Startpage search results not displayed unless uMatrix javascript enabled.

[PassinThrough2]

Firefox version: 39.01
uMatrix versions: 0.9.1.2 and 0.9.1.3
uMatrix settings: 1st party images and CSS enabled, default deny rest
Site: https://startpage.com/

I believe this is due to some change Startpage made Sunday, and it is currently being discussed here: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/38zuwz/startpage_now_requires_javascript_to_show_results/

When I enter any search into startpage, just the upper portion of the results page is displayed, no results are shown. Enabling javascript in uMatrix corrects, but a Startpage representative claims javascript is not needed. I did disable javascript in about:config on a fresh occurrence of Firefox, and Startpage search results were indeed shown.

[luxoflux]

This appears to be related to how uMatrix/uBlock handles <noscript> tags (gorhill/uBlock#308). The new Startpage sets #page-wrapper { visibility: visible } in <noscript> when javascript is disabled. If it isn't handled properly it remains set to visibility: hidden. I haven't tested what happens in Chrome, though.

Immediate options are to use the Stylish extension and set #page-wrapper to always visible (more details if needed), or use https://classic.startpage.com.

[gorhill]

On the other hand, letting noscript tags work was causing Google Search page to be blank with Firefox (#232)...

[d-kr]

Well, on twitter links (t.co) it has the same effect. For example: https://t.co/8mTCHSo3uQ . If there is no javascript enabled, then that page is blank because neither <meta ...inside <noscript> nor <script ... will be executed. ( view-source:t.co/8mTCHSo3uQ )

[luxoflux]

I personally think the user should be alerted to "meta redirections" with temporary/permanent options to allow or deny—that would take care of that problem. The other issues with <noscript> are up for discussion (@gorhill, maybe you could go over them here so we can all come up to speed?).

[gorhill]

Duplicate of #319.

Fixed in next release.