farming

The 404 786: Where we would really appreciate the tour (podcast)

The 404 Digest for Episode 786

Jeff spent all weekend making socially awkward penguin memes. A picture tour of the CNET office. Everything you need to know about Firefox 4. Setting the record straight costs celebrities $1,000 a year. European Union proposes legislation for "right to be forgotten." New app shields you from annoying celebrity news.

Morgan Freeman gaming box art from Eddy and Jason. The Oatmeal comic submissions by Justin, Attariq, and Cameron (pictured).

Episode 786 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

How to permanently block sites from Google search

Google recently updated its algorithm to take down Web sites that use SEO to game search results and up their ranking, but spam still dominates results. Search for something like "how to lose weight" and a flurry of content farms will appear.

Content farms simply hire low-paid freelancers to write articles about every topic in existence, allowing their Web sites to rank high in Google search results. The result? Unqualified, haphazardly written posts that can bury more reputable sources and delay the time it takes to get the answers you're looking for.

In response to these content farms, you can now permanently block Web sites from search results. Make use of this tip (in the video below)--Google is likely noting users' blocks to identify Web sites it should manually lower the ranking of.

… Read more

FarmVille grooms English Countryside

FarmVille players who reach level 20 in the social game will now be tasked with working the land in rural England, Zynga said today.

Once they have access to the English Countryside, players will head there with a duke concerned that the farms on his land "have fallen into disrepair." Players get new land in the countryside and must build up their crops from scratch.

FarmVille has been an absolute success for Zynga. Currently, the title has 44 million active gamers around the world that play it each month--though that figure has been waning. Last August, Zynga noted … Read more

Smartphone growth brings Internet to open road

Add e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook to the growing list of distractions that drivers admit to indulging in while behind the wheel--a recent survey found that smartphone owners are using their mobile devices for more than just talking, despite driving laws and common sense.

Insurance giant State Farm conducted a survey of 912 drivers to learn how smartphones were affecting drivers. Of the licensed drivers that owned a smartphone and reported driving at least 1 hour per week, 19 percent admitted using the Internet while on the go. Looking up directions on their phones counted as using the Internet, but drivers … Read more

Google now lets you block sites from search results

Those of you tired of seeing the same useless sites pop up in your Google search results can now stop those sites from appearing.

A new option launched yesterday by the search giant lets you hide specific domains that keep popping up in your search results, preventing them from showing up again.

Depending on the type of searches you run, you may now see a link called "Block all [name of site] results" next to the cached link for certain results. Click on the link, and Google will ask for confirmation on whether you really want to remove … Read more

Report: Angry Birds coming to Facebook in May

Angry Birds won't be making its way to Facebook anytime soon, a new report claims.

According to The Next Web, which says it spoke with Rovio's Peter Vesterbecka, the wildly popular game won't be available on Facebook until May, two months after it was expected to launch on the social network.

Last week, Rovio announced that Angry Birds would be coming to Facebook and said it would launch in March. Vesterbecka reportedly told The Next Web that he was "not sure how the March date got in there."

Rovio did not immediately respond to request … Read more

HubPages' ad program: We're the anti-content farm

Given the fuss about Demand Media--its IPO, its controversial business model, the fact that Google seems to be hellbent on clearing its "content farm" brethren out of front-page search results--it's no surprise that companies are pitching themselves as the "anti-Demand Media." In other words, they're hoping there's a space for a mass producer of online content that improves rather than pollutes (as some critics of Demand have suggested) search engine results.

One of them, HubPages, plans today to formally unveil an advertising program it says will bring "premium" advertisements to … Read more

Google to content farms: It's war

Google has set in motion the changes that it announced recently to combat "content farms"--companies that produce large amounts of inexpensive, search-engine-optimized content that have been frequently decried for their low quality.

But will there be sweeping changes in the way we view and navigate the Web? It's hard to tell just yet.

"In the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking--a change that noticeably impacts 11.8 percent of our queries--and we wanted to let people know what's going on," Google said in a blog post … Read more

Google search to reward high-quality sites

With the latest changes to its search algorithm, Google is aiming to reward Web sites that offer original, in-depth content at the same time that it penalizes those that simply borrow content from others.

Rolled out this week, the changes will help ensure that sites considered to be of "high quality" will rank higher in Google's search results, while those deemed of "low quality" will get dumped lower in the ranks, according to a blog posted yesterday by Google fellow Amit Singhal and principal engineer Matt Cutts.

Google is clearly looking to crack down on &… Read more