Google and strange results

Hi.

Three years ago I requested for the removal of some defamatory contents in a forum with a series of posts which included the name of my company and its address along with diverse illegal comments and even insults.

The name of my company and all of the references to it in the forum were removed, but the posts remained.

Now, three years ago, when I look for my company in the internet I still find the thread of that forum, with a title including the word “scam” and the whole set of posts commenting on this and that, although the name of my company does not appear neither in any of them nor in the source code.

Which is the cause of this?

I have read some about the issue, and come to understand that when a website or forum displays some information on something for some time (years), something remains in the Google database although the article had been modified and the information or reference removed.

Is there any way to force the removal of this results from the Google results?

Thanks very much.

AFAIK, Google ‘caches’ everything. It should simply be a matter of contacting Google to have the cache cleared so those do not appear in searches, anymore. How to do that, though, is another matter. I do not know how to even begin that process. But after the court ruling in Europe (for the “right to be forgotten”) it should be possible.

HTH,

:slight_smile:

Thanks for replying WolfShade.

First, the cache of that page has been cleared hundreds of times since then. Actually, there is no trace of the name of my company in it.

Second, the right to be forgotten only applies to persona data, not to companies or societies.

So… your company name no longer appears in the posts, nor in the Google Search results, but the posts are still appearing in the Google Search results. If someone unfamiliar with your company (or the old situation) were to see these posts, said person would be very unlikely to tie your company name to that (IMHO.) Or is there another issue that I’m not quite seeing?

V/r,

:slight_smile:

I’m guessing that having it show in your search results is because it’s you doing the searching.

i.e. Google remembers the terms you searched for. Google remembers that when that link was in the results you clicked on it.

As far as Google is concerned, you want that to show in your search results. It may even decide to show it to others using the same search terms because you have made it more “valuable” by clicking on the link.

If you use a computer that you are not signed in to Google on (eg. a public or friend’s computer) it might be the search results will be entirely different.

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