Did Yahoo Delete The Pirate Bay From Search Results?

from the making-friends?--or-enemies? dept

There's a lot of buzz going around concerning reports that Yahoo has deleted The Pirate Bay from its search index, though it appears not everyone is seeing it. There hasn't been an official explanation just yet -- and it could be an accidental move or simply a hiccup, but it raises some questions about Yahoo's search index when such a site disappears. This is especially true given the controversial (deserved or not) nature of The Pirate Bay, and the efforts by the entertainment industry to shut the site down. Initially, we're willing to give Yahoo the benefit of the doubt, but a full explanation of what happened would be useful at this point.
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Filed Under: missing sites, pirate bay, search index
Companies: pirate bay, yahoo


Reader Comments

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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 3:44pm

    I don't use Yahoo much except for my throw-away email for junk mail, and the occasional instant messenger use -- but if this is true I think I'll be avoiding them completely.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    just over here, 18 Feb 2008 @ 3:54pm

    pirate bay

    i entered it just now,, went right to it,,, dont see a problem

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    just over here, 18 Feb 2008 @ 3:54pm

    pirate bay

    i entered it just now,, went right to it,,, dont see a problem

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    just over here, 18 Feb 2008 @ 3:54pm

    pirate bay

    i entered it just now,, went right to it,,, dont see a problem

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    TriZz, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:00pm

    TPB

    I don't think this will have much of an impact. Honestly, I don't use Google or Yahoo if I'm searching for a specific torrent, I go to a torrent site to find those. I think most people do too...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:13pm

    wow... i just went to yahoo, did a search for both "pirate bay" and "piratebay.org" and the only thing that popped up was the wikipedia article on the pirate bay...

    i've never used yahoo for anything before, and now i have a good reason for that...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Mike, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:15pm

    I just searched "pirate bay" in yahoo and the link to the official site was no where to be found. When I type "piratebay" a drop box of suggestions comes down with stuff like "torrents, Sweden, etc.." and nothing will show piratebay's site in the reults. WTF, thats crap, will never use yahoo for anything now, have lost 100% trust.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Steve, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:21pm

    Me Too

    searched "thepiratebay" and "thepiratebay.org" Got the wiki article first and on my second search got a bunch of user profiles. Never going to use yahoo again

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Gwen, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:28pm

    Does anyone really care? I mean, Yahoo! is soon to be a Microsoft property soon anyways.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Robert, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:29pm

    pirate bay

    # 13 on yahoo search for pirate bay

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Gwen, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:31pm

    Does it really matter at this point? I mean Yahoo! will soon be another Microsoft product anyway.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    urza, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:39pm

    Yup.

    Not in the results for me either. I went so far as to search 'inurl:thepiratebay.org', and still got nothing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    john, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:42pm

    hi

    i just want to post and then post the same thing 2 or 3 more times because i feel i am so important that my point must be made! i also don't understand technology and don't understand why things aren't instant.

    morons.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:51pm

    Re: hi

    I highly doubt it has anything to do with wanting to feel important. The timestamps are all the same time so it's quite possible it was something else. Double posts happen and it's probably not necessary for you to show off your the size of your ePenis in this particular case. So, how about you shut the fuck up?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Jemima, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:52pm

    Same results here

    Interesting. Google (my standard search engine) brought up the pirate bay site with no problem, but a search of Yahoo brought only the Wikipedia links. Interesting.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Drew, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:53pm

    Yahoo (Pirate Bay)

    Download music, movies, games, software! The Pirate Bay - The world's ...
    Download music, movies, games, software and much more. The Pirate Bay is the world's largest bittorrent tracker.
    72 people bookmarked this page under: torrents - bittorrent - download
    www.piratebay.org - 10k - Cached

    Yahoo's search results 02/18/2008. Where's the issue?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Jemima, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:53pm

    Same results here

    Interesting. Google (my standard search engine) brought up the pirate bay site with no problem, but a search of Yahoo brought only the Wikipedia links.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 4:55pm

    Re: pirate bay

    # 13 on yahoo search for pirate bay

    You do realize that piratebay.com isn't the same thing as thepiratebay.org don't you?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    csin, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:05pm

    Its still there...

    http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fthepiratebay.com&bwm=p&bwms=p& ;fr2=seo-rd-se

    8 Results... if they planned on removing it from their index, they should have done a better job.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    csin, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:12pm

    Deffinetly not removed...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    ScaredOfTheMan, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:13pm

    BOOOOOOOOOO YAhooooo

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. identicon
    ScaredOfTheMan, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:13pm

    BOOOOOOOOOO YAhooooo

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:18pm

    mpaa.org

    I just searched on Yahoo for The Pirate Bay. thepiratebay.org didn't come up but a press release from mpaa.org did. Gee, I wonder who could be behind that?

    Don't forget that Yahoo is the kind of company that is only all too eager to help totalitarian governments suppress dissent too. So should this come as any surprise?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:20pm

    Re: Its still there...

    Results... if they planned on removing it from their index, they should have done a better job.

    Yeah, that's kind of sloppy. Not surprising though.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  25. identicon
    Don Zapper, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:52pm

    thepiratebay.org

    Yahoo is a rat fink company really to sell you out. Look up Yahoo on Wikipedia.

