Are there any irrelevant, outdated or potentially inappropriate links about you floating out there on the Web for all to see? Based on a recent European court ruling last May, Google is required to take down these type of webpages and de-index them from search (at least in Europe). Now a new French startup by the name of Forget.me just launched to help ease people through this removal process and provide continued feedback about their progress. While Google does have its own search removal request form, Forget.me claims to make the process easier and essentially fight for your right to be forgotten for you.
The criteria Google says it looks at to consider removing a link is as follows:
When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials.
Forget.me
As of now, the Google removal process applies to searches in Europe, however, the service is quickly taking in the U.S. representing one-third of its traffic. The service is only applicable to searches made in countries included in the European Union and a few other regional non-EU nations, though, so there could be some confusion of its potential with people in the U.S. The most popular removal requests so far include invasion of privacy and defamation.
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What would you like to see removed from Google Search?
via TechCrunch
