In its latest effort to give users total control over what kind of results they get when they perform an online search, Google has added a feature that easily allows website domains to be blocked from all future results.
When signed into their Google accounts, users will now notice a button next to the “Cached” link by every search result, giving them the option to block that domain. Google will then remember the decision, and prevent all future search results from including that domain.
When users perform a search in the future, results from that domain that would have been included will be designated by a note saying that blocked sites were found.
This move comes as more content providers seek to find ways to game Google’s algorithm, working their way up to the top of the search list even when the site itself may be irrelevant or of low quality. It’s sites like these, as well as pornographic and inappropriate sites, that Google wants to let users block.
The search giant announced earlier this year that it planned to roll out new features to give users more control over their search results.
Of course Google will continue to work to weed out these so-called ‘content farms’ by fine-tuning its algorithms, but this recent improvement gives users some direct control over what they get when they perform a search.
The new feature has no effect, though, if users are not signed into their Google account.
The new feature has been pushed to Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 8, and Chrome 9, with other browsers also slated to receive it as well.
