Re:Dear Google: please let me ban sites from results
by danudey on Thursday January 06, 2011 @06:55PM
(#2077891)
To be honest, I think this is the reason Google doesn't have this feature. The sites everyone wants to blacklist are the spammers that game Google search and show Google ads. If they don't get traffic, they don't show ads. If they don't show ads, Google doesn't get that money either.
It's to Google's benefit that people end up on these pages, see a ton of ads, and then click on one out of confusion or desperation.
Re:Dear Google: please let me ban sites from results
by ericd on Friday January 07, 2011 @03:13AM
(#2079004)
That's strange, though, because it should be clear to them that the long term effect of this is pretty dangerous for them - if their search results were always the best, then they would be largely unassailable in the search market, but as it is, they're decreasing satisfaction with their product. It's hard to improve everyone's perception of your product once that's happened, and it opens them up to usurpers.
Re:Dear Google: please let me ban sites from results
by prawn on Friday January 07, 2011 @06:41PM
(#2081578)
It does, but Microsoft's thrown loads of money at the problem and not made huge inroads so maybe they figure it's worth the risk?
Re:Dear Google: please let me ban sites from results
by shadowpwner on Thursday January 06, 2011 @11:19PM
(#2078543)
Yes, but that would be pretty evil of them, don't you think? ;)
efreedom is monetised by Google ads. Might seem like a problem to Google.
Let's say it starts with personal blacklists. Then trusted lists that you can subscribe to (AdBlock-style). Then word spreads and enough people are using it such that AdSense revenue drops 20-30% or more?
(IME, CTR on ads is much higher on these content-light sites than it is on more reputable sites.)