Google Search goes after fraudulent and manipulative DMCA takedown requests
The lawsuit alleges two men created over 65 Google accounts and submitted hundreds of thousands of fake DMCA takedown requests to remove competitors from the search results.
Topic: TorrentFreak
This day in search marketing history: January 7
The Spam Clock targets Google spam, plus: link removal request figures, loads of new tools and features, major search deals and more.
Google’s Pirate Update can cause 89% drop in search traffic for offending sites
A recent document Google sent to the U.S. Copyright Office shows just how much being hit by the Pirate Update can sting.
Google hiding addresses in local pack and should you write meta descriptions: Tuesday’s daily brief
Plus, Google News and Discover penalties
SearchCap: Google AMP stories, SEO complexities and algorithm updates
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How Google’s March, April and August updates might fit togetherSep 26, 2018 by Eric Enge In Google’s mind, does brand authority trump breadth and depth of content? Here’s a new perspective […]
SearchCap: Google drops feature phones, Sitemap file size increases & videos in panels
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How Google is tackling fake news, and why it should not do it aloneNov 30, 2016 by Ian Bowden What can Google do to combat fake news? Columnist Ian Bowden illustrates […]
SearchCap: Google mobile usability, AdWords bidding & more
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 Search Console testing new mobile usability reportJun 21, 2016 by Barry Schwartz Leaked screen shots show the new Google mobile usability testing tool gaining the same interface as the mobile-friendly […]
SearchCap: Bing Ads upgrades, Google & Yahoo testing & SEMPO board
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 Ads to support Expanded Text Ads: Shows new ads creator UIJun 7, 2016 by Ginny Marvin Advertisers will be able to run AdWords’ new longer text ad format on Bing, […]
Columbia University researchers claim 28% of Google’s URL takedown requests are invalid
Among the questionable DMCA notices, 4.2% of the takedown requests targeted sites that failed to include any copyright-infringing content.
SearchCap: Google Click To Call, App AdWords & Google Dance
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: App marketers can now upload customer IDs to AdWords for targeting on Google Display NetworkMar 7, 2016 by Ginny Marvin The new bulk IDFA/advertising ID upload feature helps developers try to […]
Google Received More Than 65 Million URL Takedown Requests In The Past Month
The current number of weekly URL copyright removal requests is nearly double what it was this time last year.
Piracy Groups Want Google To Remove The Whole Site After Valid DMCA Filings
Google writes a letter to the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator opposing whole-site removal over DMCA complaints.
DMCA Takedown Database ChillingEffects.org Takes Itself Out Of Search Results
The irony here is almost too obvious to mention: an entity dedicated to monitoring the potential “chilling effects” of DMCA takedown notices is censoring itself. Chillingeffects.org has now removed itself from search results, making those notices harder to find. Chillingeffects.org was created in roughly 2001 as an academic and public resource to monitor and record potentially improper DMCA requests. […]
Google Link Removal Requests Climb To 345 Million In 2014
Torrent Freak study reveals the number of Google's takedown notices were up 75% from 2013.
SearchCap: Google Rolls Out Pirate Update, Bing Adds MCC, Video Games In Knowledge Graph
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Reports: Google Pirate Update Has Rolled Out This Week Last week, we reported that Google will be pushing out an update to the Google Pirate Update in the upcoming weeks. It […]
Reports: Google Pirate Update Has Rolled Out This Week
Last week, we reported that Google will be pushing out an update to the Google Pirate Update in the upcoming weeks. It looks like Google pushed that update out a few days ago. Torrentfreak reports the update has impacted many torrent sites. Here is a screen shot of the SEO visibility for the site torrentz.eu […]
SearchCap: Google Multilingual, Bing Ads Editor Update & Google DMCA At New Levels
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’s Search App Is Now Truly Multilingual Around the world millions of people are multilingual or partly so. In the US, census data reflect that 20 percent of the population speaks […]
Google DMCA Notices Reach Record High With 7.8 Million Link Removal Requests Filed In One Week
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 26, 2014
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How A Single Guest Post May Have Gotten An Entire Site Penalized By Google Google made it clear earlier this year that those doing guest posts “for SEO purposes” might be […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 13, 2014
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Ryanair CEO Claims Airline Is Working With Google On A Flight Search & Comparison Tool In an interview published by Irish Independent, Irish airlines Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary claims his airline […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 30, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 2014 SEO Playbook: Off-Page Factors Are you ready for 2014? Today’s column marks the third and final entry in my annual SEO Playbook. Part 1 primarily focused on what Hummingbird will […]
French Court Orders Google, ISPs To Block Or Delist Video Sites
The High Court of Paris recently decided that French ISPs and search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) must completely block access or remove 16 copyright-infringing video sites from their indexes and search results. The case was originally filed in 2011. The successful plaintiffs were several France-based film and TV trade associations, including L’Association des Producteurs […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 12, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Social Media Marketing Tactics that Work – Next Week in Las Vegas Learn the latest tactics and best-practices for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Whether you’re managing your brand’s communities, […]
Two Years Later, BitTorrent Back In Google’s Auto Completions After Piracy Removal
Over two years ago, Google removed BitTorrent from the instant search auto-complete search suggestions. Now, it appears that when you begin typing [bit…] into the Google search box, Google now shows BitTorrent as a search suggestion within Google Instant search. Here is a screen shot of the search auto-completion within Google: Over the years, Google […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 9, 2013
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, […]
Bing Reports They Receive Hundreds Of Thousands Of DMCA Complaints Every Month
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 24, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Adobe First To Announce Support For Bing Product Ads Today, Adobe announced it’s first to market with support for Bing Product Ads. Very similar to Google Product Listing Ads, Bing Product […]
Google Continues Censoring Piracy-Related Search Suggestions By Blocking Grooveshark
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 5, 2013
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 In Pics: Xoogley Tesla, Google Lite Brite & Running Of The Non-Newtonian Fluids In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the Web, showing what […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 29, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Video: Google’s Matt Cutts On Advertorials & Webmaster Guidelines Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a new video today on YouTube clarifying Google’s stance on Advertorials and “native advertising.” […]
Google Refuses Hollywood Studio Requests To De-List File Storage Site Mega
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 […]
Hollywood Asks Google To Stop Listing Piracy Documentary, Claiming It’s Piracy Too
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 7, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Facebook Updates Newsfeed, No Impact On Graph Search (Today) We’ve covered this morning’s changes and enhancements to Facebook Newsfeed over at Marketing Land: Facebook Newsfeed Evolving Into “The Best Personalized Newspaper” […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 20, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: No, Google Hasn’t Released Unannounced Penguin UpdatesThe last time Google has confirmed a refresh or update to the Penguin algorithm was back in October 2012 with the 3rd Penguin update. The […]
50 Million Pages Removed From Google This Year Due To DMCA Piracy Reports
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 28, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Facebook Is Wikipedia’s Most Popular Article Of 2012: Hot Topic Or Confused Searchers? What was the most viewed article on Wikipedia this year? The one about Facebook. Is Facebook really that […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 13, 2012
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 Maps Is Back On The iPhone: Native iOS App Released Google has released its long-awaited map app for the iPhone. And it delivers all the expected features: voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, […]
Google Transparency Report Now Showing False Takedown Requests
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% […]
Fraudulent DMCA Requests Spike After The Google “Pirate Update” Algorithm
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. […]