A reader alerted us to our disappearance from Google searches yesterday morning. I confirmed this myself with searches on my own posts. By the time I asked our publisher to confirm our disappearance, the same searches I had run included my posts at the top. I wondered what was going on.
Mediaite’s Rudy Takala reports on the issue in “Ex-Google Engineer Says Glitch Blocking Websites Including Drudge, Breitbart Could Have Revealed a Mysterious List.” I don’t think it was a “glitch.” The only “glitch” may have involved the inclusion of the Drudge Report on the blacklist. It has certainly earned its way off any blacklist aimed principally at conservative sites.
Takala quotes Google:
In a jargon-filled statement, Google said it was looking into the issue, but failed to offer any explanation. “We are aware of an issue with the site: command that may fail to show some or any indexed pages from a website,” the company said in a post published on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. “We are investigating this and any potentially related issues.”
In response to an inquiry from Mediaite, a spokesman for Google added, “This issue affected a number of sites representing a range of different content and viewpoints. This issue was a technical error unrelated to the content or ideology of the sites affected.”
I think further explanation is required, but full disclosure is not in the mix at this time.
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