Re: search engines: right to be forgotten, sitemap.xml proposed solution

Please note that the right to be forgotten is not an unlimited right even if it is established and will be based on context. Information publicly reported in press accounts may require court action, for example, to be suppressed. Public information that is searchable may create innovative new services that create growth and jobs.  We are looking to allow individuals to fairly and easily exercise their rights, how this is applied is still context dependent. I am not seeing that aspect of the issue in this conversation.  Further I agree with a previous comment that discussion is premature in light of the fact that we don't know what the final obligations related to the right to be forgotten will be.

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 11, 2012, at 9:54 PM, Karl Dubost <karld@opera.com> wrote:

> Shane,
> 
> Le 12 déc. 2012 à 00:36, Shane Wiley a écrit :
>> Lastly, as search engines drive considerable site traffic, what would be the motivation for a site to voluntarily have its content age out from a search engine's index (no legal pressure here yet)?
> 
> I can explain at least my personal motivation.
> My Web site is a blog with a mix of everything, really everything. I had a very good google karma, because of my previous W3C staff position. People were easily finding my site through search engines with any keywords [1]. And then they were emailing me outside of context. That was difficult to manage. If you want a metaphor, it would be someone in the streets commenting or arguing with you about why you didn't shave this morning.
> 
> So I thought, in my social relationships in the physical world, I make contacts through people I know or precise places I show up. There is a certain opacity into that which is interesting. It slows down the social connectivity and reduces the social horizon. 
> 
> How do I recreate that on my Web site?
> 
> By getting out of the search engines. Basically you do not forbid people to talk about it or access it. The information is still there, exactly like you walking in the street, but you greatly reduce the horizon and immediacy. People might find you more through another link on another blog or someone sharing with his/her community, etc.
> 
> It solves the issue I had. Note that this exists in different circumstances, college friends who want to share into their communities without closing in secret everything but not necessary making it easy to be found.
> 
> It's why I always talk about Opacity, as a dampening mechanism in between total transparency  and total secret. Porosity is ok. Having a bit of control on it is better. Tumblr for example is a social network allowing people to not be indexed.
> 
>> Directory: Allow search engines to index your tumblelog. If checked, your tumblelog will appear in search results on sites such as Google and Yahoo.
> 
> 
> [1]: Search engines basically destruct text, and make a soup of keywords with loosely connected semantics.
> [2]: http://www.w3.org/2010/api-privacy-ws/papers/privacy-ws-3
> 
> -- 
> Karl Dubost - http://dev.opera.com/
> Developer Relations, Opera Software
> 
>

Received on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 07:06:09 UTC