Google Search helps kill bad content

So there I was, trying to find the lyrics to David Bowie's "Life on Mars." (Not that it helped, I still don't know what that song is about.) Anyway, I look up "life on mars" lyrics, and get a page that sure enough has lyrics. It makes sense that this page comes up first in the search - it's a site all about lyrics, and there's my Bowie song alright... so I'm good! However the webmaster decided, for some reason, to make the text of the song uncopiable. The only reason I was looking for the lyrics was to copy them onto the song in my iPod. But no, these people want to lock the information onto the page - presumably to keep me coming back to them, and looking at their PPC and banner ads. However, Google Search now has the option of deleting out a search result if you don't like it. Like this: 1 The offending site is listed first. But see that X box next to it? 2 When I click on it, Google lets me know that I'm altering my search results... 3 And poof! They are gone! Never to return whenever I run a similar search while logged into Google. If the first web site doesn't want to let me copy the lyrics listed on them, that is fine - I can now completely excise them from all of my searches, not see any of their ads, (which I might do if I came back to them later looking for other lyrics,) and they will lose money, and they'll miss car payments, and their kids won't get into the right schools... Google Search - Once again helping us all to stick it to the man!

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)