It’s been announced by the UK Intellectual Property Office that a “landmark agreement” between Google and Microsoft Bing has been called for “reducing the visibility of infringing content in the UK search results by June 1, 2017. But according to Google, they are “changing nothing today as a result of the announcement/code of conduct”
There is already a Pirate algorithm put in place by Google that is meant to deal with DMCA complaints and other forms of pirated content in the search results. The folks at Search Engine Land, when they first heard this announcement, they asked Google if they are going to change this algorithm or putting a new one in place. Google said that the “Voluntary Code of Practice” that was agreed to here will test to make sure the measures both Google and Bing are taking are successful in keeping bad content out of search results.
At this point, Google feels that the algorithms that they have in place are already doing a good job keeping bad content out of their search results. In regards to this specific agreement, there probably isn’t going to be any significant changes to Google’s search algorithm.
It appears that the agreement is more like an understanding between the UK watchdog group and Google to make sure that their algorithms continue to keep pirated content out of the search results versus making any significant changes to fix an existing problem.
Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, said:
Search engines play a vital role in helping consumers discover content online. Their relationship with our world leading creative industries needs to be collaborative. Consumers are increasingly heading online for music, films, e-books, and a wide variety of other content. It is essential that they are presented with links to legitimate websites and services, not provided with links to pirate sites.
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