How can I avoid sites that scrape and republish others?

Question

Usually I use Google for search. Over the last few months most of the top search results I get are for sites that only seem to exist to scrape others. For example these ones scrape Microsoft's forums: Go4Answers, MSDN.iTags.Org, Tech-Archive, etc...

I only ever want to see the source content in search results and never want to see these types of sites.

Google Custom Search and its filtering options looked good initially but the results page lacks so many of the features of the standard Google search engine, I've found myself avoiding it.

Is there a good way to banish these types of sites?

Answer 1

Add a star to the results that come from the site that you like. Over time Google should favour results from those sites.

Not a bulletproof solution, but you should start getting more personalized results.

Answer 2

Block the site from the search results

Just login to your account and then go to Manage Blocked Sites, there you can add the domain of the offending site (remember to include the http:// prefix).

Example:

http://blogs.technet.com
http://technet.microsoft.com
http://mobile.experts-exchange.com
http://experts-exchange.com

All the pages within the blocked sites will be blocked, so you don't need to add subdomains.

Note: Google allows you to block up to 500 sites.