With the click of a button, Google users can now blacklist any Web site from all future search results -- and, perhaps unknowingly, help the search giant differentiate "good" sites from "bad." "The search engine is now showing an option ... to let users block a particular domain in the future," eWeek reports. It's all "part of the company's evolving push to give its 1 billion-plus searchers more control."
What's more, according to Google: "While we're not currently using the domains people block as a signal in ranking, we'll look at the data and see whether it would be useful as we continue to evaluate and improve our search results in the future."
"Chillingly for fans of the ‘free Web,' that's a statement which suggests Google might yet further refine its search function to effectively whitewash its search results," writes The Register. "Will those of us who don't work for Google be able to see which sites people block most often?" Forbes asks. Not so much, as a Google spokesman explains: "We don't currently have any plans to publish this data."
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