They also show other information in the search results, including a title, snippet of text and a preview window. All of these can be updated independently of each other.

To remove a word from a cache, preview or snippet of text you would need to do one of the following:

1) Contact the site owner and ask him/her to remove the word from the page entirely.

2) Ask the site owner to take the page down from the web. If you can get a 404 “page not found” error, that would be best.

Only then can Google remove or update the cache, preview or snippet of text. That is a policy which have had for some time and I would not expect that to change anytime soon. The same applies to most other well known search engines as well.

404 Page Not Found Errors are Best – Here’s Why:

If you can get the webmaster to take the page down so you see a 404 “page not found” error then you can remove everything from the search results, not just the cache but the entire result. This can be done via the automated removal tool. This isn’t just the easiest approach but also the fastest.

Site Owners Don’t Always Want to Remove an Entire Page

There are occasions when a site owner may wish to keep the page live on the web but instead change the contents so your name (or whatever keyword) is removed. It could be that the page is important and an edit, rather than a complete removal would be more suitable (from the site owners perspective). There could also be technical reasons why they may not want to remove the whole page, perhaps because the software they are using doesn’t create 404 “page not found” errors.

In this case, you can still remove the cache and thus the preview window from the search results page. You cannot however remove the blue title that appears above each search result.

To remove the snippet or text, cache or preview, you must first get the keyword taken off the page. That will involve contacting the site owner or webmaster and requesting an edit. There is no need for them to delete the entire page.

How Long Does it Take Google to Remove the Cache?

It most cases it should take no more than 48 hours as the process is automated, there are occasions when some removal requests will be queued  for a manual review. If this happens then expect the process to take up to a week, although most are completed within a few days.

Don’t forget that you must first meet the criteria set out in the removal tool. Requests are often denied and the reasons given can be vague.

Common Reasons For Google to Deny Your Request

1) You requested a complete removal because the page read “404 page not found” but the web server was actually responding with a “200 okay” or “302 found”. You should use a tool such this to check the true response.

2) You requested cache removal because your name (or other keyword) was removed from the page, this is usually denied because Google cannot access the age or because the page still contains at least one of the keywords you entered into the removal tool.

Other Options

If you cannot get the site owner to either remove the entire page or keywords then your options are quite limited. Please explore the other pages on this site as their some circumstances when Google will manually remove a result, for example when your credit card details appear in the search results or if you see a site that is set up to phish for passwords.

A more detailed list can be found via the navigation to the right of this page.

This latest release has shown a sharp increase in the number of removal requests from almost all countries with the United Kingdom seeing an increase of 71% and the United States an increase of 70%.

Anyone who has taken the time to read the help articles on this site will know that it can be really difficult to get content taken down from the search results. Private info such as email addresses and phone numbers are just as difficult as defamation to get taken down.

It was nice to read that Google refused to remove a video showing police brutality after a request from a local law enforcement agency. They also refused to remove defamation of several police officers that appeared on YouTube.

Is Google’s Transparency Report Going Far Enough?

It’s interesting to see how many requests Google has received from all the different countries but does this report go far enough?

Take the YouTube video of police brutality as an example, I am delighted that they refused to take down this video and hide it from public view and even more pleased that they highlighted this request in the report. But why not go further and name the actual law enforcement agency that sent the request?

If you haven’t done so already head over to the Google Transparency Report and have a dig around, they provide a neat map with info about the removal requests and also a traffic report where they detail the blocks governments put on accessing certain sites such as YouTube.

For those of you who are unaware, Google processes most of the requests under local laws. They may decide to take down the content entirely or if the law is very  localized they may restrict access to the material by local IP address blocking.

Generally anyone wanting to remove content from the search results would need to get in touch with the original site and ask them to first take down the offending material. There are a few exceptions to this rule:

1. National security
2. Copyright infringement
3. Social security, credit card and government id numbers
4. Website that contains a name, porn and is spam (spam by definition of Google’e webmaster guidelines)
5. Image of handwritten signature
6. Legal request by issue of court order or by proving a clear legal case
7. Indecent images of Google

There are different policies for Google’s other products such as ads and YouTube.

