Google recently updated its search algorithm to take into consideration the number of valid copyright removal notices it receives for any given site. Websites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in Google results, according to a post by Amit Singhal, Google’s Vice President of Engineering, in the Official Google Blog. The update is meant to help users find legitimate, quality content when searching on Google rather than pirated, copyright violations.

This algorithm change follows heavy criticism Google has been receiving from the entertainment industry about copyright infringement.

According to the blog, Google re-booted its copyright removals two years ago and is now getting more data from copyright owners about infringement online. Google plans to use this data in its search rankings from now on. The blog points out that although the changes to the algorithm will influence the ranking of some search results, Google will not remove any pages from the results unless it receives a valid copyright removal notice from the rights owner.

“Only copyright owners know if something is authorized and only courts can decide if a copyright has been infringed. Google cannot determine whether a particular webpage does or does not violate copyright law,” wrote Singhal.

What do you think of the new algorithm update?