Google tweaks search algorithm to favor sites with original content

Google has tweaked the algorithm for its search engine so that Web sites with original content are prioritized above sites that copy from others.

In a blog post, Google search expert Matt Cutts said the move, which took effect this week, is an attempt to cut down on spam. Cutts said the change was "targeted" and will affect just about 2 percent of queries. He said less than a half percent of search results will change enough that someone "might really notice." "The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content," Cutts said in this post.