Google Takes Aim at Content Farms with New Chrome Add-on

Posted 02/14/2011 at 3:28pm | by Ryan Whitwam

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For the last few months, Google has been dealing with the changing tides of public opinion. Many sites and pundits have started calling The Big G out for search results that seem to be increasingly filled with so-called "content farms". These are sites run by the likes of Demand Media that create huge amounts of (sometimes) low-quality articles directed at getting search hits. Now, with a new Chrome extension Google has started fighting back in earnest. 

The new Block Sites extension will allow you to tag sites in your search results that you no longer want to see come up. The option comes in the form of a link under each search result. This will hide them from you in the future, but it will also send this data to Google. The data Google gets here could be invaluable in tweaking the all-powerful algorithm that rules the search results. 

This problem could be even more significant than the spam problems of a few years ago. The Block Site extension at least shows that Google is serious about addressing problem with their search results.