Google have announced that Google Docs documents will now be spidered by Google “if” they are published. What this means is that if you have published any of your documents as a webpage then google will spider them and allow them to be searched. The announcement has frustrated a number of people who don’t want their documents being put in to search results. Google have provided a way to stop this from happening with details quoted below.
The basic rule is that you should NOT publish a document if you don’t want it appearing in search results.
– going to the “share tab”
– For documents and spreadsheets, choosing “publish as web page”. For presentations choosing “publish/embed”
– Clicking the button that says “stop publishing”.
The changes will be made in 2 weeks time, so it doesn’t give you much time to react. Details via Webpronews and the official Google stance on this is over here.