Blekko has launched a new AdSpam algorithm it says is the first of its kind created to find spam rather than rank results.

The algorithm is aimed at flagging pages which are spam and zapping them before they appear in search results.

Blekko says its AdSpam technology has identified 1.1 million domains as spam and removed them from its search index. Previously Blekko banned the top 20 content farms via curation efforts of its user base.

The Blekko Blog has more details. “So what is exactly is AdSpam? In short, it is a machine-learning algorithm that examines pages for a specific spam signals — the presence of multiple display ad positions on a single page and thin to zero content. Unlike algorithms used by other search engines, AdSpam is being used in conjunction with human curation to detect to continue the War on Spam.”

“So in a time where spam-free search is becoming increasingly important, you can be sure that Blekko’s new AdSpam technology will scan every new page on the Web before it gets added to Blekko search results. We believe the way to better search results is by using an algorithm that was created to kill spam, not just crawl it.”