Removing search engine result?

[kregrs]

Is there any way to remove a search engine result/listing? The reason I ask is, having just googled my name, the first result/link is a newspaper article from 9yrs ago, which relates to a court case I was involved in, and is no longer relevant to myself or my character, and obviously should a prospective employer etc search for me, it shows me in a bad light. Without going into too much detail, it was a case brought against me for animal neglect, and relates to a not very good time in my life, depression.

[huggy41]

quick answer is no as it is in the public domain, sorry

[san_d]

quick answer is no as it is in the public domain, sorry

 

Not correct. There's a procedure but it's quite long. Firstly you need to contact the newspaper and ask for the webmaster to remove your details. You might have to negotiate it but chances are newspapers don't want to be involved in litigations and will agree.

 

Once this is done, you need to ask the search engine to refresh the cache of the page. Usually this happens quite quickly if the site is a high volume one, otherwise you might a refresh yourself. Different search engine have different rules. If you get to this stage and you don't know how to proceed, just reopen this thread and might be able to help you.

 

The only drawback to this method is that if the page has been cached by a web archiver it might well stay there forever.

[IdaInFife]

most webs have web archivers and near impossible to remove

[Followme]

This is one of the disadvantages of the internet. What we post today may go against us in the future, but the only way to ensure that doesn't happen is stay off the internet. As you have discovered that doesn't work either as you can't control what 3rd parties publish about you.

 

Contact the newspaper in question and ask them to either remove the article, redact your name, or change the name completely. You will not need to contact the search as the cache will automatically update itself. This may not remove 'ghost' copies elsewhere but who the hell goes searching for them when they already found a result?

[tiny_tim]

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164734

[san_d]

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164734

It's not that easy. The page might have been cached by millions of other cache servers around the world. Just because it doesn't show up in the search result it doesn't mean it's not there.