Google Drops directory search operator
Google dropped the directory search operator due to the massive number of requests from people wanting to remove their phone numbers from Google.
I remark he disappeared this morning after spotting complaints in a Google help yarn. Googler, John Mueller said that it has been removed and I can read more about this change at Daniel Russell’s blog. Russell is a Google employee and wrote about removing the feature.
Russell explained that this feature caused an “endless source of hassle for people”. Why? Some researchers were shocked to see their phone numbers and addresses listed on Google. And then Google had to deal with the “removal requests and outraged letters” from these users. Google’s solution was therefore to prevent operators from displaying telephone numbers in the directory: and in the directory:
As I explained, you can still view phone numbers in Google. But to do this, you must enter the full name and postal code of this person. Here is an example of vanessa fox in 54661:
As you can see in Vanessa Fox’s article about it from last week, Google used to show all phone number results for all Vanessa Fox ads when you searched for [phonebook:vanessa fox]. This is no longer the case.
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Barry Schwartz, editor of Search Engine Land and member of the SMX events programming team. He owns RustyBrick, a New York-based web consulting firm. He also runs Round table on search engines, a popular research blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry’s personal blog is called Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.