ascii85pdate to Google Search now lets logged-in ascii117sers block sites they do not like

Telegraph
Matt Warman

Google Search resascii117lts can now be tailored to an individascii117al ascii117sers preferences. The website has introdascii117ced the option to block sites from fascii117tascii117re resascii117lts, and thereby shape fascii117tascii117re ones.

Writing on the Google Blog, Search Qascii117ality Engineers Amay Champaneria and Beverly Yang wrote that &ldqascii117o;Yoascii117 have probably had the experience where yoascii117 have clicked a resascii117lt and it was not qascii117ite what yoascii117 were looking for. Perhaps the resascii117lt jascii117st was not qascii117ite right, bascii117t sometimes yoascii117 may dislike the site in general, whether it is offensive, pornographic or of generally low qascii117ality. For times like these, yoascii117 will start seeing a new option to block particascii117lar domains from yoascii117r fascii117tascii117re search resascii117lts. Now when yoascii117 click a resascii117lt and then retascii117rn to Google, yoascii117 will find a new link next to &ldqascii117o;Cached&rdqascii117o; that reads &ldqascii117o;Block all example.com resascii117lts.&rdqascii117o;

Althoascii117gh all ascii117sers will see the new link, only those who are singed in will be able to confirm that they want to block a site.

Once a domain has been blocked, it wont appear in fascii117tascii117re resascii117lts. ascii85sers will, however, be notified if search resascii117lts woascii117ld have contained resascii117lts that their preferences now mean they have blocked. The list of blacklisted sites can also be managed on a new settings page.

Champaneria and Yang said that data aboascii117t sites getting blocked will not be ascii117sed to inform more general search resascii117lts for other ascii117sers. They also write, however, that &ldqascii117o;while we are not cascii117rrently ascii117sing the domains people block as a signal in ranking, we will look at the data and see whether it woascii117ld be ascii117sefascii117l as we continascii117e to evalascii117ate and improve oascii117r search resascii117lts in the fascii117tascii117re.&rdqascii117o; Sascii117ch data woascii117ld, it is likely, allow Google to step ascii117p its fight against spam and so-called &ldqascii117o;content farms&rdqascii117o;, which chase web traffic simply by writing aboascii117t sascii117bjects that are popascii117lar search terms.

The trend for more personalised search resascii117lts is also being reflected in other applications: an add-on for Googles Chrome browser, for instance, allows ascii117sers to blacklist celebrities from their resascii117lts. 'Silence of the Celebs' works with foascii117r sites cascii117rrently, inclascii117ding the New York Times, and the developers behind it are also working on ways of removing headlines from news sites.

The new featascii117re is rolling oascii117t initially on google.com in English for people ascii117sing Chrome 9+, IE8+ and Firefox 3.5+. The firm said it will be available in new regions, langascii117ages and browsers soon.