Google, with the world's leading search engine, has announced a major change to its algorithm designed to lower the rankings of sites that copy content from elsewhere or are otherwise not particularly useful.
The overhaul is designed to lower the rankings of what Google deems "low-quality" sites. Though Google didn't use the term in its blog post, it was widely perceived as another attempt to foil what have come to be called "content farms."
A number of businesses, like Demand Media, specialize in throwing up quick stories, videos or how to instructions on popular topics, often relying heavily on original material from other publications.
Though the quality is often low, the material frequently ranks highly in search results thanks to the use of headlines and popular keywords that catch the attention of search algorithms. Consumers and technology critics have increasingly complained that the material clutters up search results, and undermines the value of Google.
The change announced late Thursday has already been implemented in the United States and will roll out overseas eventually. It noticeably affects 11.8 percent of queries, dropping the rankings of low-quality sites and boosting those with original content, research and analysis, the company said.
Google is wading into tricky territory by acting as the arbiter of what's legitimate content and what isn't. It essentially requires training its algorithm to distinguish good writing from bad, original content from repurposed and valid analysis from bunk.
Demand Media said it doesn't consider itself a "content farm."
"Most of the changes that we make, and we make lots of them, are nowhere close to this level of impact," said Google Fellow Amit Singhal, who is in charge of Google's search algorithm.
It's too soon to know whether the change will be enough to silence critics, some of whom said before the change was announced that Google has not fought hard enough against these sites because it shares in the advertising revenue they generate.
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