[dazc]

No, 'gamed' as in mass blocking one's competitor's results. If you think ads are bad you should take a peep into the world of 'negative seo'.

I can assure you that any solution you can think of that will improve web search will be used in the exact opposite way you imagine.

[_Algernon_]

You can allow individuals to customize their own search results without having to use that more broadly.

[janalsncm]

I do this now. There are plenty of chrome plugins to block domains from the results.

[flir]

So Google was using the blocklists as a signal of site quality?

Seems the problem's not the blocking itself then, and the whole feature didn't need to be removed, just its use as a metric.

[moneywoes]

Was that feature not akin to the report button