Google Rolls Out a Browser-Based Content Farm Blocker, Helping Users Sort the Wheat from the Chaff

It seems like everyone in the twitterverse, the blogosphere, and tumblrdom is getting fed up with so-called content farms-those mostly-useless text generators that turn out articles based on the terms people most commonly search for. Now the Googleplex is getting involved, creating an extension that allows Chrome users to tag and block certain sites that come up in their Google searches.

The extension, called Personal Blocklist, lets users bar sites they deem to be worthless or untrustworthy from future search results using an extra button embedded in each search result. Anytime Personal Blocklist scrubs results from a page of search results it notes their removal at the bottom of the page and gives you the option to unblock them.

That doesn’t just empower users to customize their search criteria-it also provides Google with a strong indicator of what sites its users would like to see pushed down in their search results, helping Google refine its own search parameters. The extension won’t kill the content farm, but with a little help from users (like you!) it should help push them down so more relevant cream can rise to the top.

[NY Times]

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