Going on Google’s recent takedown notice numbers, it looks as if the site may be spending as much time on link removal requests as it is algorithm updates. According to TorrentFreak, Google is now processing an average of more than a million takedown requests a day, an enormous increase from five years ago when the […]
On the heels of Europe’s “Right to Be Forgotten” ruling, a British Columbia court in Canada has ruled Google must block a group of websites worldwide. The case was opened by industrial networking devices manufacturer Equustek Solutions, Inc. to block a network of websites it claims are owned by former associates who stole trade secrets […]
The Guardian reports that Google may add a indication in the search results that content has been removed due to the Right To Be Forgotten European Union requirements issued last month. Google told us a couple weeks ago that they will indeed add disclosure in the search results when something is removed from their search […]
Depending on what you read, a “Right To Be Forgotten” court ruling in the European Union this week means that now anyone can ask for anything to be removed from Google, which will soon collapse under an overwhelming number of requests. In reality, it’s far more limited than it sounds, though the ruling does raise […]
One of the most frustrating experiences for any publisher is discovering that someone not only has copied your content but outranks you on Google for searches related to that content. Now, Google seems to have heard the complaints and has launched a tool to help. Called the Google Scraper Report, it was announced by the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Reports They Receive Hundreds Of Thousands Of DMCA Complaints Every Month Because of their share of the search market, Google is most frequently targeted by copyright holders filing DMCA complaints, […]
Because of its share of the search market, Google is most frequently targeted by copyright holders filing DMCA complaints, but the search giant is not the only one managing requests to remove unlawful links from search results. TorrentFreak reports Bing not only receives a great number of takedown notices monthly, but Microsoft submits DMCA complaints […]
TorrentFreak reports Google has added another website to the piracy block list for their instant search suggestions. The site is named Grooveshark, which is a popular free music streaming service. Google would not comment specifically about Grooveshark, but told TorrentFreak, “our algorithms prevent terms closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete.” Back in January […]
Google’s Eric Schmidt says that the entertainment industry should focus on taking content pirates to court, rather than just trying to get Google (and other search engines) to remove pirate sites from search results. His comments, reported by Variety, came yesterday during an impromptu chat with reporters at an annual financial conference in Sun Valley, […]
In recent weeks, Hollywood studios NBC Universal and Warner Bros both submitted DMCA takedown requests asking Google to de-list the file storage website Mega from its search index. According to a report on TorrentFreak, NBC Universal claimed Mega’s homepage linked to the NBC-owned film Mama, while Warner Bros alleged Mega made pirated copies of its film […]
The recently released TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay – Away from Keyboard, a documentary that sympathizes with the founders of the infamous file sharing website The Pirate Bay, has become the target of fraudulent link takedown requests from major Hollywood Studios, including Viacom, Paramount, Fox and Lionsgate. After its February release on The Pirate Bay […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search Engine Land’s Most Read Stories Of 2012: Google Places Goes Google+, Panda, Penguin & More What were our most popular stories on Search Engine Land over the past year? Below, […]
We know that the number of DMCA requests have risen since Google introduced its Pirate Update, a penalty against sites that have an unusual number of legitimate DMCA requests filed against them. But what’s the count? TorrentFreak.com did the math and counted that Google took down over 50 million search results or URLs in 2012 alone. To be exact, Google removed 51,395,353 […]
TorrentFreak reports that Google updated their transparency report to now show the number and specific details on the false takedown requests attempted. You can see this level of detail by going to a specific takedown request. For example, looking at takedown request ID 266534 shows that of the 886 URLs reported for DMCA violations, 3% […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Take Twitter Campaigns To The Next Level With SEO Data You drive amazing amounts of traffic to your sites, grow conversions and engage with thousands of users over social media. Want […]
Remember in August Google launched a new algorithm we coined the Pirate Update? It basically looked at the number of valid DMCA takedown requests processed and used that data to downgrade the rankings of sites that were found to be abusive in this area. Since then, it appears some people have been abusing the algorithm. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Deconstructing The Google EMD Update Well, it’s official – no more free lunch for EMD, now that the Google EMD Update has launched. It worked well, for a long time. A […]
Google says that YouTube isn’t going to somehow solely escape its new “pirate penalty.” Any popular site may be OK, as the penalty works off of more than pure copyright infringement reports. Nuances in calculating the penalty should save popular user-generated content sites, the company said. The Pirate Penalty Initially, it sounded as if sites […]
Google has announced that it will soon penalize sites that are repeatedly accused of copyright infringement. But one site in particular doesn’t need to worry: Google’s own YouTube. It has a unique immunity against the forthcoming penalty. POSTSCRIPT: Please also be sure to read our follow-up article, Google: Many Popular Sites Will Escape Pirate Penalty, Not […]
