Google Forced to Disable URL Removals After Bug is Discovered

There are many that believe Google run the web and control all the sites on it, but this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, all results are controlled by the webmasters of such sites, and this is very clearly demonstrated by the discovery of the recent bug found within the Google Webmaster tools.

Just yesterday, the online marketing blogger James Breckenridge noticed that when he was removing URLs from within Google's Webmaster Tools that he was involved with, that he could also remove the URLs of unrelated websites too. Which not only means that anyone could remove any URL that they wanted to remove from within Google's Webmaster Tools, but they could also remove these URLs without any authorisation or permission from the appropriate webmaster.

The URL removal tool is specifically design to enable site owners to remove URLs from the Google search index.

Since the discovery and once Google was notified, the URL removal tool has blocked all access to users and is currently being investigated by Google.

So How Does it Work?

The method of deleting URLs is considered to be a loophole and was, according to Breckenridge, relatively simple to carry out. Below displays an example of how James carried out some simple tests to help clarify what he thought was true, this was achieved by making minor modifications to a URL, then followed by a form submission.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals-request?hl=en&siteUrl=http:/{YOUR_URL}/&urlt={URL_TO_BLOCK}

{YOUR_URL} = A URL you control within Webmaster Tools

{URL_TO_BLOCK} = The URL of the site you want to block:

What Happens Now?

While details of this loophole remain somewhat unclear, what we do know is that this issue was not just exclusive to top level domains but also very specific URL pages as well.

Unfortunately, at this moment in time, there is still no news from Google explaining how long this loophole has been present, how long it may have been an issue for webmasters, and how many sites may have been affected, which means only time will tell how it will affect webmasters and other web users in the long run.