How to find a URL or other identifier of potentially illegal content

Finding the Right Information for Your Legal Request: A Guide to Product Identifiers

To ensure we can process your legal request quickly and effectively, it is essential to provide the correct identifier for the content you are reporting. Google offers many different products and services, and we understand that it can sometimes be tricky to identify which product your issue relates to and how to find the correct URL or identifier for your legal request. That's why we've created this resource—to help you pinpoint the exact information we need to investigate your legal report efficiently.

Blogger

Blogger is a platform for creating and publishing blogs. You can visit it here: https://blogger.com

Blogger Content (Posts, Pages, Comments, Profiles):
- What it is: A blog, or specific content within a blog, such as a post, page, comment, or the author's profile.
- How to find it: Go to the specific blog post, page, comment, or user profile you wish to report. Copy the full URL from your browser's address bar.

Examples:

Post URL: example.blogspot.com/2024/08/title-of-post.html
Page URL: example.blogspot.com/p/page-title.html
Profile URL: https://blogger.com/profile/0123456789...

Please note that general archive links or links generated by searching within a blog are not actionable.

Gemini

Gemini is Google's conversational AI platform, designed to help you brainstorm ideas, create content, and get answers to your questions in a chat-based format. You can visit it here: https://gemini.google.com

Gemini Conversation:

What it is: A specific chat or interaction you've had with the Gemini AI.
How to find it: To report a specific response or an entire conversation, you need to generate a public link. In the conversation you wish to report, find the share icon (it often looks like three connected dots). Click it, and you should see an option like "Share & export" and then "Share conversation". Copy this public link for your submission.
Example: https://g.co/share/1234567890abcdef

NotebookLM

NotebookLM is an AI-powered research assistant designed to help you refine and organize your ideas. You can visit it here: https://notebooklm.google.com

Notebook:

What it is: In NotebookLM, you can create individual notebooks. A notebook is a collection of sources for a specific project.
How to find it: Open the notebook you want to report. Copy the full URL of the notebook and paste in your legal removal request. You can choose to add a screenshot to help us better understand the issue.

Google Play

Google Play is a digital distribution service where you can find and download Android apps, games, movies, books, and more. You can visit it here: https://play.google.com/store

Play Apps:
- What it is: A Play app is any mobile application that you can download from Google Play, the official app store for Android devices.
- How to find it: Go to the Google Play Store website. Search for the app, and once you are on its main page, copy the full URL from your browser's address bar.
- Example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate
Play Reviews:
- What it is: Play Reviews is a feature that allows users to rate and review Apps, Games and Books content on the Play Store. When a user reviews something on Google Play, the review is linked to the user’s Google account and is public in nature.
- How to find it: Play Reviews are user provided feedback for an App available on the Google Play Store. To find an app's reviews in the Google Play Store, open the app's detail page and scroll down to the Ratings and reviews section. From there, you can view the star rating and tap a button to see all user reviews. You can usually sort and filter the full list of reviews by criteria like date, rating, and helpfulness.
Play Books:
- What it is: A digital book or audiobook available for purchase or download.
- How to find it: Find the book or audiobook on the Google Play Store website. Navigate to its page and copy the URL from your browser's address bar.
- Example: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/George_Orwell_1984?id=kotPYEqx7kMC
Chrome Web Store (CWS):
- What it is: The official online store for web apps, extensions, and themes for the Google Chrome browser. You can visit it here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore
- How to find it: Find the specific extension, theme, or app, and copy the URL from its page.
- Example: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/extensionname/itemID

Google Maps & Waze

This section covers Google's primary mapping and navigation services.

Google Maps:

What it is: A web mapping service that provides detailed information about geographical regions, including satellite imagery, street maps, and user-generated content like reviews and photos. You can visit it here: https://google.com/maps
Local Photos, Videos, and Photo Spheres: User- or Merchant-submitted images (static and/or interactive panoramic) and videos associated with a specific location. To find the URL, navigate to the content on Google Maps, open it, and copy the URL from your browser's address bar, or click on the Share button and copy the link provided.
Local Reviews and Merchant Replies: User opinions or descriptions of experiences, or a Merchant’s response. To find the URL, locate the review, click the "Share" icon next to it, and then "Copy link."
Media Posts (“Updates from Customers”): Photos posted by users to a location's "Updates" section. To find the URL, click on the specific update and copy the URL from your browser. Alternatively, click on the Share button and copy the link provided.
Questions & Answers: A feature for users to ask questions about a place. To find the URL, click on the question (even if your report concerns an answer) and copy the URL. The URL should look like this: https://google.ie/maps/place/ .
Street View: Interactive panoramic images provided by Google. To find the URL, navigate to the exact location and camera angle, then copy the complete URL from the address bar.

Waze:

What it is: A community-based navigation app that provides real-time traffic updates and road information. You can visit it here: https://waze.com
How to find it: The specific information you need to report (like a map issue, a user profile, or a specific route) can be identified by its URL. Navigate to the content in question on the Waze website and copy the full URL from your browser's address bar.
Example: https://waze.com/live-map/directions/...

Google Shopping

Google Shopping allows users to search for, compare, and purchase products from various online retailers. You can visit it here: https://shopping.google.com

Shopping Reviews (UGC):
- What it is: A review submitted by a customer for a product they purchased.
- How to find it: When viewing the customer review, copy the full URL from your browser's address bar.
Google Shopping Product Page:
- What it is: A dedicated page showing details, prices, and sellers for a single product.
- How to find it: Navigate to the specific product page on Google Shopping and copy the URL from the address bar.

