Is it Wise to Let Users Blacklist Domains?
A user named ‘bradly’ from a community called Hacker News asked Matt Cutts this question the other day: “Matt, can you speak about the possibility for personal domain blacklists for Google accounts? I know giving users the option to remove sites from their own search results is talked about a lot in these HN threads. Is there any talk internally about implementing something like this?”
Matt’s response was typically friendly and helpful, and seemed to suggest that it’s something Google are looking to implement in the future: “We’ve definitely discussed this. Our policy in search quality is not to pre-announce things before they launch. If we offer an experiment along those lines, I’ll be among the first to show up here and let people know about it.”
The consensus that is snowballing from this exchange is that users would have power over domains in an authoritative sense should Google implement such a feature. That if enough people were to blacklist a domain then it would hurt its overall authority, and affect site rankings.
A dangerous game? Possibly. There are all sorts of scenarios to consider for search marketing if the above comes into play. Black hat SEO and other techniques are nothing new – what happens if a trader gets enough of his friends or colleagues to blacklist a legitimate domain in the name of profit? How will Google deal with the potential of ‘mass-voting’ domains down the SERPs?
All speculation at the moment, but a more feasible scenario is what happens if somebody purchases a blacklisted domain with a view to improving the site? Does everything get reset to give the new owners a proper chance? It'll be a kick in the teeth if they invest a lot of money into eCommerce web design only to have factors such as this dictate their rankings.
Google are always looking to improve the quality of their search service, and if this helps to personalise people’s preferences in search results then it should be something of a hit – a new way to combat spam, perhaps?
But if rolled out, Google will have a lot of work on their hands during the trial period to ensure that the system remains fear, equal and ethical.
