New Chrome Add-on Blocks Sites From Search Results

[Gerry]

Clearly, Google is on the side of the consumer when it comes to site content vs. consumer satisfaction.

Clearly? Well, yes...when Google incorporates a tool to block domains and sub-domains into its own web browser...


New Chrome Add-on Blocks Sites From Search Results

Google has released a new add-on for its Chrome web browser that allows you to block domains and subdomains from search results. The new extension is aimed at so-called “content farms,” which often rank high in Google search results, but feature low quality content.

If you’d like to blacklist some domains from your search results, and you’re using the Google Chrome web browser (or Chromium), you can download the new add-on from the Chrome Web Store. Once the add-on is installed, you’ll see a new option to “block this domain” beneath each search result. To edit your list of blocked sites, just click the red hand icon in the toolbar.

The add-on is part of Google’s plan to cut down on content farm spam. Google defines content farms as “sites with shallow or low-quality content.” Often the content is written for no other reason than to show up in Google’s search results and pull in traffic. However, because content farms often have some pages of valuable content, classifying them as outright spam might not be accurate either. And of course what constitutes a “content farm” is open to debate.

In a thread about the new add-on over at Hacker News, Google’s principal engineer, Matt Cutts writes “people feel comfortable with Google removing blatant spam: hidden text, cloaking, sneaky JavaScript redirects, etc. People tend to feel less comfortable if they feel like Google is making an editorial decision.”

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