cdr, we've taken action on Mahalo in the past when we've discovered practices that we would consider spammy. At the same time, given the impact that Google has on the web it's important that we not take action on a site just because we like or dislike it. We try to make sure that we only take action on sites when they violate our quality guidelines.
My issue is the increasingly low quality of Google search results. The problem is not with just one particular site, as distasteful as I find Mahalo, but a class of sites. If you don't consider the SEO practices of the content mills that are infesting the majority of Google results "spammy", IMO you should either reconsider what practices you consider spammy or refine the search algorithm to produce higher quality results.
I recall reading a thesis linked on HN that the only technologically knowledgeable users care about search quality - that the average, non-technical google user doesn't care that a result is from low quality content mill, only that they get some sort of information that sort of seems relevant. I think (hope?) that technical users are the leading edge here, and google's reluctance to act on content mills and improve search quality will end up hurting.
Hi Matt. I would love an option to blacklist domains from my results. That gets around the issue of Google picking winners and losers and would make pickiest 1% of users (like me) very happy.
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cdr, we've taken action on Mahalo in the past when we've discovered practices that we would consider spammy. At the same time, given the impact that Google has on the web it's important that we not take action on a site just because we like or dislike it. We try to make sure that we only take action on sites when they violate our quality guidelines.
My issue is the increasingly low quality of Google search results. The problem is not with just one particular site, as distasteful as I find Mahalo, but a class of sites. If you don't consider the SEO practices of the content mills that are infesting the majority of Google results "spammy", IMO you should either reconsider what practices you consider spammy or refine the search algorithm to produce higher quality results.
I recall reading a thesis linked on HN that the only technologically knowledgeable users care about search quality - that the average, non-technical google user doesn't care that a result is from low quality content mill, only that they get some sort of information that sort of seems relevant. I think (hope?) that technical users are the leading edge here, and google's reluctance to act on content mills and improve search quality will end up hurting.
I appreciate the direct response, though.
Hi Matt. I would love an option to blacklist domains from my results. That gets around the issue of Google picking winners and losers and would make pickiest 1% of users (like me) very happy.
Wouldn't you be able to do that with Blekko?