At Google: Choose Your Own Results

Google has held the keys to their search for years. They’ve attempted to personalize and localize search, but it still makes it challenging to get the exact right results you’re looking for because of poor sites with strong search engine optimization.

Now, the power is in your hands.

Blocking a domain will prevent it from ever showing up in your searches again. Ever.

Whether you find a site offensive, low-quality, or for whatever reason you simply do not like it, you get to choose your own results. The feature is attached to your Google account, so it travels with you to any device you’re logged into.

According to the Google Blog, “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.”

Google is on a roll trying to clean up their image in search. Between the recent Farmer update and changes in the way that searches are presented, the effort is their despite declarations of a focus on mobile and local integration beyond search in 2011.

It may go deeper than that. Some are speculating that this is a way that Google will get more of the user-feedback they covet without making it an obvious ploy that search engine optimization black-hats would consider using.