Google adds tool to block shabby, dirty, vulgar sites from search results
It's not you, it's me: Self-censorship in action
Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything
Google has switched on a tool that allows web surfers to block searches for sites they don't want to see pop up on the results page.
The stealth algorithm rejig is the latest in a series of changes the Mountain View Chocolate Factory has recently made to its lucrative search estate.
"Now there’s yet another way to find more of what you want on Google by blocking the sites you don’t want to see," said Google's so-called "search quality engineers" Amay Champaneria and Beverly Yang in a blog post yesterday.
Accordingly, the company insisted that the latest tweak was all about empowering the user of its search site.
"We're adding this feature because we believe giving you control over the results you find will provide an even more personalised and enjoyable experience on Google," said Champaneria and Yang.
"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."
Chillingly for fans of the "free web", that's a statement which suggests Google might yet further refine its search function to effectively whitewash its search results.
So far the feature will only be rolled out to google.com in English for anyone using Chrome 9+, Internet Explorer 8+ and Firefox 3.5+, said the company. It plans to push the algorithm change to other browsers, regions and languages soon.
Surfers need to have a Google account in order to use the tool to kill references to "offensive, pornographic" or "low quality" sites.
Earlier this week, Google penalised its own newly acquired UK price comparison site BeatThatQuote.com, after the firm was found to be violating Mountain View's guidelines about linking.
Last month it made a major change to its search algorithms in order to try to scrub more link farm results from appearing near the top of search results. ®
COMMENTS
yeehaw!
bye-bye expert-exchange.com, *.info, *.cn and http://*review*:)
Mistaken
No, any money you spend with GOOGLE will still get your ad up there...
But any money you spend with dodgy-we-scan-search-engines-Inc. will be lost and people will be able to ignore all the millions of pages you create that say "you searched for Blu-Ray Battlestar, there were 0 results" or "Experts have asked this question, but there has been no exchange of answers. Register to see the no answers"
Cuts both ways
Sometimes you *are* searching for porn, and all that other stuff just gets in the way. What they need is a porn checkbox next to the address bar.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
