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This is a great example of the Streisand effect [0] -- trying to hide something draws attention to it. Specifically, I now know about Stan O'Neal, who "was for
by lotharbot 12y ago
This is a great example of the Streisand effect [0] -- trying to hide something draws attention to it.
Specifically, I now know about Stan O'Neal, who "was forced out of Merrill [Lynch] after the investment bank suffered colossal losses on reckless investments it had made." Google may no longer be showing the original result, but now I see the reason for the original article and the fact that he wanted it hidden.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
- keithpeter 12y agoA Google UK search on Stan O'Neal from within the UK yields the wikipedia page, then at #2 a Salon article explaining how Google has given notice to Mr Peston that the original BBC article may be de-indexed. The next half dozen links are pretty critical of Mr O'Neal as well. Oddly, this new BBC page is not apparent in the index (yet).
- keithpeter 12y agoAs of 1921 BST on 2014 July 3rd, the BBC article in question is now second link when searching for Stan O'Neal. So you can ask for a page to be de-linked but if you are in the public eye and the de-linking gets noticed, the results may not be what you expected.
- gnerd 12y agoSpot on. All this will do for the person trying to erase their past is drag up old memories and re-syndicate whatever they are running away from. More eyeballs, more indexing of new pages, more edits to the Wikipedia page, more comments on social media. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all.