Usually Google makes announcements about shutting down features and projects in a "spring cleaning" post on its blog. That's how it announced earlier this month it was doing away with the Google Reader RSS service, and that move generated a ton of talk, much of it negative, from long time web users.
Today, it was discovered that Google has shut down another helpful service, but this time it did so quietly, with no advanced warning on its blog. This time, the victim is the Blocked Sites feature, which let users simply block any site they did not want to see listed in their own search results.
The feature was first launched with some fanfare by Google, in March 2011, with the company saying at the time, "We’re adding this feature because we believe giving you control over the results you find will provide an even more personalized and enjoyable experience on Google." Apparently, that's not the case anymore.
For users of Google's own Chrome web browser, they still have the option to install the Personal Blocklist Chrome extension. People who use other browser such as IE, Firefox and Safari are now out of luck if they want to block certain sites from their search results on Google.
Thanks to Max Norris for the tip!
Source: Google | Image via Google
32 Comments - Add comment