Google Chrome launches URL blocker for search results

Google has released an experimental Chrome extension that attempts to curb the proliferation of so-called content farms.

The extension, Personal Blacklist, adds a new link underneath any Google search result that lets users remove an entire website from search results.

Personal Blacklist also places a link at the bottom of search result pages affected by the extension so users can still see the results they’ve blocked. Users can also manage their block lists by clicking on the extension’s icon.

Google says that this Chrome extension is all about curbing the rise of content farms, websites that create vast quantities of low-quality content and rely on search for their traffic. When users block such a site, that information is transmitted to Google, where it could potentially be used as part of the company’s complex search algorithms.

In other words, Google is debating whether to use explicit user feedback and human input in its search algorithm. It’s a move that’s definitely out of character for the famously algorithmic-centric company, but it has had limited success in stopping content farms — often characterized as sites like Yahoo’s Associated Content or some of Demand Media’s properties (though Google doesn’t call out anyone specifically) — from dominating search results with low-quality articles created on-the-cheap.

Last month, Google’s Matt Cutts outlined the company’s plan for combating search spam, emphasizing recent changes to the algorithm and a redesigned document-level classifier as just the start of its anti-spam efforts. However, Google also admitted that there has been an uptick in search spam, mostly from the content farms.

We welcome Personal Blacklist extension as a great tool for personalizing search results, but it’s also an admission that Google hasn’t quite figured out how to weed out the content farms. Google is hoping that an injection of human input can help it clean up its search results pages.