Google intends to employ new search algorithm that would shore up the appearance of legitimate web content providers to the tech giant's search pages, boosting what the company said chances by music, movie and software producers to lure more buyers away from bootleg sources.

According to Google senior vice president for engineering Amit Singhal, the search tweaks start rolling out next week and the main goal is to prioritise copyrighted products and contents when global users perform search queries.

In a blog post on Friday, Mr Singhal also clarified that the adjustments to be implemented by Google will not remove search results pointing to pirated contents from its search pages, which are accessed by millions everyday the world over.

"So while this new signal will influence the ranking of some search results, we won't be removing any pages from search results," the Google blog on the matter was reported by Bloomberg as saying.

In short, websites normally used to freely download copyrighted music and movies could still be found on Google search pages but the internet giant's deliberate intervention would push them farther from the initial returns delivered by users' queries.

No pages will be removed from Google search pages "unless we receive a valid copyright removal notice from the rights owner," Mr Singhal stressed on his blog post.

Such measures intend to safeguard legitimate web providers that may be wrongfully targeted either by entities wishing to protect their intellectual ownerships or by competitors simply wanting to get ahead from their rivals, analysts said.

The move, however, was met with reservations by net freedom advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which labelled the latest Google policy as rather vague that could leave many web stakeholders second-guessing their own tactics while conducting online business activities.

"In particular, we worry about the false positives problem ... (which could lead to) the government wrongly (targeting) sites that actually have a right to post the allegedly infringing material in question or otherwise legally display content," EFF was reported by tech blog site Slash Gear as saying on Saturday.

Worst case to happen is Google will simply replicate governments' sweeping attitude towards purported copyright violations that expose legitimate but smaller players, EFF added.

The latest Google action was welcomed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

MPAA senior executive president Michael O'Leary said in a statement that his group "will be watching this development closely ... the devil is always in the detail."

"We are optimistic that Google's actions will help steer consumers to the myriad legitimate ways for them to access movies and TV shows online," Mr O'Leary told Bloomberg.

Industry watchers view Google's initiative as some form of mending ways with industries that have been hurting due to the internet giant's powerful search pages that have steered away many global consumers from their legitimate products.

While not exactly encouraging and promoting piracy, Google intensely fought legislations, especially in the United States, that would give governments and content producers more teeth to combat online pirates, which Washington said has been causing hundreds of millions of losses to U.S.-based firms.

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