I recently read a slashdot article about a recent google experiment about how they are testing the ability for users to move up, or down, a given result. This article prompted discussion about how google could never the users preferences into their algorithm like that, due to spammers that would abuse it by paying people to “move up” their results.

Well in that discussion many users agreed, but said “let us set our individual preferences, and have google obey them in the results.” For example, a techie may want to never see results from http://www.expertsexchange.com/ since the don’t let you view content unless you pay them. The techie would enter that URL, and it would be forever omitted from the search results.

There is ALREADY a solution to this that does not involve google. If you are a firefox user, you can use an extension called CustomizeGoogle. The extension is ridiculously flexible. here is what it can do:

#1 - You can set up a blacklist of URLs or sites you DON’T want in your results.

The rest:

Use Google Suggest (suggest words while you’re typing)
Add links to competitors
Rewrite links to point straight to the images in Google Images
Removes image copying restrictions in Google Book Search
Secure Gmail and Google Calendar, switch to https
Block Google Analytics cookies
Hide the Gmail spam counter
Make URL previews on sponsored links visible
Add favicons in the web search result
Remove ads
Anonymize your Google userid
Add a result counter in search result
Filter spammy websites from search results
Add links to WayBack Machine (webpage history)
Remove click tracking
Add links from Google to your bookmark manager
Use a fixed font for Gmail mail bodies
Stream Google search result pages
Sticky Google Preferences