Google algorithm change has killed search traffic to pirate sites

[Scorpus]

Last week, Google altered their search engine algorithm to demote some of the most "notorious" piracy-related websites. The new algorithm is designed to direct people to legitimate sources of content when they search for terms such as "download", "free", or "watch", displaying prominent links to content providers such as Amazon, Spotify, Netflix and others.

According to a report from Searchmetrics, the change in search algorithm has seriously affected the amount of search traffic that is being directed to pirate websites. Project Free TV, for example, has been hit hard, with one of their domains dropping 96 percent in Searchmetrics SEO visibility rankings.

Other sites to have their search traffic reduced include The Pirate Bay, Torrentz.eu, ZippyShare, ExtraTorrent, and KickassTorrents, which are some of the most popular sources of illegal content on the internet.

The algorithm change appears to be the first time Google has been successful in reducing the visibility of pirate sites in their search engine. In 2012, Google attempted to demote the ranking of sites that the company received a large volume of valid DMCA notices for, however that didn't help much in reducing visibility.

In addition to demoting pirate sites in their search engine, Google is continuing to comply with takedown requests, removing certain links from ever showing up in search results. In the past year, Google has received over 220 million takedown notices, most of which the company responds to within six hours.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/58593-google-algorithm-kills-pirate-sites-traffic.html

 

[aMerkuri]

Good guy Google

 

[Guest]

Darn...now I have to actually go to tpb and search there instead...

 

[highlander84]

Well, if people were / are using theses sites then I am going to guess they will just have to stop being lazy and typing in the URL... I'd much rather see the page statistics from said pages on total daily visitors in a month maybe to see how hard this hits them...

 

[Guest]

This a push from Microsoft to get people to use Bing or something?

 

[Emexrulsier]

This a push from Microsoft to get people to use Bing or something?

So because ppl can't find warez on google they are going to switch to bing. And tbh if you still use torrents your doing it wrong

 

[Trillionsin]

I remember going to Google for unfiltered results, years ago, whether or not it was really filtered or not I'm not sure...

Now I keep hearing more and more gets taken out. What other search engines can we switch to for unfiltered results? I want the raw internet. lol

 

[Evernessince]

The title should read "kills pirate site's traffic through google"

It's not like these torrent websites haven't had search built in and it's not like there aren't web sites built specifically to search torrent websites.

Google keeps filtering their results and they are going to give competitors a foothold.

 

[m4a4]

I'm sure that you can still do precise searching for them (use quotes). If not, then Google is getting too controlling (or scared of annoying "copyright organizations")

 

[Littleczr]

Just did a test and indeed this is true. I also tested duckduckgo and that search engine worked fine.

 

[Guest]

The world is truly a safer place now!
God bless you google and all those who browse wthin.
ZZzzzzzzz.

 

[Adhmuz]

Fail, searched for "Expendables torrent" First hit is a link to yify

Searched "Expendables free" First hit is a link to watch the movie

Try again next time Google, you clearly missed the ball here.

 

[Guest]

Google. Screwing small business since our shareholders matter more.

 

[p51d007]

Yeah, I'm sure the people that search those sites don't have them bookmarked anyway?

 

[captaincranky]

Yeah, I'm sure the people that search those sites don't have them bookmarked anyway?

What's a "bookmark"?

 

[Guest]

What's a "bookmark"?

its when you write address of the site on a paper or sticker on monitor

 

[Brent Beck]

It's being ignored that YouTube added advertising about four years ago now? It makes YouTube exactly like a radio, without a dj. Label artists get tunnel vision, and think the argument is the same as it was four years ago? If you want "total control" over product don't publish it to begin with. Do they want a law against humming without copyright clearance? Artists should be seeking reparations against advertising sponsors, not expressing disgust with their very own fans as Alannah Myles, Don Henley, Shelby Lynne, Roseanne Cash, Vince Gill, & Ian Paice, have very recently done. Ian Paice seemed to expressed a change of heart, but the others express contempt for fans they say have not purchased their songs, "legitimately." Many of these above achieved record label attention from nepotism to begin with, you'd think they realize that, before parading publicly about certain legal claims that may not even be Constitutionally sound to begin with, again especially with last four years, not eight years ago. With these label artist's express contempt about fans it's like sending an addressed letter to that fans residence. Fans are not educated like label artists are. I find it an error in label artist's judgement and sickening.

 

[Radient]

This is why I use duckduckgo instead of pandering google needs to give people control of their gateway not everyone cares about the dailyfag.co.uk clickbait.

 

[captaincranky]

What's a "bookmark"?

its when you write address of the site on a paper or sticker on monitor

Oh thank God! I thought you had to dog ear the corner of your LCD panel.....

 

[DAOWAce]

Well, I'm all for this.

Piracy has gotten way out of hand nowadays.

The amount of people I've conversed with (or seen talking online) who act like downloading something for free isn't wrong in the slightest is just astronomical. It's like they grew up doing that and that it's an accepted part of reality. ..And then they wonder why they get banned from forums.

So yeah, I approve of the biggest search engine in the world doing things to stop mass ***** traffic to piracy related things. It's not gonna stop the tech savvy (or the regulars), but we're not the majority in the slightest.

..Now to go download the Alien series because Netflix doesn't have it available for streaming. *shakes fist*

 

[SapphireSpire]

When the government has to infringe on people's rights in order to protect their rights, one or more of these rights are probably not right at all. The proper function of government is to protect our equal rights- emphasis on equal. For property rights to be equal, they cannot empower anyone to prohibit how other property owners may use their property nor entitle anyone to a share of what other property owners may earn from selling whatever they may produce, or reproduce, with their property.

People who create art and discover new technology certainly deserve credit. But credit can be granted by simply documenting it. Nobody deserves to own it. Art and technology are critical to the production of goods, which means our freedom to use art and technology is critical not only to the freedom of the market but our freedom to pursue happiness.

Granting ownership over art and technology is not about protecting credit but about protecting businesses from direct competition. Ownership over art and technology gives control over the means of production which results in a sever lack of competition and is responsible not only for the extreme disparity of wealth but for the lack of entrepreneurial opportunity for the poor and middle class.

 

[cliffordcooley]

This a push from Microsoft to get people to use Bing or something?

Even though I do use Bing,

Darn...now I have to actually go to tpb and search there instead...

that is my preferred method anyway. So I don't even care if Bing filters out torrent searches. If it will make Bing and Google searches faster for other things, I'm all for it.

And tbh if you still use torrents your doing it wrong

Please explain! Are you referring to magnet links, which are usually available along side torrents? If not then which application are you using that is not a torrent app?

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]....The amount of people I've conversed with (or seen talking online) who act like downloading something for free isn't wrong in the slightest is just astronomical. It's like they grew up doing that and that it's an accepted part of reality. ..And then they wonder why they get banned from forums.

I don't talk about pirating content, nor do I get banned for it.

I get banned the old fashioned way, through hard work, pure meanness of spirit, and being as obnoxious as possible! (Within the boundaries of good taste, mind you).

 

[Emexrulsier]

Please explain! Are you referring to magnet links, which are usually available along side torrents? If not then which application are you using that is not a torrent app?

Problems with torrents are that they can very easily be monitored on exactly what seeding, leaching and exactly what traffic. But no not going to say anything here but rest assured I have my sources if I want anything I can get it same day (provided it exists) and I never once open up bittorrent client.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Fear of explaining only makes your solution appear as being wrong. Thanks for the pep talk, but I will stick with torrents. That is unless someone shares an alternative method.