Google Lets Users Blacklist Sites From Search Results

Google is giving users the ability to block sites that annoy them from ever showing up again in their search results, via a new link next to search results.
The new links will be visible to English users of Google.com starting Thursday and Friday (IE8+, Chrome 9+, and Firefox 3.5+). The change builds on a recent extension the search giant made for users of its Chrome browsers, and signals that Google is listening to the complaints of users that web results are being polluted by low-value content farms.
The move comes just a week after Google introduced a big change to its core search algorithm that was intended to promote high quality sites. But many tech watchers were disappointed that the change seemed to benefit Demand Media, one of the net’s biggest content factories, while punishing many sites that say they create valuable original and user-generated content.
Google isn’t the first to come up with the idea of letting users blacklist sites. New search upstart Blekko has baked that capability in from the start, and has created a technology to let users limit their searches to select groups of sites. DuckDuckGo goes further and simply doesn’t include a number of content farms in its index.
Google says the new system might even eventually change search results for everyone, according to a company blog post.
“We’re adding this feature because we believe giving you control over the results you find will provide an even more personalized and enjoyable experience on Google,” said Amay Champaneria and Beverly Yang, two Google search quality engineers. “In addition, while we’re not currently using the domains people block as a signal in ranking, we’ll look at the data and see whether it would be useful as we continue to evaluate and improve our search results in the future.”
Users can undo their choices and will be notified every time they get a search page that would have had a result from a site that user blocked. The system does not, however, have a way for users to import a blacklist created by others — perhaps as a way to force users to give Google data on sites they care enough to block.
Non-English speaking users and people who use Google search sites other than Google.com will get the feature soon, the company said.