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Topic: Legal

Google Docs items to show up in search

Summary: Google plans to make all publicly published Google Docs documents, presentations and spreadsheets available for search on the web.

Zoe Slocum

By Zoe Slocum |

Google plans to make all publicly published Google Docs documents, presentations and spreadsheets available for search on the web.

The company announced the change in a blog post on Thursday. "In about two weeks, we will be launching a change for published docs. The change will allow published docs that are linked to from a public website to be crawled and indexed, which means they can appear in search results you see on Google.com and other search engines," Google blogger Marie F wrote.

Only documents that have been published using the 'Publish as web page' or 'Publish/embed' option and that are linked to from a publicly crawled web page will be crawled, according to the post. Documents published with the option 'Allow anyone with the link to view' will not get crawled.

In addition, users can choose to unpublish documents they wish to remain uncrawled.

Some users of the search giant's suite of online productivity applications have expressed concerns about the plan, suggesting better labeling of potentially crawlable documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

This article was originally posted on CNET News.

Topics: Legal, Browser, CXO, Google, Software

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7 comments
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  • Google Docs items to show up in search

    With news like this its amazing why anyone would continue to use any of Google's services.
    Loverock Davidson
    Reply Vote

    • Maybe because..

      maybe because they want their work to be publicly available as it is now with most web content? Including these comments sections which you continue to enjoy using even though they show up in searches.
      rarsa
      Reply Vote

      • Then you post them publicly

        which is easier than having Google hoard your information and sell it whether you want them to or not.
        Loverock Davidson
        Reply Vote

        • I don't get it.

          Google isn't selling anyone's information.

          If a docs user sets their own document as public, and links it to a website, then it will now be searchable.

          I don't understand your comment: "Then you post them publicly," because that is exactly what the article is talking about. Publicly accessible doc files.

          mathew.gauvin@...
          Reply Vote

          • Allow me to explain

            Google does take your information and sell it to 3rd parties while you don't see a dime. Read their TOS sometime. The problem with this public and private searching is that Google doesn't care one way or the other as both will be publicly searchable when you use Google's services.
            Loverock Davidson
            Reply Vote

          • Time Wasting

            Why are you wasting your time with Loverdork
            uninformed dribble. Can't you see nobody posts on
            this format any more because of that.
            bigpicture
            Reply Vote

  • RE: Google Docs items to show up in search

    Classic Google move! Get people to start using one of their products and then feel they have the right to make that information available for everyone else that it was not intended for so that Google can reap the rewards! Hey Google: Get your products out of beta!
    rmark@...
    Reply Vote
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