Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

torrentfreak.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 67 posts

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#41

Post by adrian_b »

misnome wrote: post #24

Is Sci-Hub still relevant? Haven’t they been frozen for like 5+ years at this point?

The research papers from 10, 20 or 50 years ago are at least as valuable and frequently more valuable than the papers from this year.

A lot of "new" discoveries are rediscoveries of old things, which may have been not important at the time of their initial discovery, because in order to be useful they depended on advances in other domains, but when those advances happen, suddenly they become important and they can be the base of state-of-the-art techniques.

Therefore Sci-Hub remains very relevant, as a repository containing a very large number of historically-important research papers, including many research papers from the 19th century or early 20th century, which should have been in the public domain, but which can still be found behind paywalls elsewhere.

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#42

Post by homeless_engi »

fao_ wrote: post #4
ur-whale wrote: post #2

There are alternative search engines to Google, in particular some where base censorship is not so easily enforced: https://yandex.com/search/?text=sci-hub

I really like yep.com, as per https://www.searchenginemap.com/ it's one of only four search engines that run their own web crawlers. Results are slow but incredibly high-quality.

Yandex is also yellow on that map. It lists five search engines that run their own crawlers -- Google, Bing, Yandex, Mojeek, and Yep

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#43

Post by davely »

HKH2 wrote: post #32
politelemon wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it show all red for all zlibs?

There is a big green box at the top of the page explaining that.

Hah. I wonder how someone could miss that, but it does kind of look like one of those “sign up for our newsletter” types of elements.

Maybe many of us are just subconsciously blocking those types of things out now because it’s so pervasive.

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#44

Post by mmooss »

misnome wrote: post #34
shaky-carrousel wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like: "is Google still relevant?" Specially for the kind of people that browses Sci-Hub. It's been months since I've done a search in ad-ridden Google.

I know lots of people who still use google. Sci-hub has ceased to be mentioned or considered when scientists/grads I know look for papers. Everything has gone back do “Does your institution have a subscription for X?”.

What country are you in, if you don't mind saying?

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#45

Post by greendestiny_re »

davely wrote: post #43
HKH2 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a big green box at the top of the page explaining that.

Hah. I wonder how someone could miss that, but it does kind of look like one of those “sign up for our newsletter” types of elements. Maybe many of us are just subconsciously blocking those types of things out now because it’s so pervasive.

It's called "banner blindness."

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/banner-blindness-original-e...

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#46

Post by user205738 »

NicuCalcea wrote: post #39
anonym29 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By open, they mean fewer results censored. The west censors more results overall than Russia, kind of like how more UK citizens are arrested for speech crimes than Russians, or kind of like how abortion is more legal in Russia than it is in half of the USA. Which isn't to say Russia is a bastion of free speech, it's not, you still can't go hold an LGBTQIA2s+ pride parade or publicly march demanding you be given the r…

Get off it, Russia is arresting people for a single web search: https://zona.media/news/2025/12/10/glukhikh If you think the West is becoming more authoritarian than Russia, you're either misinformed or lying.

When did a 3,000₽ ($37) fine for searching for nazi symbols turn into an arrest? Your source doesn't say anything about this.

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#47

Post by NicuCalcea »

user205738 wrote: post #46
NicuCalcea wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get off it, Russia is arresting people for a single web search: https://zona.media/news/2025/12/10/glukhikh If you think the West is becoming more authoritarian than Russia, you're either misinformed or lying.

When did a 3,000₽ ($37) fine for searching for nazi symbols turn into an arrest? Your source doesn't say anything about this.

> Sergei Glukhikh, 20, was arrested in September under a law that had come into force earlier that month, and which raised concerns about expanded surveillance and potential abuse by law enforcement.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/12/10/first-russian-fine...

Hope that clarifies it for you.

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#48

Post by amypetrik8 »

greendestiny_re wrote: post #45
davely wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. I wonder how someone could miss that, but it does kind of look like one of those “sign up for our newsletter” types of elements. Maybe many of us are just subconsciously blocking those types of things out now because it’s so pervasive.

It's called "banner blindness." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/banner-blindness-original-e...

I actually have "face blindness" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia )

Got it after a bad car accident, some brain damage. Interestingly it also made me race blind as well - I'm probably one of the few people in the world who can say that! I do identify loved ones from the sound of their voice, though, or if not speaking, I can sometimes tell from how they walk and move. Same thing races, it's not hard to tell if someone's voice sounds black or if they walk like a white guy

Re: Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order

#50

Post by sureglymop »

freefaler wrote: post #20

Check https://open-slum.org/ what's up in the shadow libraries world. Anna's archive & Z-lib has mirrored all of Sci-hub and are indeed a viable alternative.

Original LibGen was still the best browsing experience and it's been down for months. If we lose this resource it would be truly a setback and grave loss.
Post reply on HN