Google lets users block content Farms

It is no longer eHow appease the gods.So far, Google has been reluctant to directly block or demote from companies such as AOL, Yahoo, Associated Content and Media request of eHow, push out articles produced cheap, intended mainly to appease the Google search algorithms. But now they're giving the banhammer for users with a chrome extension.

My Blocklist lets you lock the entire web domains from Google searches. You aren't even; technically limited to content farms, the option to lock a domain is displayed next to each search result.

Google does not hide the fact that it's researching and crowdsourcing. If you use the extension and block a site, Google collects such information, "will examine the resulting feedback and explore using it as a sign of potential ranking for our search results." In other words, if enough people block Associated Content or eHow, Google can lower the PageRanks of those domains.

Associated Content is like the Associated Press but with more spam.This is a big step for Google, a company that usually is quite secretive about how it treats the individual Web sites. In essence, the company is asking for power users to help you understand which sites should be downgraded in PageRank. Strikes me as oddly democratic, but give the search giant a layer of impartiality when determining how to deal with individual sites.

This is also a move to advertising. While Google insists that search results are generally less spammy than it used to be, the company has taken some heat lately the rise of content farms. Google has been quite vocal in defending its quality research (and questioning the integrity of the rival Bing), and releasing the extension is another way to show that you be proactive. Google certainly does not want the perception among fans of technology that the search is stopped, because only they could bring more competition and disturbances.

But perhaps it is already too late, and that is why we are witnessing a measure such unusual and desperate.

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