Google just added a welcome new feature to its search engine that allows users to block unwanted sites from appearing on the search engine results page (SERP).
Allow me to cite one example. My pet peeve is a site called Experts Exchange. Whenever I do a Google search for a technical problem of any kind involving Microsoft Windows, that site is invariably among the listed choices offering a solution.
Unfortunately, in order to see the answer to that particular problem, you must first sign up for a free 30-day trial. To do so, you must provide not only an e-mail address but a credit card number that is required to "validate" your free trial. Riiight. Not to worry, though: they are quick to add that "You will never be charged during your free trial and you can cancel at any time." Whew; I am so relieved.
Sorry, folks; that is never going to happen. I do not want to encounter that nonsense ever again; with Google's new feature, now I don't have to.
Google's own web site describes how to block specific sites from search results. The steps to actually block a site seem to work just fine as long as you have a Google profile and are logged on to it.
My heartburn comes from Google's instruction that says "Whenever your search results would have included pages from that [blocked] domain, you'll see a message at the top or bottom of the page reminding you that the domain was blocked." I have yet to see any such message or notification.
Even more problematical is Google's statement that users can "[a]dd or remove blocked sites using the Blocked Sites page which is accessible via your Search Settings page when you're signed in." Hard as I looked, I could not find any reference to the Blocked Sites page anywhere in my Search Settings.
The only way I could find to navigate my way to the Blocked Pages site was to conduct a dummy search, visit any site shown in the results, and click on the link to block that site. That link then transformed into a link entitled Managed Blocked Sites. Clicking that link in turn finally threw me into the Manage Blocked Sites page. There I could freely add new sites to block and mark previously blocked sites to unblock, including the most recent blocked site that served only as a vehicle to access the settings.
However, that process struck me as a truly awkward and artificial contrivance. Why should users have to arbitrarily block any random site just to access the settings? As I am writing this masterpiece, today marks only the first or second day after Google's release of this new feature. Hopefully over the next few days, Google will smoothe out these rough edges.
Until then, I have discovered a very simple workaround: while in the Manage Blocked Sites page for the first time, simply bookmark that page as you would bookmark any other web site. For most people, the applicable url should be http://www.google.com/reviews/t or, if you are like me and use only encrypted Google searches, https://encrypted.google.com/reviews/t.
Bingo! Now we're cooking with gas. With that one bookmark, I now have total flexibility. Any time I want, I can simply click my new bookmark and then easily block any site or sites that might offend my delicate sensibilities.
As the old Alka-Seltzer commercial once said, "Try it; you'll like it."
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