Google personalizes searches by blocking sites

Google is helping you personalize your search experience with new tools that let you hide the sites you don't want to see when you press "search."

"You've probably had the experience where you've clicked a result and it wasn't quite what you were looking for," said Google in a March 10 blog post.

"[S]ometimes you may dislike the site in general, whether it's offensive, pornographic or of generally low quality. For times like these, you'll start seeing a new option to block particular domains from your future search results. Now when you click a result and then return to Google, you'll find a new link next to "Cached" that reads "Block all example.com results."

The new search feature builds on Google's existing "Personal Blocklist" Chrome extension. The Chrome extension was introduced last month after Google users complained their search results were full of spam.

Google's "Block all example.com results" tool works in a similar way to the company's Chrome browser add-on, letting users block "content farms" - sites that use enhanced search engine optimization (SEO) to increase the visibility of their pages in web search rankings but often contain endless amounts of mass-produced, low-quality content - or other unwanted sites from future search results.

The feature is available to google.com users in English using Chrome 9+, IE8+ and Firefox 3.5+ web browsers. Availability in additional regions, languages and browsers will be added soon, said Google.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/hide-sites-to-find-more-of-what-you.html