Blekko Removes Content Farms From Search Results
In an effort to combat web spam, Blekko will block from its search results 20 of the worst-offending SERP clogging content farms, including Demand Media’s eHow and Answerbag, TechCrunch reports. This list of barred sites are as follows:
- ehow.com
- experts-exchange.com
- naymz.com
- activehotels.com
- robtex.com
- encyclopedia.com
- fixya.com
- chacha.com
- 123people.com
- download3k.com
- petitionspot.com
- thefreedictionary.com
- networkedblogs.com
- buzzillions.com
- shopwiki.com
- wowxos.com
- answerbag.com
- allexperts.com
- freewebs.com
- copygator.com
Blekko seems to be taking spam seriously. Last month, the newest search engine introduced the spam clock, which announced that 1 million new spam pages are created every hour. As of this morning, the total number of spam pages was at 750 million and counting (though Blekko admits it is more “illustrative more than scientifically accurate.”)
The reasoning for the spam clock, according to Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta:
“Millions upon millions of pages of junk are being unleashed on the web, a virtual torrent of pages designed solely to generate a few pennies in ad revenue for its creator. I fear that we are approaching a tipping point, where the volume of garbage soars beyond and overwhelms the valuable of what is on the web.”
So Blekko seems to be doing its small part for cleaning up its own search results.
Meanwhile, Google has also announced an algorithm change to combat spam. But as Mike Grehan notes in his column today “The Google Spam-Jam,” spam “is a problem that Google has had from day one and it’s not likely to go away anytime soon” with its current search model.