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Blocked Sites is discontinued

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Re: Blocked Sites is discontinued

#91

Post by icebraining »

ScottWhigham wrote: post #77

What disturbs me is how it's okay for Google to allow this "for Chrome users only" but it's a $700m fine for Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer into the OS. Is Microsoft really more of a monopoly than Google? Of course not. It's ridiculous that MSFT gets fined such high amounts but no one questions Google's ethics or says, "Hey, wait a minute..."

Comparisons to Microsoft aside, it's not true that no one questions Google. The EU antitrust authorities have been examining them for two years now, they just haven't reached a conclusion yet: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/22/eu-google-idUSL6N0...

Re: Blocked Sites is discontinued

#92

Post by magicalist »

brokentone wrote: post #4

This really sucks for me because it means I'll have to see experts-exchange results again. Why is Google shutting every secondary project/feature down right now? Reader, labs, blocked sites, code search... Any engineers able to weigh in on how this is affecting innovation or the 80/20 policy?

> This really sucks for me because it means I'll have to see experts-exchange results again

The blocked sites list hasn't worked for like a year now, so if you haven't been seeing experts exchange links, you aren't going to now, either.

I noticed when w3schools starting showing back up last spring or so, but I haven't seen experts exchange in results for a long time (or at least, I've seen them at a low enough volume that I can't recall any now). Now the only somewhat equivalent experience is quora results, as others have said.

Re: Blocked Sites is discontinued

#94

Post by philwelch »

hackernewbie wrote: post #28
philwelch wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to various sources, Larry Page had occasion to speak with Steve Jobs and ask his advice--in general terms--a few months before Jobs' death. Jobs originally wasn't inclined to give Page his time (he was still bitter about Android) but felt that, as he had reached out to an earlier generation of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs himself, he should pay it forward. Jobs' advice was to focus on the most important pro…

Works great for a company that risks generating a lot of noise to consumers (i.e. producing and marketing physical products). But for Google it's pervasiveness and breadth of services were part of the appeal, it's not like it's minor products interfered with the major parts of the company nor cost them much to maintain.

I agree that Jobs' advice was a mismatch for Google. Trying a million things and seeing what sticks, like an incubator, is a better idea for Google. The problem is when that turns into Microsoft-esque trend chasing. But that only happens when upper management focuses on trend chasing. Otherwise they just end up as passing experiments.

Re: Blocked Sites is discontinued

#95

Post by hackerboos »

elmofromok wrote: post #85
zorlem wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Their offered download link doesn't even work for me, it just notifies me of its shutdown. After you go to that link and read the notification, there is another link to download the blocklist as a plain-text file. Mine contained a number of domains I've added during the years. It's quite interesting to see all the domains I've blocked so far :)

Mine was surprisingly short.. www.w3schools.com

Well I had all those sites that scrape StackOverflow added to my list.

I love that SO uses a CC license but it does have some unintended consequences.

Re: Blocked Sites is discontinued

#97

Post by jrockway »

ebbv wrote: post #41

Removing a feature that fixes a major shortcoming of your product (spam sites) and directing your customers to use an extension to fix it is awful. What faith I once had in Google being a company that puts users first is long gone.

One could argue that making users manually select "spam sites" is unfriendly, too. If I were the PM for Google Search, I'd want to make a product that "just worked" without requiring the user to screw around with bells and whistles. A work of art is done when there's nothing left to remove, not when there's nothing more to add.

Providing an extension for power users to tweak the bells and whistles sounds like a fine gap-filler while perfection is achieved, however.

Re: Blocked Sites is discontinued

#98

Post by jrockway »

icebraining wrote: post #86
skylan_q wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has been shutting down features left, right and centre. I'm left wondering: what useful thing has google done since gmail and ads?

From the top of my head: V8, Golang, AngularJS, Closure Tools, Search by Image¹, Maps + Street View, Android, Now, Goggles, Fiber², Public DNS, GWT. ¹ not original, but works better than Tineye, in my opinion ² granted, only for a limited number of people

Chrome is pretty nice, too.

Re: Blocked Sites is discontinued

#99

Post by polynomial »

eknkc wrote: post #36
deelowe wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Experts exchange stopped showing up in the results back when Google released the new indexing engine over a year ago. You should be fine.

I still see it sometimes. Meanwhile, Quora is in the works to become next EE...

I don't understand this comment. Quora doesn't show up in results bc they're not in the index, it's a private site. Unless that's changed?

Re: Blocked Sites is discontinued

#100

Post by dannyr »

icebraining wrote: post #86
skylan_q wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has been shutting down features left, right and centre. I'm left wondering: what useful thing has google done since gmail and ads?

From the top of my head: V8, Golang, AngularJS, Closure Tools, Search by Image¹, Maps + Street View, Android, Now, Goggles, Fiber², Public DNS, GWT. ¹ not original, but works better than Tineye, in my opinion ² granted, only for a limited number of people

I'm sorry. You can combine all of them and they are still not as useful Google Reader & Blocked Sites. #sarcasm.
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