Has someone filed a large number of DMCA “takedown” requests against your site? If so, look out. There’s a new penalty that may cause you to rank lower in Google’s search results. It joins other penalties (also called “filters” or “updates”) such as “Panda” and “Penguin.” We’re dubbing this one the “Pirate Update” as it’s aimed […]
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has once again come out swinging at Google, saying the company isn’t doing enough to fight copyright infringement online. But it may be that the RIAA itself is guilty of that charge. In a blog post this week, RIAA Executive VP Brad Buckles shares what the organization calls […]
Microsoft says it does send copyright-related takedown requests to its own search engine, Bing, in addition to the multitude of requests that it sends to Google. This comes on the heels of yesterday’s news that Microsoft is the number one submitter of copyright-related URL removal requests to Google. It sent more than 500,000 such requests […]
Google announced they have enhanced the Google Transparency Report to include the removal requests to take down individual search results from showing up in Google. In fact, Google has told us in the past month they have received 1,246,713 removal requests from 24,129 different target domains of 1,296 copyright owners by 1,087 reporting organizations. So […]
Many webmasters have been desperately trying to fix poor SEO work done to a site thanks to the recent Penguin update targeting webspam and the bad link warnings sent from Google. The only current way to discredit a link is to have it removed as reverse nofollow functionality for webmasters simply doesn’t exist. One recent example of a link removal request was particularly […]
A popular Irish hotel has sued Google for defamation because Google’s autocomplete feature suggests to searchers that the hotel is in receivership. Searchers looking for the Ballymascanlon Hotel — a four-star property that’s reportedly one of the most popular wedding venues in northeast Ireland and is not in financial trouble — see “ballymascanlon hotel receivership” […]
Why does search giant Google care about Isohunt, a search engine that few have ever heard of? That’s the question raised in a Paid Content report. Turns out Google filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a civil case against Isohunt Web Technologies, a BitTorrent site, because it’s concerned the court will set a precedent it doesn’t […]
Looking for the Wikileaks website? Having lost one domain, and having its second site going down temporarily, it’s a challenge, even for the search engines.
As expected, Viacom is planning to appeal its loss in a long-running copyright case against YouTube/Google. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Viacom may file its appeal as soon as tomorrow (Friday). Viacom sued YouTube in early 2007, claiming copyright infringement because YouTube users had posted thousands of clips from Viacom-owned programs. The case […]
Anyone who has found that their content has been stolen (or scraped) online faces the decision of either letting it go (and using best practices that help Google rank things correctly) or dealing with the cumbersome task of filling out a DMCA infringement notice. Those who are falsely accused of copyright violations have to deal […]
As a site owner, you generally want Google to index as many pages of your site as possible. But there are certainly times when you find that you’ve accidentally let Google index confidential content or other information you don’t want published, and you want to get it removed as quickly as possible. Read on for […]
Google has won a “motion for summary judgment” in its bitterly fought lawsuit with Viacom over YouTube. This ruling effectively ends the case. Google has won, at least in this court. Viacom vows to appeal.
The three-year-old lawsuit in which Viacom is seeking $1 billion from Google over copyrighted videos on YouTube moved a step forward today with the release of several court documents. The three documents unsealed today are:
Color me tired. I got a report of a site that reprinted one of our articles without permission. Checking it out, I discovered that miserable combination of someone making money off content they don’t own, paying nothing to host that stolen content on Google’s Blogger service and earning off that content through Google’s AdSense ads. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Now Showing Ads On iPhone Map We got a tip from Anthony Avolio yesterday, who pointed out that Google was showing ads on Maps on the iPhone. Until then I […]
If you search for thepiratebay in Google and scroll to the bottom of the search results, you may notice that Google has said they removed search results from the page due to a complaint they received “under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.” The result they removed included the Pirate Bay’s home page. Here is […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
From the “How Not To Promote Yourself” file: Google is advertising its Google Maps service on the New York subway system with a few well-placed ads that give directions between points of interest in the city. Only the directions they’re giving aren’t always right. As AdAge points out, one ad tries to help people find […]
Online video destination Voeh Networks was sued in 2006 for copyright infringement by IO Group (an adult video producer). The facts in the case and claims are generally similar to those of Viacom vs. YouTube. Yesterday a federal District Court judge in California issued a ruling that, barring an appeal by IO, vindicates Veoh and […]
You may recall that the failure of Google and Viacom, which owns MTV and Comedy Central among other properties, to negotiate an agreement to work together (read: revenue sharing) resulted in a very public Viacom-Google “pissing match” over copyright infringement and whether Google had made good faith efforts to protect against it. (Danny has an […]
Each month, I compile Search Month — a recap of all the stories that have happened relating to search, categorized by topic. I thought it would be fun to take all the Search Months over the past year and produce this edition of Search Year 2007. It was far more work than I imagined, but […]