In news:rec.food.cooking, sf > posted on Sun, 13 Feb 2011
00:32:11 -0800 the following:

> On Sun, 13 Feb 2011 01:55:26 -0600, Damaeus
> > wrote:
>
> > I certainly wasn't expecting you to search the web for me. I did that
> > a little, but so many search engines are a mess now with so many sites
> > that have no substantial content. It's obvious many sites are only
> > there to be filled with advertisements.
>
> Isn't that maddening? I've run across a few of them lately. It's yet
> another reason why going beyond the first page of hits is often an
> exercise in frustration.

Seems like the first page is where most of those types of sites are
located. I read an article yesterday saying that Google is thinking of
letting users create their own blacklist of websites so they won't even
show up in your search results. Oddly, they referred to data from some
Wiki search site as an indication that a user blacklist would be useful.
It's odd because to me it seems like a no-brainer that is obvious without
studying data.

I hope they allow this in two ways: Either build your own, private
blacklist, or use a public blacklist which has been built by all Google
users. They should even come out with "clubs" so trusted friends can
build a collective blacklist. Since the people in this group would know
each other, they could trust that their members are really clicking on
useless sites, and not just sites they don't personally like, but which do
contain useful information without looking like an aggregator or
advertising magnet. I'd like to set up some way to filter out sites that
have identical content. I don't mind seeing one aggregator site, but I
don't want to see on the first page eight out of ten results with an
identical news article.

There is definitely a way to configure search engines to do this. They
just have to program them to do it.

Damaeus