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

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

googleblog.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 226 posts

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

#71

Post by demetris »

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.

Matt, I don’t understand why Google need to offer blocking as a user option. Any web netizen with some experience can tell at a glance the spammy and low-quality results on a SERP, but Google, with their vast knowledge and experience and their ability to monitor all sorts and aspects of user clicking behaviour, cannot?

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

#72

Post by MichaelGG »

jonknee wrote: post #8
brianwillis wrote: post #5

So HN, what sites are we all blocking?

My first round includes eHow, Mahalo, Associated Content, Experts Exchange, Squidoo and Examiner. Update: I added answers.yahoo.com as well, which has consistently terrible content and yet is often highly ranked.

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.

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

#74

Post by Matt_Cutts »

demetris wrote: post #71
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.

Matt, I don’t understand why Google need to offer blocking as a user option. Any web netizen with some experience can tell at a glance the spammy and low-quality results on a SERP, but Google, with their vast knowledge and experience and their ability to monitor all sorts and aspects of user clicking behaviour, cannot?

I alluded to that in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2218627 . People feel comfortable with Google removing blatant spam: hidden text, cloaking, sneaky JavaScript redirects, etc. People tend to feel less comfortable if they feel like Google is making an editorial decision.

If we get a good signal from this extension, or from offering block links in Google's search results, then it's much more similar Gmail's spam algorithm, where an email is labelled as spam partially because a lot of users say it is, rather than because of some editorial decision on our part.

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

#75

Post by Matt_Cutts »

vaksel wrote: post #50

would be cool if there was a subscription option where you can subscribe to some master list that gets updated by people you trust. or just simply a bulk insert

Or at least an import/export option. But we'll need to see how popular/useful the extension is first.

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

#76

Post by benologist »

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=…

You forgot bytes.com and bigresource.com, holy fuck I hate them.

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

#77

Post by mythobit »

I created a site on app engine that essentially does the same thing via Google Custom search engine. Granted mine isn't as integrated or user friendly but still. The site is: http://blacklist-search.appspot.com/

Why can't Google offer something like this rather than only allowing it via a Chrome extension?

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

#79

Post by tristanperry »

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=…

A good list :)

A couple more:

http://www.google.com/search?q=wisegeek.com

http://www.google.com/search?q=bizrate.com

----

My reasons for suggesting that these are blocked:

"What are Some Animals Commonly Mistaken for Dinosaurs?" (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-some-animals-commonly-mista...)

"How Do I Care for a Rose Breasted Cockatoo?" (http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-i-care-for-a-rose-breasted-co...)

"Why Does Alaska Have Really Long Days During Some Times of the Year and Really Short Days During Other Times?" (http://www.wisegeek.com/why-does-alaska-have-really-long-day...)

- should be fairly self explanatory. Plus it only took be ~45 seconds to find these examples of journalistic brilliance (there's MANY more such examples). Plus they are - IMO - breaking AdSense guidelines since the Google link unit ads are EXACTLY the same (in color/style and :hover behaviour) as the in-content navigation links, which is a direct breach of AdSense policy. You'd think the AdSense team would be aware of such a big violation..

--

And as for BizRate, it's a 99% autogenerated site with little (if any) unique content. Plus most pages have at least one keyword stuffing area (such as http://www.bizrate.com/mens-shoes/dress-shoes/ - see the 'related searches' bit on the left, for a quick example).

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

#80

Post by falsestprophet »

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.

What role did Hacker News play in bringing about this feature?
Post reply on HN