New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results • Hacker News Board

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#201

Post by basugasubaku » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 1:48 PM UTC

cellis wrote: post #62

brianwillis wrote: post #5

So HN, what sites are we all blocking?

markmail, osdir. these sites basically mirror yahoo/google groups. Big source of frustration.

markmail provides the best archives of Apache project mailing lists that I've seen. Many of the project sites link to the markmail archive. And it's ad free.

Compare for example the Apache archives of CouchDB (http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/) to Markmail archives (http://couchdb.markmail.org/search/?q). The former is searchable; the other isn't.

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#202

Post by 9ec4c12949a4f3 » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 3:00 PM UTC

dsl wrote: post #20

1. http://bit.ly/gTADhE 2. Click Install, close page 3. Open each of the links below in a new tab, click block on the first result 4. Win. http://www.google.com/search?q=Mahalo http://www.google.com/search?q=ehow http://www.google.com/search?q=experts-exchange http://www.google.com/search?q=livestrong.com http://www.google.com/search?q=answerbag http://www.google.com/search?q=bills.com http://www.google.com/search?q=…

I thought the CSRF was part of it, I really did, here's the extent to which I've been trying to hack this plugin to let me add sites en-mass.

I modified the source code of common.js in the plugin after getting frustrated when not getting results in a less hackish-way.

http://pastebin.com/VbCnk5Et

I now goto google search, search for qwerty, click 'block en.wikipedia.com', and even though I've hard-coded the CAD= value to .asdf.com, my block filter still ends up blocking wikipedia, not asdf.com.

I was confused, so I tossed in a URL alert, which confirmed the URL modification had taken place.

Then I opened wireshark and watched the HTTP stream to google, which also contained a request and response.

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=pwVmiLM3

Basically, something else is going on here. The CSRF may be a UUID.

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#203

Post by AlexC04 » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 4:15 PM UTC

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #49

I just wanted to say thanks to all the people on Hacker News who asked for this option. We'll look at offering a "block site" option directly in the search results over time, but it takes longer to write, test, and launch that code. In the mean time, use this extension to clean up your own search results and tell us which sites you don't want to see in Google.

This is great, thanks Matt.

After using this for less that 12 hours and I think it's fantastic. I also think it could be vastly improved upon. What if you added reddit style "up" and "down" votes to my results?

Maybe it sounds silly at first pass, but if all my votes get passed back to Google, your algorithms could learn from an incredible crowd-source treasure trove of knowledge.

A black list wouldn't just help you find the bad ones - but up-boats could help you suss the good ones.

There's the concern of DIGG style voting blocks, but perhaps even that could be detected by sufficiently sophistimatacted algorithms. (detection of pairity in voting that fell outside of statistical norms could be downgraded in quality).

I mean, sure, I'm already gaming the system in my head ... automated creation of accounts, automated up-boating (which I suspect happens on Reddit as well, despite being bad "reddiquette")

OK. Actually, maybe it's a terrible idea. Like DIGG with only down-votes. Seems like a potential treasure trove though.

Right?

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#204

Post by ydant » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 4:21 PM UTC

topcat31 wrote: post #196

A few thoughts and requests: 1) I'd love to use this tool but because of my job still need to look at the "official" search results from time to time. Is it possible to allow &pws=0 override the blocked sites so &pws=0 both session-based and browser based personalisation? 2) There's a lot of talk among startups about ignoring what users want because they don't know best. I worry that this move from Google might actua…

If you don't allow the extension to work in incognito mode (it's opt-in by default), then you can just open up an incognito / private browsing window instead (which Chrome makes pretty low-cost). This might have the benefit of removing any influence on your search results due to Google cookies that would otherwise be sent.

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#205

Post by AlexBerger » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 4:23 PM UTC

nolok wrote: post #51

paraschopra wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are or probably would be doing that. See this comment by Matt Cutts: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2218531

And you really think no one in the google search team has thought of how it could be abused ? Come on let's be serious here, they are not going to use these results verbatim or even block websites for everyone just because some users wanted to.

