who shared the news with TechCrunch recently.

The change is designed for all users to stay guarded from the growing rise in malware and phishing attempts. Without the use of JavaScript, users will find many features on Google Search not working correctly. This causes the quality of these results to get degraded.

Enabling JavaScript allows users to keep the services safe from bots and growing kinds of spam as well as abuse. This also ensures the most recent information is on display. And it’s nothing new as so many leading websites make use of this.

Thanks to a survey rolled out in 2020 by GitHub, it was shared how 95% of all online pages use this language in some variation. However, the news is not sitting well with some users who debated on the recent enforcement by Google.

They feel that forcing users to enable JavaScript means adding more friction to those users who use accessibility tools. This can lead to a major struggle in terms of JavaScript implementations. Another spectacle arose related to how JavaScript brings with it more security vulnerabilities.

As per the spokesperson at Google, less than 0.1% of all Google Searches are carried out by those disabling JavaScript. That is a significant number by Google's standards. On average, it ends up processing nearly 8.5 billion searches in a single day. So millions perform searches via Google that don’t actually use JavaScript.

One of the leading motivations by Google could be linked to ridding tools from third parties that provide stats about search trends on the platform and traffic. These rank checkers highlight how a website is performing across search engines. So on Friday, a new report suggested that it started to have problems with Google Search during the time when Google enforced using JavaScript. However. Google is yet to comment on any of this reporting so far.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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