Google announced that it is testing algorithmic changes for scraper sites – blog scrapers in particular. The company is calling on users to help them.
“We are asking for examples, and may use data you submit to test and improve our algorithms,” the company says on a “Report Scraper Pages” form, found here.
Google’s head of web spam, Matt Cutts, tweeted about the new initiative:
http://t.co/6HPhROS We need datapoints for testing.
Scrapers getting you down? Tell us about blog scrapers you see:This testing comes after months of iterations of Google’s Panda Update, designed to improve the quality of search results, though there has been no shortage of complaints about scrapers ranking over original content in that time.
The testing also follows a recent, big refresh of Google’s spam submission process, discussed here.
This past week, Google shared an interesting video, providing an inside look at the search algorithm tweaking process. While no earth shattering information was necessarily contained, it did provide a rare visual glimpse into the process. Watch it below.