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Google Tweaks Algorithm; EHow Traffic Plummets

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the small-mercies dept.

jfruhlinger writes "For some time there's been rumbling that Google's search results have been gummed up by low-quality pages from 'content farms,' written at low or no cost specifically to score high on common Google queries. Now it looks like the latest update to Google's search algorithm is having an effect, cutting into traffic to eHow (and cutting down the stock price of eHow's owner, Demand Media, in the process)."

7 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. and nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    of value was lost!

  2. Wouldn't it be a lot simpler by vlm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldn't it be a lot simpler to just block all robot traffic to expertsexchange, ehow, and the like? Or even more trivial, allow users individual profiles to block specific user selectable domains?

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  3. Well duh the stock fell by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If your company's business plan focuses exclusively (or even primarily) on gaming Google search results, then anyone dumb enough to invest in you *deserves* to be screwed.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  4. Already done. by kcbnac · · Score: 5, Informative

    Previous Slashdot discussion:
    http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/03/11/1711252/Google-Introduces-Domain-Blocking-To-Search

    Article discussing how:
    http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/hide-sites-to-find-more-of-what-you.html

    1. Re:Already done. by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 5, Informative

      You have to be logged into a google service, click on a link in the search results, go back, then just that link will have the "Block" button. It took me a few tries before it worked for me.

      Even better, you can go right to http://www.google.com/reviews/t to set things up in bulk. Then, when you search, at the bottom of the page should be a link like "Some items were blocked, click to see"

      --
      All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
  5. Re:Hit me badly too by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think Google have made a massive error here - by saying they can gauge the quality of a website (and its usefulness) algorithmically is arrogant and short-sighted. I hope they figure this out quickly. I really do hate having to sell stuff, even my own work!

    You have it entirely backwards. Google has made the only intelligent decision here, by saying that they cannot possibly gauge the quality of all websites manually, and sticking to their guns about doing it programatically. That way, suing them over your position in the rankings is much more difficult because they can prove a lack of favoritism.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. like many programmers by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    i've gotten experts exchange results in google searches forever, and i loathe them

    however, not once, in years, have i seen "experts exchange" written in such a way in your post that it makes me think "expert sex change"

    so thanks. thanks a lot. for making a bane of my existence somehow even worse. because now i will never look at "experts exchange" in google results again without seeing "expert sex change"

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it