
Block sites from ever appearing again in Google results - vaksel
http://www.google.com/reviews/t
======
FiddlerClamp
For Chrome, see the extension at
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nolijncfnkgaikbjbd...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nolijncfnkgaikbjbdaogikpmpbdcdef)

I agree with geius that I'd rather have some indication of what I've blocked.
I like the Murdoch blocker
([https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/moepiacmhnmbiilhpo...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/moepiacmhnmbiilhpojodnaopndhddpg))
for that reason - it'll tell you why it's blocked you from a site, and gives
you the option to whitelist it.

------
muppetman
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.

~~~
pigbucket
dsl put one up when the chrome extension block was released:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2218528>

~~~
muppetman
Exactly what I was looking for, thank you.

------
blahedo
This site is blocked unless you have a Google account and log in with it.
Anyone care to post a summary?

~~~
pigbucket
"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
Goodbye, w3schools!

~~~
misuse-permit
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/>

~~~
spacemanaki
The Mozilla docs? <https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript>

~~~
misuse-permit
Now I feel like an idiot, thanks :)

------
dredmorbius
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
"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
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
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
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
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
Well, nice feature, but doesn't work for me. Maybe it works in some countries
only.

------
ph33r
Goodbye experts-exchange.com!!

~~~
RyanKearney
Or, you know, just scroll to the bottom of the page for the answer.

------
tocomment
Goodbye wikianswers?

------
kungfu71186
good bye about.com and ehow.com

~~~
misuse-permit
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/>

~~~
abrowne
I agree — I used to hate About.com, but I've found some of the subsites have
some decent articles. I've found some decent recipe ideas on the Greek Food
subsite, for example.

------
drivebyacct2
This is weeks, er, months old.

Official announcement (from March):
[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/hide-sites-to-find-
mo...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/hide-sites-to-find-more-of-what-
you.html)

There has been previous discussion on HN as well:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2310310> and discussion of the Chrome
extension that led to it: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2218382>

------
SoftwarePatent
I've been waiting for this for a long time, kudos Google!

------
geuis
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.

~~~
jigs_up
You want a global internet filter bubble then?

~~~
geuis
Your comment doesn't even make sense.

Look, take a few minutes and watch this.
[http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bu...](http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html)

When a site gets _blocked_ by Google, it doesn't disappear from the internet
but all of a sudden it disappears to hundreds of millions of people. Poof.
Gone.

If a site gets ranked lower, then it won't get as much traffic but at least
its still findable. Even spammy sites deserve a chance to turn their shit
around (although it almost never happens).

If I want to block a site for just me, fine. There's browser extensions that
do that. However, when Google or Bing or DuckDuckGo lets you do it and _then
uses that data in ranking sites for other people_ there's a Big Filter
Problem.

Or alternatively, there's a Big Fucking Problem.

~~~
joebadmo
Ranking something lower, especially if it gets knocked off the first page, has
the same effect in kind, if not degree, as blocking.

I'm not sure which part of this you think contributes to the filter bubble
effect (which I'm skeptical about in the first place). If I block a site, it's
because I don't want to see results from it, and I was never going to visit it
anyway.

How is using blocking data as part of the algorithm any bigger a filter
problem than any other part of the algorithm? Google uses many, many search
signals and this is just one of them. And I imagine a pretty good one.

