Why is Google offering users the ability to block results from my site?

Question

I was performing a search for a string and one of the pages was from one of my websites. However, I noticed something odd about the entry for my site:

This was the only page in the search results with such a link. Also, the page in question does not exist - it was moved to another URL months ago.

That leaves me with the following concerns:

• Why is it there and only on my site?
• How can I get Google to stop showing it?
• Is it even possible to get Google to stop showing it?
• Is there a better way my pages could be organized that would prevent this message?

Answer 1

This is a "feature" that was rolled out in March (since modified in the UI).

From the Google announcement (emphasis mine):

You’ve probably had the experience where you’ve clicked a result and it wasn’t quite what you were looking for. Many times you’ll head right back to Google. Perhaps the result just wasn’t quite right, but sometimes you may dislike the site in general, whether it’s offensive, pornographic or of generally low quality. For times like these, you’ll start seeing a new option to block particular domains from your future search results. Now when you click a result and then return to Google, you’ll find a new link next to “Cached” that reads “Block all example.com results.”

Answer 2

Did you first click the results link and then immediately back up to the search results again?
This is something Google added earlier this year. Basically, the assumption is that if you exhibit that behavior, the page you visited is undesirable and you might want to block the offending site. Just note that it's a result of what the user did, not any sort of inherent penalty on your domain, and it's not presented by default.

If a lot of people block you, however, that might result in a ranking adjustment.

Answer 3

Just to add to the above answers (FYI i am logged in) i have the following 2 entries displayed against search results:

Block XYZ.com - Report spam

Both of these relate to plug-ins installed within Chrome:

Personal Blocklist (by Google)

Google Webspam Report (by Google)

So there are alternative ways a potential search could see that type of information and block a site or domain.

With regard to your questions:

• Why is it there and only on my site? (See Mike Hudson's answer)

• How can I get Google to stop showing it? (not possible its been added to help a users experience when searching in Google by removing content from there results they find non-helpful)

• Is it even possible to get Google to stop showing it? (not at present)

• Is there a better way my pages could be organized that would prevent this message? (it is not displayed based on the way your pages are organised)