Can Experts Exchange be excluded from search results?

[DryHeat122]

Dude instead of lecturing us about freedom, etc., why don't you try using a commonsense definition of spam? Is it an unsolicited commercial message that is of no benefit to the user, is mixed in with info they want, and is only designed to get them to buy a product/service? Yes. Is Google helping the spammers distribute this spam through search results. Yes. So get rid of it. If your usage guidelines don't allow you to do that then you need to change your usage guidelines.

[CrookedAsterisk]

Fun fact: Experts Exchange put a hyphen in their domain name because "expertsexchange" could be interpreted as "expert sex change".

[hellmind]

This is so wrong, they know that the content of Experts Exchange is useless and they keep showin it as an useful result.

Why?

Because they pay to rank or They just use the manual penalty trigger on really bad sites?.

[DarinNat]

I agree... they do cloak... randomly

[estanuk]

Fuck you google for continuously showing me spammy and shitty search results. FUCK YOU IN THE ASS!!!

[Sumerah]

Thanks Google, for not finding the results I need.

[drspliff2008]

They absolutely do cloak - I've verified it many times.

Shame we don't have the 'Remove' option anymore, when they did I removed them from all my results and Google still display them.

[CamiloSantana]

they *do* cloak. The cached page and regular page show different results. This is a violation. Remove them.

[desbest4]

Google is stupid. The cached page shows the answer to the question, but the real web address does not.

[twentius777]

fvck experts-sxchange.. B.S. Annoying Son of a B. I Hate it for the rest of my lfe!

[gerrywastaken]

Not any more that searchwiki had been changed to remove the delete function. To top it off experts exchange's deceptive practices just got worse to the point where they no longer show the results at the bottom for at least one link where I had to use google's cache instead. I'd post links showing examples, but thankfully google doesn't allow me to post them in a youtube comment.

[xybersurfer]

@GoogleWebmasterHelp you claim that the content is there, by telling me to look at the cached page. this only further proves that the google bots are seeing it differently from me (but you claimed it was the same at 0:33). why do i even have to use the cache? (this sounds like a bad policy to me. i don't like playing these games)

[ellipsis999]

@xybersurfer you're misinterpreting what Matt has said. Matt is saying that the Google Cache does in fact reflect what the general user sees on the page - he is not saying you must refer to the cache to get your answers.

The Experts-Exchange answers are at the bottom of their pages! Scroll down.

This content is the same as what is on the cached page, the content they present is not cloaked, it's simply inconveniently located on their page.

[xybersurfer]

@ellipsis999 yeah i knew about this already, but at the time Experts-Exchange seemed to have changed their page to not even show anything at the bottom.

[clembashing]

the voltaire quote does not apply at all.

voltaire would defend your right to say something, but wouldn't go around spending his own money to promote the ideas that he disagrees with.

google should defend experts-exchange's right to exist... but should they give them the top result often even when someone asked the question on experts-exchange but it wasn't answered?

[cdnpiconline]

cloaking ?

[bwrightau]

So Google Gets PAY 1000 dollars for the answer? And that is ranked high?

[scottwilkins]

Great article. EE has stolen money from me, so I hate them.

[mplungjan]

@scottwilkins I am sure there are more to your story than "They stole money from me" ...

[eegorebulbous]

surfclarity is a firefox addon that you can use to exclude them from the search results. The interface is a bit crappy, but it works (there's some text in the bottom-right of the firefox status bar that you click on if you can't figure out how to use it after installing)

[Alexeixx3]

I wish that fuc#@%$ site was removed

[EvanCarroll]

We can all it is all annoying and spammy. Being annoyed, I'm less likely to use your search engine, and because of that less likely to see the Google advertisements. This is a legitimate complaint. And, you acknowledged quite subtly that they're working around your weak rules.

[PatrickMoog]

Good answer, but can you please do it anyways ;)

[theedodger]

SearchWiki has been disabled. Great job guys.

