top | item 2809621

Block sites from ever appearing again in Google results

37 points| vaksel | 14 years ago |google.com

42 comments

order
[+] muppetman|14 years ago|reply
Does anyone have a good list of sites to block?

I know that, on the face of it, sounds dumb, but there's some that annoy _everyone_.

experts-exchange was the first site I've blocked, for example. Anyone have a list of those annoying sites that pop up when you're trying to search for some obscure error message etc? I'd love to be a bit proactive.

[+] shawnee_|14 years ago|reply
Yelp. The only site I block, as of about a week ago: http://bit.ly/odVtMg

Background: Had an account since April 2007, had reviews removed, last month had my account deleted without notice or warning. I emailed asking for a reason, but have heard nothing.

Yelp uses its "rank" in Google, Yahoo, et. al to bribe and extort small businesses, to prevent facts from being public knowledge, and to censor citizen reporting.

If a small business doesn't have its own website, Yelp is usually the first thing that pops up in a search; it knows this and milks it for everything it can.

[+] glassx|14 years ago|reply
What I did: go to Stack Overflow, pick the most popular question of the month and search on Google. Lots of 'mirrors' will appear (probably not on the first page) and you can use your judgement.
[+] mattgreenrocks|14 years ago|reply
bigresource.com - copies content from elsewhere and injects ads daniweb.com - terrible quality discussion ehow.com - for when you want a step above Yahoo Answers
[+] dredmorbius|14 years ago|reply
experts-exchange gets my vote as well.

I hate hate hate the thought of having to do all my Google searches logged in though.

[+] blahedo|14 years ago|reply
This site is blocked unless you have a Google account and log in with it. Anyone care to post a summary?
[+] pigbucket|14 years ago|reply
"If you don't like a site that appears in your search results, you can block all the pages within that site. Then you won't see any of those pages when you're signed in and searching on Google. If you change your mind, you can unblock the site later. Sites will be blocked only for you, but Google may use everyone's blocking information to improve the ranking of search results overall. You may block up to 500 sites."
[+] llimllib|14 years ago|reply
Goodbye, w3schools!
[+] misuse-permit|14 years ago|reply
This is a bit off topic, but do you know a better resource than this w3schools page on Javascript and DOM? [1] I'm just learning now, and it's really frustrating me that I can't find a better resource.

Java : Javadoc :: Javascript : ????

[1] - http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/

[+] zabraxias|14 years ago|reply
I can't +1 this enough. w3schools is a plague on web development search queries
[+] dredmorbius|14 years ago|reply
I'd like to see whole content farms blocked.

There was a Chinese knock-off (counterfeit) goods spamming Craigslist heavily a year or so back, hosting a bunch of domains out of a Fremont datacenter.

Too many domains to list individually. It's cases like this that make aggregate blocking/banning approaches far more valuable.

The problem with individual blocklists is that they have to be maintained, and over time they suffer from bitrot. And life is hard and I want a pony.

[+] mmuro|14 years ago|reply
"Sites will be blocked only for you, but Google may use everyone's blocking information to improve the ranking of search results overall."

This to me says "If we get enough reports of a site being blocked, we're going to make sure everyone's Google searches will block you."

I think this is great for spam sites, but for legitimate sites (whether you like w3schools or not) I can certainly see this as annoying.

[+] comex|14 years ago|reply
Whether or not it's legitimate, the number of people that don't find a site helpful, and block it, is probably correlated with the chance that a random Google searcher won't find it helpful.
[+] nkurz|14 years ago|reply
Does anyone know if there's a parallel way to block sites from their Shopping search? If not, this would be a wonderful feature.

There are a few "low price" sites that keep popping up in my results, but never actually offer goods for sale at these teaser prices. I'd love to never be tempted by them again.

[+] pornel|14 years ago|reply
It doesn't seem to work. I've blocked w3schools, and they're still 2nd result for "doctype" (perhaps it's an US-only feature? Google keeps redirecting me to .co.uk search)
[+] 1880|14 years ago|reply
Yep, it's US only. You can add the sites to the list but they're not blocked if you're not in the US.
[+] Cancel|14 years ago|reply
Well, nice feature, but doesn't work for me. Maybe it works in some countries only.
[+] ph33r|14 years ago|reply
Goodbye experts-exchange.com!!
[+] RyanKearney|14 years ago|reply
Or, you know, just scroll to the bottom of the page for the answer.
[+] kungfu71186|14 years ago|reply
good bye about.com and ehow.com
[+] misuse-permit|14 years ago|reply
I'm not sure why everyone on HN seems to be bagging on about.com. It's a legitimate website that pays authors to write content [1].

True, it's ugly and written at a 6th grade reading level, but it's sometimes useful. It's certainly not a spam site.

[1] - http://beaguide.about.com/

[+] dredmorbius|14 years ago|reply
I'll let them live. About.com actually have some pretty legit content.
[+] SoftwarePatent|14 years ago|reply
I've been waiting for this for a long time, kudos Google!
[+] geuis|14 years ago|reply
I don't want Google to block any sites. I don't need nor want a personalized internet filter bubble. What I want Google to do is learn to recognize spammy or irrelevant sites and rank them lower.
[+] bigiain|14 years ago|reply
This will give their "almighty algorithm" a great input for recognizing "spammy" sites.

Of course, as soon as it starts working, we'll get various religious or politically motivated groups blocking sites they don't agree with, and blackhat SEOs selling packages of botnetted or mechanical turk-ed "blocks" of your competitor's sites...

[+] vaksel|14 years ago|reply
if I feel that site X is spammy...why should I be forced to keep seeing it in my search results so that I avoid a personal internet bubble?
[+] rocktronica|14 years ago|reply
I'd assume this is doing that, people just don't know it.
[+] jigs_up|14 years ago|reply
You want a global internet filter bubble then?