Hello;

I need to know if and how to change a little information on a website
listing
I placed with Google a few years ago in their directory.  I put in a
statement that I
offer "free shipping".
I no longer offer this but everyone says I say this and is listed with
Google and I better honor that statement.

How can I change this information on that listing?

Good Day,

The problem you are experiencing is due to the large volume of web
sites, which Google has to update. Generally, after about a month the
Google directory should update itself with content from your current
site (source/additional information):

://www.google.ca/webmasters/3.html

It is possible, since Google works with it's partners on content
exchange, that your old information is being tossed back and forth
between Google and it's partners (Yahoo and Netscape). If you still
haven't done so, you may want to add/update your META tags to help all
the directories to update your description in their listings.  You can
find more information on META tags at:

http://www.arleensweb.com/meta.html

Hopefully this takes out a little mystery from search engine
procedures. :)

Regards,
Slawek Borkowski

---

Request for Answer Clarification by ginabacal-ga on 14 Sep 2002 00:39 PDT

Since the information I want to delete is not writen in my META tags
for a yahoo store.  This suggestion would not work.  I was hoping I
could change just the description I submitted with the website
listing.

Just want to take away "Free Shipping to any address in the USA"

The listing is found on Page result 3 listing #6 for the key word
"hawaiian shirts"

Hawaiian Shirts Main Page
... quality Hawaiian Aloha Shirts! * A funny thing is these days
you'll
find Hawaiian shirts made just about everywhere except Hawaii. ... 
Description: Hawaiian Aloha shirts. Free shipping to any address in
the USA.
Category: Shopping > Clothing > Ethnic and Regional > North American >
Hawaiian
rainbowhawaii.com/accredited/hawalshirfro.html - 17k - Cached -
Similar pages
[ More results from rainbowhawaii.com ] 

How can I take away the sentence "Free shipping to any address in the
USA."

Ernie
www.rainbowhawaii.com

---

Clarification of Answer by slawek-ga on 14 Sep 2002 10:13 PDT

The comment written by pne-ga explains a way to update your listing
via dmoz.org.  Although I was aware that dmoz.org ("Netscape")
exchanges content with Google, during my search I did not find any
information in the Google manuals (online FAQs) which refers to
descriptions being taken from dmoz.org. However, since dmoz.org, as
pointed out in the links provided by pne-ga, does use the old
description which also shows up on Google's search results, it would
only seem logical that Google does indeed spawn descriptions from
dmoz.

I applaud pne-ga for the help, and if there is any way to transfer
credit for the answer to that researcher, I will do so without
hesitation (however I do not believe that is possible?)

Thank you pne-ga for your help.
slawek-ga

Answer did not help much in finding the direction to solve the problem

As I understand it, the "Description:" line comes from the Google
Directory ( http://directory.google.com/ ), which gets its information
from the Open Directory Project ( http://dmoz.org/ ). The category
your site is in has URLs at
http://directory.google.com/Top/Shopping/Clothing/Ethnic_and_Regional/North_American/Hawaiian/
(mirror) and http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Clothing/Ethnic_and_Regional/North_American/Hawaiian/
(original).

Please look at http://dmoz.org/help/update.html for information on
updating your listing with the ODP. Basically, go to the OPD directory
page ( http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Clothing/Ethnic_and_Regional/North_American/Hawaiian/
in your case) and click on "Update URL". The help page mentions that
"it may take up to 2 weeks or more for your site to be updated" -- but
beware that it may take even longer before external directories
mirroring the ODP, such as Google's, sync with the ODP data. So it may
take even longer before the Google directory will show the changed
description.

I hope this helps you get the change made.

In short: I think you need to take the matter up with dmoz.org and
their editors; I don't think that you can change the Google directory
data directly.

Once you have submitted your site to a search engine/directory, it is
almost impossible to change it. You can submit update requests to
Google and various other directories, but that has never worked for
me. The only solution that allows you to edit your description in a
semi-direct way is to become a DMOZ editor for the category your site
is in. Then you can change your description at will, but it may still
take a month for Google to re-index that category.