In March 2011, two years ago, Google introduced a blocked sites feature that allows searchers to block unwanted sites via Google's search interface. In December 2012, the feature stopped working and today, Google posts a message that blocked sites is discontinued.
Google said back then, "we're adding this feature because we believe giving you control over the results you find will provide an even more personalized and enjoyable experience on Google." Today, I guess Google doesn't believe in giving you control over the results you want to find in the search results?
Or maybe searchers are not really using it? Google doesn't say.
Google's Matt Cutts did respond to this in a Hacker News thread saying:
Note that you can continue to use the Chrome extension to block sites, which I believe we rolled out before this feature. Get it at chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/personal-blocklist-by-goo/nolijncfnkgaikbjbdaogikpmpbdcdef.And here's the blog post we did about the Chrome extension.
So if you really want to block results, you can.
Forum discussion at Hacker News.
Image credit to BigStockPhoto for blocks