Google Cloud & Productivity Tools

Google Help Communities:
- What it is: Official forums where users get help on Google products. You can find them here: https://googlesupport.serverhump.com/
- How to find it: Go to the specific post, question, or comment and copy the URL from the address bar.
Google Classroom:
- What it is: A platform for educational institutions to manage coursework. You can visit it here: https://classroom.google.com/
- How to find it: Navigate to the specific course, announcement, or comment and copy the full URL from your browser.
Google Sites:
- What it is: A tool for creating simple websites. You can visit it here: https://sites.google.com/
- How to find it: Open the Google Site you wish to report and copy its full URL from the address bar.
Google Drive & Docs Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms):
- What it is: A file storage service that includes a suite of productivity apps. You can visit it here: https://google.com/drive/
- How to find it: Open the file or folder. Click the "Share" button, then click "Copy link."
Google Photos:
- What it is: A photo sharing and storage service. You can visit it here: https://photos.google.com/
- How to find it: Open the photo, album, or memory. Click the "Share" icon, then select "Create link" or "Copy link."
Gmail / Chat / Meet:
- What it is: Gmail is an encrypted email service. Chat is an encrypted instant messaging platform supported by the Workspace ecosystem. Meet is an encrypted video-conferencing tool supported by the Workspace ecosystem. All of these products are designed to facilitate real time digital communication.
- Email ID: @gmail.com @customurl.com / https://chat.google.com / https://meet.google.com/
- How to find it: User provided email address and/or the URL from the address bar.
Google Messages:
- What it is: Is a delivery service platform that leverages RCS messaging, while still supporting traditional SMS capabilities. Phone # 123-456-7890
- How to find it: User provides abusive phone number.
Cloud Firestore
- What it is: Firestore is a fully managed, serverless, cloud-native NoSQL database that offers a flexible, scalable, and performant data storage solution.
- How to find it: URL begins with https://firestore.googleapis.com
Firebase Hosting
- What is it: Firebase Hosting provides web hosting for developers.
- How to find it: URL has the format https://<domain>.firebaseapp.com/ or https://<domain>.web.app
Google Cloud Storage
- What it is: Google Cloud Storage is a service for transmission and storage of large unstructured data
- How to find it: URL begins with https://storage.googleapis or https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com
Compute Engine and App Engine
- What it is: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) offerings provided as part of the Google Cloud Platform.
- How to find it: URL includes "appspot" (but does not start with https://storage.googleapis) or is associated with a Google IP address

Google Ads

What it is: Google Ads is Google's online advertising program that allows businesses to create and display ads to users actively searching for related products and services on Google Search, YouTube, and across a network of partner websites and apps. There are different types of Ads, including but not limited to:
- Search Ads: Text-based ads appearing on Google search results pages.
- Display Ads: Image, text, and responsive ads shown across a network of websites.
- Video Ads: Various video formats (skippable, non-skippable, etc.) primarily on YouTube.
- Shopping Ads: Product listings with images and prices shown on Google Shopping and search results.
- App Ads: Promotions designed to drive app installs and engagement across Google's network.
How to find it: The best way to identify an ad is to get its click string or Ad ID.
- To get the “Ad ID”:
  - Click on the "i" icon, or "X" icon on the Google/YouTube ad. This will open a new page called “My Ad Center”.
  - Select the "Report" flag button.
  - Click “Something else”.
  - In the field “Ad ID”, select “Copy ad ID”.
  - Paste the ad ID you copied into the Legal webform. When selecting the format of the content you’re reporting, select “Ad ID” and enter it there.
- To get an Ad URL / clickstring (for Search Ads): Right-click the ad and select "Copy Link Address". Select the format of the content you’re reporting in the Legal webform as “Clickstring”. Paste that URL in the field.
- You can also choose to submit the following URLs:
  - Ad Transparency Center URL: If you see an ad that should be reported in Google’s Ads Transparency Center, you can also copy/paste the URL from the transparency report as long as it shows a specific ad (not an advertiser’s page with multiple ads).

Google Search

Google Search is a web search engine that provides results from the public web. You can visit it here: https://google.com

Organic Search Results (Web Search):
- What it is: A link to a third-party webpage that appears in Google's search results.
- How to find it: Perform the Google search. Right-click on the blue title of the search result you want to report and select "Copy Link Address." Do not provide the URL of the Google search results page itself.
Image Search:
- What it is: A link to a third-party image that appears in Google Images’ search results.
- How to find it: Perform the Google search in Images tab. Click on the image. Find the vertical three dots above the Image. Click the share button. Copy the URL that begins with “https://share.google/images/…”
Knowledge Graph
- What it is: A Knowledge Graph is a data structure that appears on the Search Engine Results Page and represents a collection of interlinked descriptions of entities—real-world objects, events, situations, or abstract concepts—and their semantic relationships.
- How to find it: Find the vertical three dots next to the subtitle of the Knowledge Graph name. Click the share button. Copy the URL that begins with “https://share.google/…”
Autocomplete and Related Searches:
- What it is: Search suggestions that appear as you type in the search bar, or at the bottom of the results page.
- How to find it: These features do not have URLs. To submit a report, provide the exact search term you typed that generated the suggestion. A screenshot showing the suggestion is extremely helpful.
Sports Comments:
- What it is: A feature that allows users to comment on live sports games directly in search results.
- How to find it:
  1. Navigate to the comment in the search results.
  2. Click the three-dot menu that appears in the top-right corner of the comment.
  3. Click "Copy comment ID" and paste this ID into your report.
AI Overviews:
- What is it: A feature that provides an AI generated summary of various sources on the web.
- How to find it: This feature does not have a URL. To submit a report, provide the exact search term you typed and the generated summary. A screenshot showing the AI Overview is extremely helpful.