Bing Cache Removal

I previously posted about the Google Cache Removal Tool.  I thought I would give the Bing cache removal a go too.

Bing hasn't been as easy to find the answers to achieve it.  This post in the Bing Community was probably the best I found.  I also found an email based request for support form .  You don't need a Windows Live account to fill this in. I chose the option "How do I remove a site from Bing" which gives a second option of  "cached page removal".  I put the URL of the cached page in the 'Be Specific' box and added that I was requesting removal of a cached page that returned a 404 error when the link was followed but the cached precis still held personal information. 

I received an automatic email back asking me to email them the URL of the page I wanted removing.   I had given this to them already in the original request but I dutifully replied with the URL again.  I received another email which this time said:

"Thank you for writing to Bing Technical support. I understand you need to have the cache page removed due to personal information in its content. I appreciate that you have taken the time to write to us regarding this.

Broken and dead links are removed from Bing index by an automated process. The MSNBot/Bingbot evaluates each website that it crawls for new content and schedules the next crawl accordingly. If the MSNBot/Bingbot tries to crawl a site or page that no longer exists, the MSNBot/Bingbot marks the site/page as dead and removes the site/page from the Bing index.

The Bing crawler service will crawl the website on a variable basis. Every 15-30 days is the expected average for how often a page is crawled.

Pages can stay listed in our databases for some time after the site content or control documents are changed. Such changes will not take effect in the search database until our information about the site is updated by our crawler.  However, please be assured that we will pick up your changes during our next refresh cycle.

After the published content is removed or corrected, it will be corrected in the search database by our normal content refresh processes. The Bing crawler service will crawl the website on a variable basis. Every 15-30 days is the expected average for how often a page is crawled.

Pages can stay listed in our databases for some time after the site content or control documents are changed. Such changes will not take effect in the search database until our information about the site is updated by our crawler.  However, please be assured that we will pick up your changes during our next refresh cycle.

We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for using Bing."

So now I have to sit and wait and hope that in 15-30 days the links disappear.  I score 0/10 to Bing on this one.

If anyone else has any additional information to add to this please leave a comment and I will expand this post.

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Google Cache Removal

A while back I cleaned up my LinkedIn profile and made it private.  Sometime later, whilst doing a search of myself (you should occasionally) I noticed that the Google search results were still displaying a precis of my profile.  This was exactly the information I had wanted to make more private! 

The reason it still showed is because of Google Caching
There is a very clear description of what Google caching is here.

In short it means that whilst the web page might have gone, Google will still return results linking to it.

It is easy to get Google to clear the cached entry.

Google have clear instructions on how to request removal.

For removal of personal information from search results follow this link http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=164133

Remember you need to be sure first that the page with your information on is no longer actually available and that following the link returns a 404 error or similar. Then use the Google tool to request the removal of the url from the cache:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals

The small print says it can take up to 90 days to remove the entry, my experience was I could no longer see the url in a google search after 24 hours.

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