Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) has rolled out changes to its
U.S. search engine aimed at reducing the ranking of low-value or lesser quality
Web pages produced by "content farms."
Google said the change
"noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries."
"This update is
designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value
add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very
useful," the company wrote on its blog.
"At the same time, it will
provide better rankings for high-quality sites–sites with original content and
information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so
on."
Google noted that the changes do not take into account data from its
recently launched Personal Blocklist add-on for its Chrome browser — which
lets users block low-quality sites on their own — but said the new changes to
its search algorithm address 84% of the most-blocked domains using the tool.
Demand Media (NYSE: DMD), the publisher deemed by many to be a "content farm"
that recently held its IPO, said it has not yet noticed any changes.
"It’s
impossible to speculate how these or any changes made by Google impact any online
business in the long term — but at this point in time, we haven’t seen a
material net impact on our Content & Media business," the company
wrote on its blog.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4fvkwux
(Google blog)
http://tinyurl.com/64crsf8
(Demand Media blog)
