Last night at the SMX West show there was a fascinating panel on the topic of why and when Google would remove content from their search index and results. Not spam or malware or hacked sites, but offensive, hate, illegal and other types of content that might not feel right to users or be against government regulation.
There aren't many clear cut takeaways from this panel but you do get into the mindset of the decisions Google has to make on a frequent basis. From government takedown requests, to personal family requests, all the way to internal requests from Google's upper management.
The main takeaway is, the answers are not always clear cut and dry.
The panel had Danny Sullivan as Moderator and then Google's Matt Cutts, Distinguished Engineer and a new face to the search industry Patrick Thomas, Policy Specialist.
Watch the hour long video, provided by SMX over Google Hangout/YouTube:
Forum discussion at Google+.
