London, February 28: Google has reengineered its search engine to relegate “low-quality” websites, in a move that will be seen as an effort to improve its relations with newspapers and magazines.
Dozens of so-called “content farms” aim to attract traffic by producing web pages designed to rank highly when users search for common or topical words,
Google says that such “shallow” material can be “not very useful” for users.
The firm says the “major improvement” in its search algorithms will instead favor “original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”
“It is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does,” Google engineers say.
To begin with, the changes will apply to search results for US users only, with the rest of the world to follow later.
Around 12 percent of queries will be affected, Google says.
Demand Media, the leading content farm, which plans a multibillion-dollar Initial Public Offering (IPO) this year, said it had seen some of its pages’ search rankings relegated and some promoted as a result of Google’s action.
——–Agencies