Starting next week, we will begin taking into...

Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site. Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily—whether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed from Spotify.

Google Senior VP of Engineering Amit Singhal • Regarding changes to Google’s search algorithm that will favor sites that post legitimate content that hasn’t received copyright removal notices. Despite this change, Singhal claims that the company will keep those sites in the engine, though they may rank lower. “So while this new signal will influence the ranking of some search results, we won’t be removing any pages from search results unless we receive a valid copyright removal notice from the rights owner,” he says. “And we’ll continue to provide “counter-notice” tools so that those who believe their content has been wrongly removed can get it reinstated.” (thanks Andrew Hart)

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is a pro-corporate, anti-user move. If the same companies that throw removal notices at everyone can determine which sites are valid, Google can no longer be trusted to determine which sites are valid.

How far the mighty have fallen.