Zoekplaatje is a browser extension that monitors search results as you see them in your browser and allows you to later download them as a .CSV spreadsheet. It is intended to facilitate systematic analysis of search results, e.g. for (algorithmic) bias.
Currently, it supports the following search engines:
Engine support requires regular maintenance to keep up with changes to the engines. If something does not work, we welcome issues and pull requests.
The extension does not interfere with your normal browsing and never uploads data. It uses the WebRequest browser API to locally collect and parse the data search engines are sending to your browser as you use it.
Zoekplaatje is in active development. .xpi files that you can use to install it in your browser are available on the releases page. These are signed and can be installed in any Firefox-based browser. If you want to run the latest development version instead, you can do so from the Firefox debugging console after cloning the repository locally.
Install the browser extension in a Firefox browser. A button with the Zoekplaatje logo (a silhouette) will appear in the browser toolbar. Click it to open the Zoekplaatje interface. Enable capturing for the search engines you want to capture from.
Next, simply search for things as you normally would. While Zoekplaatje is enabled, results will be saved in the background. You can then download the results as a .csv file with the button in the interface when you are done and want to inspect the results. Make sure to cross-reference the results with what you see in your browser, at least initially, to understand what data is (and is not!) collected and how it is parsed.
Zoekplaatje was developed by Stijn Peeters for the Digital Methods Initiative and is licensed under the Mozilla Public License, 2.0. Refer to the LICENSE file for more information. It is heavily based on Zeeschuimer.
Graphics based on an image generated by Dall-E, for the prompt 'detail of a 1914 metaphysical painting by giorgio de chirico depicting a hard-boiled detective writing down results in a notebook'. Interface background pattern by Travis Beckham. Interface icons by Font Awesome. Open Sans and Permanent Marker fonts from Google Fonts.
Development is supported by the Dutch PDI-SSH foundation through the CAT4SMR project.