Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 127 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

#41

Post by jccalhoun »

samcrawford wrote: post #23
krono wrote: post #16

uBlock Origin static filters to the rescue! Block results from specific domains on Google or DDG: google.*##.g:has(a[href*="thetopsites.com"]) duckduckgo.*##.results > div:has(a[href*="thetopsites.com"]) And it's even possible to target element content with regex with the `:has-text(/regex/)` selector. google.*##.g:has(*:has-text(/bye topic of noninterest/i)) duckduckgo.*##.results > div:has(*:has-text(/bye topic of…

Filtering out the spam results is only half the problem. In my experience, a legitimate site's content is cloned by a spam site, and that one appears in a Google search and the legitimate one does not. The example that keeps hitting me is GitHub Issues. Filtering out the spam only removes the clones; it doesn't get the good results back in.

it isn't even just 'clones' because so many sites will just summarize an article from somewhere else and give a link to it. Sometimes it is a game of telephone with one site summarizing a 2nd site which is a summary of a 3rd and so on. I want a search engine to show me the original source not the one with the best SEO

Re: Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

#42

Post by notreallyserio »

DanAtC wrote: post #9

Kagi allows you to weigh domains.

I'm really happy with Kagi. Being able to block and boost results is a killer feature. They're also more willing to show that they couldn't find results for searches. Compare that to Google, whose engineers designed it to (seemingly always) exclude the most specific term in a search to return irrelevant results.

Re: Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

#43

Post by pcmoney »

Kye wrote: post #28
Gys wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to Kagi yesterday and I am so far very impressed. I did this search to answer another comment and later did the Google one: https://kagi.com/search?q=What+does+that+site+make+you+drag+... https://google.com/search?q=What+does+that+site+make+you+dra... Kagi shows the exact answer in the first result. Google gives no relevant answers on the first five pages (did not go further). Probably because Google focus…

The pricing (in the FAQ) is a non-starter for me, but there are probably enough people with the money for it to make a nice business out of it. Maybe it'll be enough to apply some competitive pressure to Google. edit: to be clear, it's not unwillingness, I literally do not have $10-30/month to spare without compromising my progress toward not being perpetually broke. Not everyone here is a well-compensated tech worke…

The quintessential be the customer or the product being sold dilemma...

Re: Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

#44

Post by after_care »

Kye wrote: post #28
Gys wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to Kagi yesterday and I am so far very impressed. I did this search to answer another comment and later did the Google one: https://kagi.com/search?q=What+does+that+site+make+you+drag+... https://google.com/search?q=What+does+that+site+make+you+dra... Kagi shows the exact answer in the first result. Google gives no relevant answers on the first five pages (did not go further). Probably because Google focus…

The pricing (in the FAQ) is a non-starter for me, but there are probably enough people with the money for it to make a nice business out of it. Maybe it'll be enough to apply some competitive pressure to Google. edit: to be clear, it's not unwillingness, I literally do not have $10-30/month to spare without compromising my progress toward not being perpetually broke. Not everyone here is a well-compensated tech worke…

The pricing is actually one of Kagi's most interesting features to me. There's an old phrase "If you aren't paying for the service then you're the product". I'd be suspicious of any price too low, as it would indicate they have another revenue stream.

Re: Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

#46

Post by birthdaydog »

I think people are right that the motivation is profit, but I'm not convinced it's to manipulate you in any way. I don't think driving you towards SEO'd blog spam is really all that profitable to google.

My guess is that it's because it's an abusable feature, and that means hiring human moderators for it.

Re: Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

#48

Post by Retric »

aaomidi wrote: post #47

The second this is added, the spam domains will just multiply. User interventions with spam doesn't work.

Domains aren’t free the way sending email is. So, forcing more domains would be a significant expense that would seriously discourage these companies. Also, they would be easier to detect.

Re: Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

#49

Post by lprubin »

birthdaydog wrote: post #46

I think people are right that the motivation is profit, but I'm not convinced it's to manipulate you in any way. I don't think driving you towards SEO'd blog spam is really all that profitable to google. My guess is that it's because it's an abusable feature, and that means hiring human moderators for it.

How is it abusable if you're only blocking the domains for yourself?

Re: Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

#50

Post by x3ro »

Joeri wrote: post #38
shrikant wrote: post #31

For the same reason that streaming services don't really give you the ability to filter by cast/crew or hide stuff you've already seen: to gently guide you into avenues that are more profitable for them, regardless of what you say you really want.

I’m not convinced they are targeting profitability, because that is hard to connect back to individual user action. They target what is easy to measure at the user level, probably engagement, and operate on the assumption that higher engagement means higher profit.

why do you think it’s difficult for google to measure which clicks to what websites are profitable for them? maybe i’m misunderstanding, but I would expect that this would be one of the primary things google tries to infer from you..
Post reply on HN