How to Remove an
embarrassing image from Google
Suppose you do
something stupid, like getting an embarrassing picture taken of
yourself at a party. Suppose that the picture gets posted to a
website, and that it comes up at the top of the images page when your
name is googled on google images--
How do you get rid
of the picture?
1. Contact the
website to have the webmaster remove the image.
If clicking the
embarrassing picture gets you to a website, Google will not remove
the picture. First, you have to get the website that hosts the
picture to remove it. Fortunately, this is usually not too
difficult. The webmaster of the site will often remove the picture
if asked nicely. Hosting companies are sensitive to bad publicity,
especially if there is even a hint of libel, and many picture-hosting
sites have a link to request removal of the image.
After the host
removes the image, it could still show up on the google search.
After removal, clicking on the image gets you a “not available”
message, or “access denied.” How do you get rid of the initial
image in Google? It takes an extra step.
The old link to the
image still displays at the top of the “access denied” message.
You need to copy this bad address [Ctrl-C] to get rid of the google
thumbnail image.
A sample image
address might look like this;
To remove these images from search results, follow these steps:
- Search on images.google.com for the image you want to find.
- Select the image link by right clicking on the image
thumbnail and choosing Copy link address.
Note: Different browsers may have different names for copying link location.
- Go to the Remove
outdated content page.
Note: This is in “Google Console. Clicking the link takes you right to it--or
the address is https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals?pli=1
- In the "Enter URL of outdated content" box, paste
the URL.
- Click Request removal.
- If you see the message "We think the image or web page
you're trying to remove hasn't been removed by the site owner,"
follow the steps on the screen to give us more information.
- If you see the message "This content is gone,"
click Request removal.
- If you see the message "We think the image or web page
you're trying to remove hasn't been removed by the site owner,"
follow the steps on the screen to give us more information.
Google verifies
that the image link is gone, then a removal request is put in with
Google, marked 'Pending.'
The embarrassing
image will hopefully disappear from Google searches within a day or
two.
Acknowledgement: Google help provided most of the information needed for these notes. Thanks Google!
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