Types of Content Google Will Not Remove

Google will comply with local laws but generally they don’t remove defamation or personally  identifiable information such as telephone numbers or email addresses.

Please explore the pages on this site for help understanding the complex content removal policies of Google.

First things first… you should ideally keep control of your old site for at least 6 months. This is so you can set up the relevant redirects and let your users know that you have moved to a new address. If you don’t keep control of your old site and you have sold it then you may have just made a huge mistake as you will have no control of the site or how it appears it the search results.

Best Practices For Moving a Site

There are several steps you can take to inform both Google and your users that your site has moved.

1. Set up 301 redirects on a page to page basis, this is BEST way to move a page to a new url.
2. Register both sites in Google webmaster tools and use the “change of address” feature.
3. Contact all the key websites that have linked to your web site and ask them to update the link.

Things to Avoid

You want to avoid the following:

1. Your users landing on a 404 page or other empty page
2. Using 302 temporary redirects
3. Selling your site before you have moved to new domain (if you plan to keep the rankings)

Can Google Remove the Search Results of a Site I do Not Own?

To prevent abuse of the removal system, no you cannot ask Google to remove or transfer a site unless you have control of that site.

More information can be found here.

If a copyright holder sees his/her work reproduced without permission then getting it removed from the search results of either Bing or market leader Google is quite easy.

Trademarks are an entirely different kettle of fish.

It can take a long time and potentially millions of pounds/dollars to build a brand name and trademark it. Competitors who abuse trademarks in order to get visitors from either core search results or through adverts are costing businesses a small fortune.

Search Results

Most if not all web search engines have a simple policy when it comes to removing trademark infringements from the unsponsored results pages:

Contact the site owner and get the trademark removed from the original site. The search results will then automatically update after a while

Here is a quote from an official Google policy document:

Google’s trademark policy does not apply to search results.

Source.

I know that doesn’t exactly help folks who have seen there trademark misused but there are a few options:

1. Look more closely at the offending website and try to find a copyright infringement then file a take-down request.
2. If the site has broken trademark rules send a legal request or court order to Google here, I am not sure if a legal request will work but a court order should.
3. Contact the site owner and threaten to have their site removed from all the search engines, it’s a bluff but chances are the site owner is not familiar with Google’s or Bing’s policies.

Trademarks in Paid Adverts

Paid adverts are treated differently core search results, if you see your trademark being misused in a paid advert on Google then you can ask them to remove it.

For those of you who are unfamilair with Google’s search results page, please refer to this image:

Again, it’s worth repeating the advice I have offered on many other pages within this site; try and contact the individual advertiser first. They may not be aware that they have done anything wrong and they may have other adverts running, either with Google or with Bing or other platforms.

Report trademarks in Google sponsored links (adverts) by filling in this form

Report trademarks in Bing sponsored links (adverts) by filling in this form

Sorry if this page doesn’t help those wanting to remove trademarks from the core search results, but based on my knowledge you really need to get this issue solved at the source, that may involve contacting the site owner or taking legal advice.

There are many pages on this site that cover other types of removals so please explore the links found to the right of this page.

• Google’s search results
• A third party website
• YouTube
• Search results from within a third party site
• Gmail and other Google owned services like Maps

Google checks most ads but there is usually a delay between the ad going live and a Google employee reviewing it.

Don’t forget that Google doesn’t initially check copyright ownership or trademarks, it is up to the individual advertiser to ensure their ad is not in breach of any copyrights or trademark rights.

How it Works

Advertisers can sign up for a Google account and create adverts with links to specific pages within their site.

The advertiser is only charged when someone clicks on one of their ads. The cost is variable and depends on competing advertisers who also “bid” on the same keywords. The past performance of the advert and advertiser is also a factor – low quality ads cost more than high quality popular ones.