Even at that, just look at all the problems Reddit etc. have had with bury brigades working to game the system. I imagine with the reputation defender styled companies out there right now, this would be a natural service.

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#206

Post by topcat31 » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 4:29 PM UTC

ydant wrote: post #204

topcat31 wrote: post #196

A few thoughts and requests: 1) I'd love to use this tool but because of my job still need to look at the "official" search results from time to time. Is it possible to allow &pws=0 override the blocked sites so &pws=0 both session-based and browser based personalisation? 2) There's a lot of talk among startups about ignoring what users want because they don't know best. I worry that this move from Google might actua…

If you don't allow the extension to work in incognito mode (it's opt-in by default), then you can just open up an incognito / private browsing window instead (which Chrome makes pretty low-cost). This might have the benefit of removing any influence on your search results due to Google cookies that would otherwise be sent.

I don't think the plugin works via cookies though does it? Might be wrong....

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#207

Post by dminor » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 4:58 PM UTC

davepeck wrote: post #42

dsl wrote: post #20

1. http://bit.ly/gTADhE 2. Click Install, close page 3. Open each of the links below in a new tab, click block on the first result 4. Win. http://www.google.com/search?q=Mahalo http://www.google.com/search?q=ehow http://www.google.com/search?q=experts-exchange http://www.google.com/search?q=livestrong.com http://www.google.com/search?q=answerbag http://www.google.com/search?q=bills.com http://www.google.com/search?q=…

I'd put 'osdir' on that list...

Very first site I blocked. (Would have been eFreedom, but I haven't seen them in the results for awhile. Thanks Google!)

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#208

Post by comforteagle » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 5:20 PM UTC

davepeck wrote: post #42

dsl wrote: post #20

1. http://bit.ly/gTADhE 2. Click Install, close page 3. Open each of the links below in a new tab, click block on the first result 4. Win. http://www.google.com/search?q=Mahalo http://www.google.com/search?q=ehow http://www.google.com/search?q=experts-exchange http://www.google.com/search?q=livestrong.com http://www.google.com/search?q=answerbag http://www.google.com/search?q=bills.com http://www.google.com/search?q=…

I'd put 'osdir' on that list...

[I run osdir.com]

Just to be clear we're not scraping content nor SEOing to death. We've been running our mailing list archive for almost 8 years.

To quote Matt_Cutts somewhere else in this thread: 'because USENET/mailing lists don't always have a centralized/canonical location on the web, which makes dupe content more of a potential issue. It's not the usual "Website X copied my website" scenario.'

If you dislike us that's cool, but just know we're not showing in your SERPs because of scraping & SEO trickery. A lot of people, maybe not you, really are finding their answer there. There's a lot of solid answers in inboxes.

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#209

Post by sequoia » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 5:41 PM UTC

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #187

gmosx wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

posts to google groups show up in devcomments.com, osdir.com, mail-archive.com, etc ranked higher than the original post in google groups.

Hmm. That could be if Google Groups has changed the url structure, which could make crawling it harder. Or because USENET/mailing lists don't always have a centralized/canonical location on the web, which makes dupe content more of a potential issue. It's not the usual "Website X copied my website" scenario.

Getting on a tangent here, but Google has a hard time crawling Google Groups? Have you tried emailing support@google.com? Just kidding but in all seriousness how is it that a Google property has bad SEO?

Re: New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

#210

Post by MichaelGG » Tue, Feb 15, 2011, 5:56 PM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #126

MichaelGG wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Experts Exchange used to be a scam, showing fake results. But now, they just roll them to the bottom of the page. I don't endorse them or like them, but they've had decent quality answers several times.

They play too many dirty tricks for my tastes (for example, it's only at the bottom of the page when you come from Google)--I won't give them any of my page views. I have no idea why Google doesn't bust them on what is straight forward cloaking.

Oh, you're right. I agree, any site that displays significantly different content when coming from a Google search should be heavily penalized.