    "On August 28, 2007, the World Organization for Human Rights sued Yahoo for allegedly passing information (email and IP address) with the Chinese government that caused the arrests of writers and dissidents. The suit was filed in San Francisco for journalists, Shi Tao, and Wang Xiaoning."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  26. identicon
    Captain Obvious, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:59pm

    Re: Its still there...

    the site in question is thepiratebay.ORG, not thepiratebay.COM

    link to this | view in thread ]

  27. identicon
    Captain Obvious, 18 Feb 2008 @ 6:01pm

    Re: Its still there...

    the site in question is thepiratebay.org, not thepiratebay.com

    link to this | view in thread ]

  28. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 6:10pm

    Re: Re: Its still there...

    the site in question is thepiratebay.org, not thepiratebay.com

    thepiratebay.com redirects to thepiratebay.org.
    piratebay.com is different though.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  29. identicon
    JtB, 18 Feb 2008 @ 8:26pm

    Re: Re: hi

    LMFAO ROFL

    link to this | view in thread ]

  30. identicon
    Known Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 9:23pm

    Did Yahoo Delete The Pirate Bay

    Yes they did. Piratebay.org is nowhere in my Yahoo search results, but number one at Google. Fuck Yahoo, bunch of lame losers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  31. identicon
    matt, 18 Feb 2008 @ 9:27pm

    yep removed

    yes, piratebay.org is not showing in any links.

    sneaky attempt by yahoo, no doubt.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  32. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 9:28pm

    Re: Re: Re: hi

    LMFAO ROFL
    You forgot LOL

    link to this | view in thread ]

  33. identicon
    Rose M. Welch, 18 Feb 2008 @ 10:17pm

    I wonder what...

    ...the settings were on everyone's pages before they searched. Maybe people who were on SafeSearch couldn't pull a up site that helps you download things that are sometimes illegal? Just an idea... Yahoo is automatically set to SafeSearch and I noticed that alot of the people who couldn't find the links to Pirate bay were not regular users of Yahoo!, so it's probable that they didn't go through the three page rigamarole of I Am Eighteen Or Over And Can Use A Non-Filtered Search... Going to give it a try, guess I'll comment again later.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  34. identicon
    Rose M. Welch, 18 Feb 2008 @ 10:24pm

    Okay, so...

    ...I tried 'the pirate bay', 'pirate bay org', and a slew of others and I couldn't find it unless I actually typed in 'thepiratebay.org' and then it didn't even take me to the home page.

    This really pisses me off because I use Yahoo! all the time. I even purchase web space from them. They're getting a nasty damn letter from me tonight.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  35. identicon
    Sean T., 18 Feb 2008 @ 11:51pm

    Re: I wonder what...

    I just performed the same test search and only got the (wrong) Piratebay.com site to show along with a slew of 'related' articles.

    I checked and changed my search prefs as well, but it still did not return the correct Piratebay.org result.

    I agree with the others that this is shady work on the part of Yahoo! and they have lost my trust completely. Good thing I don't rely on them for a damn thing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  36. identicon
    Chronno S. Trigger, 19 Feb 2008 @ 6:36am

    TPB

    Just did the yahoo search and www.thepiratebay.org cannot be found. They have torrents.thepiratebay.org and a lot of users but still not the home page. This may still be a mistake since not all references to TPB were removed. I'd think they would remove all references to (anything).thepiratebay.org instead of just the main page.

    Why do you need to search for it? It's all over the news. Everyone already knows about it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  37. identicon
    mike allen, 19 Feb 2008 @ 6:41am

    just tried it from UK

    same thing pirate bay dot com (whoever they are ) top of list nothing of pirate bay dot org censorship of a search engine. anyone tried this in microsoft if the same then we know who is pulling the strings.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  38. identicon
    Jeff, 19 Feb 2008 @ 6:41am

    what a bunch of crap I'm glad i switched to Google a few years back i know they are not censoring my searches because some a**hole wants them to. its no wander there losing all there money and selling out to M$ i have a junk e-mail with them but never use it so I'm going to delete it. i wonder if some lawyer could sue the for censorship i don't think they could but that would be cool as hell to read about.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  39. identicon
    Fushta, 19 Feb 2008 @ 7:40am

    Can you say "Steissand Effect?"

    Mike,

    Thanks for promoting Yahoo! search engine to drive up traffice and potential value.

    Yours,
    Bill Gates

    link to this | view in thread ]

  40. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 Feb 2008 @ 8:29am

    Re: Noob

    by Anonymous Coward on Feb 18th, 2008 @ 4:13pm

    "i've never used yahoo for anything before, and now i have a good reason for that..."

    Wow, you must be new to the internets, to have never done the yahoo.

    Obvious, noob is obvious

    link to this | view in thread ]

  41. identicon
    Improbus, 19 Feb 2008 @ 8:59am

    Yahoo?

    People actually use Yahoo! for searching? Why?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  42. identicon
    illegalprelude, 19 Feb 2008 @ 12:28pm

    wow. I just did a search and yup. No sign of the pirate bay. Thats disgusting Yahoo.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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