The text that appears within the ad copy is written by the advertiser and it is usually best to contact them first if you have a complaint. They may have several ads and it is usually best to fix any issues at the source.

Tell Google About an Issue With an Advert

Report Copyright – This page is where you can report a copyright infringement related to a Google ad. If you see your copyright content via a web search result, try this page.

Trademark Violation – To report a trademark violation within a Google ad you need this form, Note that Google does not remove sites from the their core search results which display your trademark. You would need to contact the site owner directly.

Report Policy Violation – This form is for reporting policy violations. Google will review the information you provide and take action against the ad and/or the advertiser if they agree with you.

Complain About an Advert – If you see an advert that you don’t like but cannot see a policy violation, please try this form to give Google feedback.

That post was specifically about questionable companies and their websites.

If you see a site in Google’s search results that is set up specifically to steal your credit card details or your passwords by pretending to be another entity then yes you can report them to Google.

This type of con is called phishing and it can be reported here.

Please note that this form is only for web pages. If you see an email that is attempting to steal your details then you can report to your email service supplier.

Report phish emails to Gmail by following this steps:

1. Open email
2. Click the down arrow
3. Select “report phishing”

All the pages Google knows about are ranked by a computer program and manual removals are extremely rare, usually because of one of these reasons:

1. An extreme case of spam that affects alot of users
2. Because Google received a copyright take down request
3. Because certain privacy based info was exposed, i.e. a credit card or ID number showing up in Google

Scam Sites

Everyone will have a different opinion on what a scam web site is. It could be that company which took your money and failed to deliver or could be that other business that delivered the wrong goods and then offered a below par customer service.

Could it be that website that sells goods at 3x the price of another trader?

Or perhaps that site which buried important information in the small print?

Not Something Google Can help You With

Search engines are the paths we use to find pages on the Internet but these same search engines cannot and will not get involved in a dispute between a customer and a web site. As there are tens of billions of web pages in existence, that policy should not come as a surprise.

If a scam site shows up in the search results of Google, it is most likely because that site exists on the web and Google will index almost all of the pages they discover.

Take Scam Sites Down at the Source

If you want to protect people from scam sites then here are two things you can do today:

1) Report the scam sites to the authorities:

FTC in America

Internet Crime Complaint Center

Complaints against foreign companies

2) Warn others by posting a review on a public website that appears in Google

How to Avoid Rip Off Sites in the First Place

Prevention is always better than cure, so try these tips:

• Never used this company before? Do a Google search and read any reviews from past customers, read through pages 2, 3 and 4 of the search results
• Look for safe secure payment methods such as Paypal
• Take the time to read the small print
• Never rush a decision and avoid sales tactics designed to rush you
• Always search the web for alternative products/services

To give you a little background here, Google has a Safesearch option that filters out adult images and adult web pages, it’s not 100% accurate but is pretty good for an automated program.

One thing you will notice with Safesearch is they do not block you (or your children) from actually searching for all adult words. You can try it now and a search for [ anal sex ] will show a set of results, so will the word [ kill ] or [ killer ].

What’s Going On – Why Isn’t Google Blocking These Search Terms?

Google doesn’t place a carpet block on all search terms that could be considered adult or offensive, instead they create filters to weed out the adult search results (only when Safesearch is enabled). By creating a filter they can get feedback from users via their content removal tool and make future improvements/iterations to the program.

With each iteration the program gets smarter. It looks for characteristics that adult pages have, i.e adult or swear words, what types of pages this site is linking to and generally what type of “neighbourhood” this site is in. They also use image recognition software to detect sexual content.

There are several reasons why they do not block you from searching specific words like [ sex ] or [ killer ].

Here are a couple of examples; Somebody may not wish to see pornographic images but may want to research the health risks associated with anal sex. A searcher may want to find moss killer chemicals and may only type [ killer chemicals ] or [ moss killer ].

Both of these searchers would be dissatisfied if Google applied a carpet block on certain keywords.

