Legal websites to move up in page rankings in Google Search after huge spike in URL infringement Claims

The web is a dangerous place. A simple search on Google can offer up thousands of pages where you can get your hands on TV shows, Movies, PC games, Android apps and more. It doesn’t take a genius to search them out, nor does it take a genius to snag something and use it. From my basic understand of search returns and ranking, the number of keywords and implementation of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plays a key role in what you get in your list. Also, the number of people who click-through on a returned result also helps move it to the top of the list. While it is wonderful to almost always find what you want in the first ten returns, copyright holders aren’t happy about it.

Google has taken a bit more of a hands of approach to how it handles the search returns. After all, it is not Google’s fault people are searching out pirated material, it is the users. While some will agree with Google, others, like Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel, was a bit more vocal over the lack of copyright protection offered by the search giant. But now Google is being forced to change their tune, just by a few octaves at least.

In the last 30 days Google has received more than 4.3 million URLs that have been sent in for copyright-removal. That is more than they received for the entire 2009 calendar year. Google’s Amit Singhal explained today that they have sufficient data to start lowering the rankings on repeat offender sites. Not banning or blocking them of course, but moving them further down the list of search returns while moving legitimate site to the top. For instance, a search for your favorite TV show will pull up Hulu or the networks site where you can watch it, or catch clips, versus other sites where you can stream entire seasons illegally recorded and shared. This change in page rankings which will lean towards legal locations rather than those illegal sites is supposed to take effect starting next week.

Seems this move by Google is making RIAA CEO Cary Sherman a little happier, “This change is an important step in the right direction — a step we’ve been urging Google to take for a long time — and we commend the company for its action,” he said. “As Google itself has acknowledged, this is not the only approach, and of course, the details of implementation will matter.”

While we don’t endorse piracy here on AndroidStory, we do believe the net should be open and not controlled. We do respect how Google is approaching it though. Blocking something from being displayed would put Google in a terrible light in the community and in the world. Moving repeat sites from the first few pages of a search return will help keep Google in the good graces of the RIAA, for now at least. In the long run though, the RIAA won’t stop until they can shut down piracy entirely, which we all know will never happen. We live in a digital age where data transferring and file sharing is everything. Shut down 1 and 5 more spring up.

What is your take on it? Did Google do the right thing or do you think they are letting the RIAA and others bully them into submission.

Via AllthingsD