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Codebreaker

Google fights search spam with browser extension

John Moe Feb 15, 2011

Want to sound up on things? Learn the term “search spam”. Impress your friends! Because that’s rapidly becoming a major concern over at Google. Complaints have been increasing sharply that Google search results are just packed with junk sites that have gamed the system and ended up with high ranks. Google’s latest solution is a search spam blocker extension for their own Chrome browser. It’s not fancy just yet: you get an option with your results to block the sites that are displayed. So you have to do the work. They also give you an option to see what has been blocked or unblock it. It’s a move that won’t solve the problem (though it would be nice to see Firefox and IE make a similar offering, I’m sure they will soon) but it’s Google’s move to start managing this growing problem.

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