[mplungjan]

1. when you arrive from Google, scroll down to see the answer OR

2. become an expert, answer 2 questions a month for free access to all resources

3. StackOverflow(at least to my eye) seems to much more be techies for techies rather than experts for non-experts like at EE, at least in my zones which are web-dev/javascript

[MrAndrewMr]

"nobody likes them, but formally they dont' violate our rules, so we'll keep crap your search results with these b**s in sake of freedom of speech". What a bullshit!

I use search not for their priceless rules (I don't even know them), but for accurate and valuable results. If I get my results spammed with those guys, I get disappointed regardless the number of rules those spammers managed to evade.

[mahalie23]

Did he say "if you use search wiki" - what's that? I'm not sure I hear him right, but I definitely like to remove Experts Exchange from my results.

[theapparatus]

The answer is no longer there in the cached copy stored by Google. It now says you have to log in.

The answers are available though if you view the web page source.

Please consider removing the site.

[mplungjan]

@theapparatus If there is an answer to the question, it is available if you scroll down immediately from google. Alternatively just become an expert for free.

[theapparatus]

@mplungjan Actually that's what it used to be. If you looked at the cache within Google, what Matt says, they stopped doing this months ago. They no longer display the answer to Google and Google no longer displays the answer in it;s cache. Matt said that if they did that, the site would be dropped.

[mplungjan]

@theapparatus Did you try searching google for "Can Twitter track the originating IP Address?", click the EE result and scroll down? I cleared cache, cookies from EE and did this again in FF 3.6.6 just now

[mplungjan]

@theapparatus I do not know where you come from. I get this TODAY - I just tested using a non-logged-in safari: twitpic : 1tunlg

[theapparatus]

@mplungjan Please kindly drop that attitude. Rudeness is not wanted nor requested.

[mplungjan]

@theapparatus What rudeness, I said I do not know where you come from in your browser. No rudeness intended

[theapparatus]

For whatever reason, Youtube won;t allow me to copy and paste my walkthrough. When I look at the cache, I get nothing but "All comments and solutions are available to Premium Service Members only..." I can't even copy and paste that.  Please note others have also said the same in other comments.

The answers are not provided in the Google cache.

For reference, I;m using Firefox 3.6.6

And youtube needs to fix their "Error, try again" error to explain that the problem is.

[sonicflare0]

Hey, now they violate the rules. You can't scroll to the bottom anymore!

however, the cached version is still there.

The rules say, that site SHOULD NOT give different content for the web-crawler and the end-user. But now they do!

So, could you remove them now?

[Snytkine]

I agree, I hate experts exchange too and when I see then in search results I just never ever click on them. This is because I am 100% sure that I will NOT ever find the answer to my question there. They only list the question, and you have to register with them to see the answer. This is bate n' switch to mee

[goldreserve]

In EE the answers are always at the bottom of the page

[vikas72]

Actually you will find ezdia a much better plaform than expert exchange. You have a integrated search engine and if you do not find the answer you can connect to an expert.

[snowboradchick89]

actually experts-exchange is incredibly helpful!!! if you're looking for an answer they have it. I know the page says "register to view answer," but all you have to do is scroll down to the bottom of the page and you can see all past answers. They know that people don't scroll, so they gave us this ;). A helpful service once you learn this :)

[DiabloNoIP]

You rule, man. Now i at least don't hate Exp. Exchg. :) Really heplful post, though. Thanks

[Phallout]

I certainly don't like it since they changed everything (years ago) but... the answer is usually at the bottom and if it isn't, just clear your cookies and revisit the page. Works like a charm and I don't have to give them a dime. On a side note: I would pay to not be annoyed if their rates were REASONABLE!

[mplungjan]

@Phallout Become an expert, it is free

[johnlo23]

I also want to exclude Experts Exchange from my search results but this video gets it all wrong.

