Microsoft Accidentally Removes Websites From Google Search Results

Microsoft uses automated tools to hunt down websites offering pirated versions of its products. When these tools make errors and target legitimate websites (which happens surprisingly often) it can have regrettable consequences for the sites' referencing on search engines.

When it's discovered that a site is pirating or enabling the pirating of copyrighted products, the company that owns the copyright can request that search engines cease to index the pages or websites in question. Microsoft regularly makes requests of this nature to protect its intellectual property. In fact, Microsoft is one of the companies with the most frequent rates of request.

According to torrentfreak, the bots in charge of scouring out infringing websites frequently make errors and request that Google remove pages from perfectly law-abiding sites from its search results. Some of the erroneously censored websites include BBC, CNN, Huffington Post, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia and the U.S. government. The problem is that Google simply assumes that the requests are justified and doesn't bother double-checking their validity.

Certain sites, like BBC and Wikipedia, fortunately have not been removed from Google's index because they fall under the category of so-called "protected" sites. Others, especially lesser known websites, simply disappear from Google's search results.