What This Means For Parents

All parents should be aware that Google’s Safesearch filter doesn’t prevent children from searching for adult and sexual words, instead it just weeds out the worst results and most of the images.

Even the strict setting only blocks some words – those that are frequently used in the adult entertainment industry.

Many parents will still find some the content objectionable. For example a search for [ anal sex ] currently shows several books on how to best enjoy and engage in this activity. The books are genuine and not pornographic in nature but still, many parents would have an issue with this content appearing after activating Safesearch.

Reporting Content To Google

Google’s removal tool is the best place to report adult content that appears when Safesearch is activated. It won’t affect the unfiltered results but if Google agrees with your request, the material should disappear from the Safesearch set of results.

One should always bear in mind that everyone will have a different opinion on what is “adult” and “objectionable” content. Some liberal parents would be happy to see informative sex guides appear in the results, other more conservative parents may have an issue with any document that provides any information about anal sexual activities.

The decision is ultimately down to Google, although there are other options for parents to consider:

Try another search engine (Yahoo! is stricter)

Try to manually monitor online activities (constantly or by occasionally checking history)

Set strict controls on browsers and mobile devices

Join an online safety site such as those listed here.

If  Bing is gathering the content from a web site that you own or have control over, then it’s easy to get it removed.

You first need to either remove the content from your site OR leave it in place but add a directive to the robots.txt file on the server (or create a file if one doesn’t exist)

There is an alternative; you can add a “noindex” meta tag to the html page, this will prevent them from indexing the whole page.

What if the Material is on Another Site?

In this situation, the best course of action is to contact the site owner and ask them to take down the copyright content.

Some site owners will be more willing to remove it if you tell them that you are considering filing DMCA with all the major search engines.

Once the site owner has removed it from their end, it is just a matter of time before Bing and other search engines update the results pages.

Send a DMCA Request to Bing

Both Google and Bing have a form where you can send a request known as a DMCA Take Down.

You will need to state exactly where the infringing material is located and also tell them where a copy of the original work can be found.

Both search engines will respond quickly, Google usually withing a few days and Bing typically a little bit longer.

You will have to file separate requests with each search engine and any other site that has a copyright policy.

The Bing copyright form is here, use it for search results and adverts.

Information about the Google DMCA form is here.

Counter Notification

Both Bing and Google allow the defendant to file a counter notification. For this reason, you should only send a take down request if you 100% sure your copyright has been violated.

While you do not need to register content for copyright protection, you do need to make sure it meets the following basic requirements:

1. Is solely your work
2. You have not copied any part of this work from someone else
3. You have not granted anyone else the right to re-use or copy the work in the past (i.e. public license)

If in doubt see legal advice as sending a false claim to Google or Bing can have financial consequences.

1. Within channel comments
2. Within video comments
3. Profile description or background
4. Video title or description
5. In the video itself

The word “personal” is vague and could mean almost anything. For the purposes of removing content from YouTube “personal” means information that can be used to personally identify/contact you or compromises you financially. Examples would be credit card and ID numbers, home and email addresses, telephone numbers and your child’s personal information. YouTube will also look into other types of financial information that has been exposed.

If your image, voice, full legal name or child is being shown on a video you can also contact YouTube and make a complaint.

Are you looking to remove copyright content? For example, someone has stolen and republished your video without permission? If so you need my page dedicated to removing copyright content from YouTube.

Remove Personal Information – YouTube

You best bet is to first contact the publisher/account holder directly. They may not be aware of  the distress they have caused. If they do not respond or you are not comfortable contacting them then read on.

To remove the unwanted personal information that violates your privacy you need to fill in the complaints form.

There are several steps to go through on this form, you may need to pinpoint the exact location of the personal information and also sign a declaration.

If you submit a complaint to YouTube they will in most cases, contact the infringing account holder. YouTube will not pass on your personal details to them.

If you submit a copyright take-down request then the information you provide may be partially redacted but won’t be completely removed.

Other Options

If you have a legal request you wish to submit to YouTube then you need this form.