We don't want to remove EE because it's 'spammy' or just because we don't like it. EE makes Google less useful. I use Google to find answers. When a high ranked result says we have to pay for the answer, then that result is useless.

I think possibly Google is making some revenue for ranking EE's teases so high.

[vikas72]

I think that there is another powerful platform - eZdia. With its own search engine, it is possible to find experts and knowledge at eZdia. Join eZdia and you will love it.

[StephaneGrappelli]

I agree with the question, however I absolutely don't agree with the answer!

[StephaneGrappelli]

experts-exchange is so annoying!!!!

there should be in search-wiki an option to block a website!

this is true chutzpa, experts-exchange is annoying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!

[StephaneGrappelli]

Thanks for posing it.

I have the same pain as you have!!!!

expert-exchange so sucks!!!!!!!!!

[pgjr00]

Seems to me nobody appreciates talent in our society any longer.

[friday13th]

I completely agree with the question, Experts Exchange is the most annoying site around

[Zoiros85]

Add:

-site:experts-exchange(dot)com

at the end of your search and it will be removed form the search.

[YaoMingbaby]

I would ban them. They give nothing of value 100% of the time

[nintendo9231889]

You can remove any site altogether with the customizegoogle extension for firefox. I used to be annoyed at Experts Exchange until I realized they have a free backdoor for signing up: tinyurl ckotvg

Here's the real url in case the above one is dead: tinyurl odozjm

[mplungjan]

@nintendo9231889 Not a backdoor. Simply the page to use to sign up as expert for free

[dzejms]

Stack Overflow FTW!

[adicro]

People still think they cloak?!

Many a times I found quality answers to tech problems over there.

[JamesGecko]

Wow, he's right. I was pretty positive that they'd stopped doing it, but you *can* scroll down to the bottom of an experts exchange page and see the full results. Try it yourself.

[GarethAdams]

ONLY if you click through from the Google results page. Copy the URL you get sent to into a NEW tab/window and watch the answer magically vanish.

[JamesGecko]

Ok, yeah. That is slimy.

[knoopx]

google, ban them from the index! their pages are useles and they are tricking you!

[GarethAdams]

Well, the Google cache IS the same as the page you see if you click through from a Google search result, but if you visit a question page WITHOUT going through Google you don't see the answer.

Find an Experts Exchange question in a Google search and click through. Note the answer at the bottom of the page. NOW, copy/paste the URL into the address bar of a new tab and hit Return. Notice that the resulting page has NO VISIBLE ANSWER!

How is this not a violation of Google's terms?

[wagawuga]

You guys don't understand:

- EE is NOT cloaking -> that means Google cache == as real page, you just have to scroll down

- Users (who know about scrolling) want EE results to be shown, because the quality of the answers is good.

[kevinargh]

I think it's best left the way it is. EE is motivated to answer more questions and be more helpful than free message boards because they're getting money. Meanwhile, those of us that know about the Google cache get our answers for free and benefit from the fact that EE wants to maintain high rank. And the people that actually pay are probably getting their money's worth or they wouldn't be paying. win-win-win

[kodybryson]

I will actually argue with your response. You don't get to the truth of the matter. Users are tricked into looking at EE pages. We groan and go back to the results.

This a waste of time. EE has found a hole to exploit in Google. Users don't really want their pages, so why rank them so high? They get credit for every click.

This is a bug. People don't want EE results. They're tricked, giving them a higher ranking than they deserve. It's self perpetuating, and EE knows this.

[cchana]

i never knew the solution was available at the bottom of the cached page! I'd always scrolled down and seen the 'register blah blah blah' messages and was under the impression that they were showing googlebot something different. thanks for pointing it out, matt

[tattoos01]

I have never even heard of Experts Exchange till now.

Did a search for them and noticed the new drop down search suggestions... Nice!

Great plug for experts exchange, which BTW did not look anymore spammy than some of the other "answer" type sites.

Cheers.