Now Google Is Helping You Block Search Spam With New Chrome Extension (GOOG)

Last week we told you about a custom code that will let you filter spam results from your Google search.

Today, Google is helping you out with a Chrome extension that makes this much easier.

The Personal Blocklist Extension lets you choose domain names to block and omits them from your Google search results. The sites are also sent to Google to help them determine which sites are actually spam.

After installing the extension, each search result will have a link next to it that says "block." Click it to add that domain to your block list.

Google warns that the extension is still "experimental" and should only be installed by the tech-savvy users.

You can download the Personal Blocklist for Chrome here. There's no word from Google about the extension coming to other browsers.

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See Also:

• Bing Engineer Accuses Google Of Profiting Off Search Spam
• Web Sites Gripe As Google's Anti-Spam Effort Kicks In
• In Another Blow At Content Farms, Google Could Let You Block Domain Names From Searches

Now Google Is Helping You Block Search Spam With New Chrome Extension (GOOG)

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The Block Album

Every few eons we get another RSS is dead swarm of stories, usually involving Dave Winer versus the rest of the universe. Sub-themes include dead calling is stupid, I found this post on RSS, and get off your porch grandpa. Typically Dave uses the event to launch yet another version of Radio 8 tricked out to convince us that his lack of business model business model beats traditional data silo roach motel closed software. It may sound like I am pursuing a personal vendetta. I’ll admit to some mixed emotions about Winer and his attempts to regain control of what he calls RSS but is in fact a new socially adept layer dominated by Twitter. Starting with my post several years ago on TechCrunch, I’ve stated the obvious, that RSS has become at best a formative technology that has led to the development of realtime social streams of citations.

The Block Album

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Comment on Broadcasters Block Google TV But Can’t Stop the Future by Michael

The broadcast networks may be getting billions today from the TV providers, but that gravy train is headed for a head-on collision. It has caused cable and satellite pricing to go up so much, people are saying "screw it", and dumping the entire subscription. Newspapers use to be an empire, too. Have you seen the Hearst Castle? Now look at them. Look at the record industry. If the TV content providers don't get the eyeballs any way they can, and SOON, there may not be any left.

Comment on Broadcasters Block Google TV But Can’t Stop the Future by Michael

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Facebook Mobile Makes It Easier To Track And Block Annoying Apps

Facebook appears to be taking privacy complaints more seriously: today it announced new privacy controls for the mobile version of the Facebook Web site.

Mobile users could already control what happened to information they posted on Facebook--for example, whether pictures could be shared only with friends, or friends of friends as well.

The new privacy controls extend to third-party applications. You can see how many you're using, see what information they're accessing, and then control what information you want them to have and how they can use it--for example, if they can post an update to all your friends every time you finish a game.You can also remove apps that you no longer want.

Mobile use is becoming an increasingly important part of the Facebook equation--for instance, social game developer Zynga, which distributes its games largely through Facebook, recently announced that 10 million people per month are accessing its games on mobile phones.

The privacy controls in the dedicated Facebook iPhone app still suck, though. Instead of offering an easy touch menu to control privacy settings like the mobile site, the Facebook app still kicks users out to the standard version of the Web site, where they have to hunt and peck through tiny menus to make these kinds of changes. If Facebook is really serious about mobile privacy, it should add the same kind of easy controls to the Facebook mobile apps--not just the mobile Web site.

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See Also:

• Too Bad Carol Bartz Didn't Realize Facebook Was Yahoo's Biggest Threat Two Years Ago
• Facebook Has It All Wrong When It Comes To Social Games
• Facebook Is Launching Redesigned Profile Pages

Facebook Mobile Makes It Easier To Track And Block Annoying Apps

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Oregon Senator Vows To Block Internet Blacklist Bill

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden vowed yesterday to take steps to block the controversial bill that would let the government effectively block access from the U.S. to sites involved in copyright infringement.

The Combating Online Infringements And Counterfeits Act (COICA) would let the Attorney General petition the courts to blacklist any website on which copyright infringement was a 'central' activity. Domain servers operating in the U.S. would be required to stop handling requests for sites on the blacklist.

COICA has broad support from both parties, and breezed through the Senate Judiciary Committee 19-0. But with just a few days left in the legislative session, one Senator can put up enough procedure hurdles to prevent a vote before 2011, at which point the bill will have to be resubmitted.

The bill has drawn fire from academics and free speech advocates on the grounds that the power it grants the government could easily be used to censor the Internet. Wyden likened giving such broad authority to the Attorney General to stop copyright infringement to "using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile."

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See Also:

• Full Text Of The Letter Where House And Senate Republicans Attack The Fed Over QE2
• How The Internet Correctly Predicted 36 Of 37 Senate Races

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