Greetings. As part of my continuing research and an upcoming white paper focusing on policy and related technical issues associated with search engines and their impacts, I'd very much appreciate any examples of relevant specific situations, concerns, and any other positive or negative experiences with search engine operations and support personnel, with a particular emphasis on (but not limited to) the following categories:

• Attempts to remove or deemphasize from search engine listings any data perceived to promote Web sites containing seriously incorrect, defamatory, misleading, privacy-invasive, or otherwise highly damaging or problematic materials
• Search engine issues or problems related to "public record" (e.g. government) data, particularly with negative impacts on privacy or individuals' personal lives
• Issues of "obsolete" or superseded data being promoted by search engine listings, without any indication that such data is no longer current and/or correct
• Any problems related to search engine caches exacerbating the sorts of issues listed above or other related problems
• And so on ...

For this round, I am specifically not soliciting issues related to "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO) concerns (e.g., "How come my Web site always ranks lower than that other Web site on Google?")

For any sagas you relate to me, please be as specific as possible (within whatever bounds that you feel comfortable) -- but at the very least please identify the particular search engine of concern and the approximate time period of the issue. Unless you specify otherwise, I will assume that I may note the issue (on an anonymous basis) in my reports on this subject. If you'd prefer that I don't reference your issue in any form, or if you don't mind being quoted non-anonymously for attribution, please let me know.

Please send any information that you can provide as soon as possible to:

search@pfir.org

For some recent background on the issues of concern, please see:

Search Engine Dispute Notifications: Request For Comments

Extending Google Blacklists for Dispute Resolutions

A Most Remarkable Google Page: Toward Search Dispute Resolutions

Benefits and Risks in Google's Public Records Access Project

Thanks very much!

--Lauren--