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Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

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Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#21

Post by compay »

aristus wrote: post #19
ErrantX wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen people say this before - how do you mean "at the bottom". Every page I have seen highlights the "accepted answer" in green and does ask you to pay to access it..... am I missing a workaround?

Their ploy changes sometimes, but the answer is always there on the page somewhere. http://www.experts-exchange.com/Apple/Operating_Systems/OS_X... If you scroll down a bit it says "answer is available to premium members". But the page would not rank on Google if it didn't have actual content. Scroll all the way to the very bottom of the page. (APPLE-DOWNARROW on Mac) Bingo.

No, I scroll all the way down and don't see anything. Do you need to be logged in? Even if you only have to be logged in without paying, it's still annoying as heck.

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#22

Post by ErrantX »

aristus wrote: post #19
ErrantX wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen people say this before - how do you mean "at the bottom". Every page I have seen highlights the "accepted answer" in green and does ask you to pay to access it..... am I missing a workaround?

Their ploy changes sometimes, but the answer is always there on the page somewhere. http://www.experts-exchange.com/Apple/Operating_Systems/OS_X... If you scroll down a bit it says "answer is available to premium members". But the page would not rank on Google if it didn't have actual content. Scroll all the way to the very bottom of the page. (APPLE-DOWNARROW on Mac) Bingo.

Hmm what browser do you use?

Firefox and Chrome on Windows XP dont appear to have content hidden anywhere.

This is what I see on the example you used. http://screencast.com/t/mJLb2rsD Any ideas where I am missing it? (checked the source too)

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#23

Post by timmaah »

compay wrote: post #21
aristus wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their ploy changes sometimes, but the answer is always there on the page somewhere. http://www.experts-exchange.com/Apple/Operating_Systems/OS_X... If you scroll down a bit it says "answer is available to premium members". But the page would not rank on Google if it didn't have actual content. Scroll all the way to the very bottom of the page. (APPLE-DOWNARROW on Mac) Bingo.

No, I scroll all the way down and don't see anything. Do you need to be logged in? Even if you only have to be logged in without paying, it's still annoying as heck.

It only works for certain referring pages. Google being one of them. Direct access, or a HN referral will not show the answers.

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#24

Post by ErrantX »

timmaah wrote: post #23
compay wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I scroll all the way down and don't see anything. Do you need to be logged in? Even if you only have to be logged in without paying, it's still annoying as heck.

It only works for certain referring pages. Google being one of them. Direct access, or a HN referral will not show the answers.

aha that's the crucial bit of info I had never heard before :) cheers works for me now.

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#25

Post by Mankhool »

If Google won't filter the garbage out of the results why doesn't someone build something that will, for example, instantly remove any webpage that hasn't been updated since 1999 etc.etc. Off topic yes, but I find most of the sites that come up, well, useless.

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#26

Post by viraptor »

swik.net - For some reason I see it's "search" pages every day in search results. Put two protocol names together, or a language + protocol and you're almost guaranteed to get it in the second place :/

scribd - They hide your search phrases somewhere in the page, so that you can think you've found exactly what you were looking for. But all you get is some random, slightly related book that doesn't help you at all.

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#27

Post by prakash »

1. Sites which are useless for everyone e.g.: splogs, etc.

2. Some sites could be useful for a few, while being completely useless for the rest i.e. letting users remove certain sites from their results only

3. Like the ad-block software, people could subscribe to well-defined popular lists to get started.

4. I would also segment by verticals. E.g.:when you do a people search, you could bucket results into:

a.) sites where the user, him/her self has entered the info - linkedin, facebook type websites

b.) sites where a community has created a profile - wikipedia

c.) sites that inteliigently crawl other sites and present the info -- lead411 , pipl, zoominfo, spoke, etc are useless to me

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#28

Post by rksprst »

ErrantX wrote: post #17
skolor wrote: post #6

Its funny you mention experts-exchange. Whenever I see that as a search result, its usually a relief. I have yet to see an experts-exchange page that did not have the information I was looking for on it, even though they do make it rather difficult to find (You have to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the actual answer). Compared to the huge number of real spam sites that usually come up when search for techno…

The thing with experts exchange is you have to pay to see the answers, right? (unless I have missed something). Because they are all over google for most error related searches it is frustrating to click without looking and find a useless page (taunting you almost :P). It hides all the free useful pages with the same answers on :( I wouldnt remove it from Google though - and I agree, it is better than all the spam li…

I have an account there that I created years ago, and just login if I want to read an answer. I never paid for anything on the site.

It used to be free to register, so unless they've changed something, all you need to do is create an account.

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#29

Post by bhseo »

I have been compiling a list of useless sites to share with the world. You will need CustomizeGoogle for Firefox or your own userscript in the browser of your choice. Come to think of it, I might even create some userscripts/plugins for other browsers to go with my useless website list.

If you'd like to contribute your own lists or userscripts, let me know.

Re: Ask HN: What sites, e.g. experts-exchange.com, would you remove from Google?

#30

Post by bhseo »

bhseo wrote: post #29

I have been compiling a list of useless sites to share with the world. You will need CustomizeGoogle for Firefox or your own userscript in the browser of your choice. Come to think of it, I might even create some userscripts/plugins for other browsers to go with my useless website list. If you'd like to contribute your own lists or userscripts, let me know.

Here is an example from my list, I call this the "site info" category.

http://*.aboutus.org/* http://www.quantcast.com/* http://www.websiteoutlook.com/* http://www.xomreviews.com/* http://www.statbrain.com/* http://www.alexa.com/data/* http://searchanalytics.compete.com/* http://builtwith.com/?* http://*.compete.com/* http://www.who.is/*

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