Google's Week: Right to be Forgotten, AI battle and Android N

Search firm also revealed it receives 100,000 piracy takedown requests an hour

Google's week was dominated by two highlights: the announcement that the firm will remove Right to be Forgotten requests from its global database, and the news that its artificial intelligence beat a human champion in the Go board game.

The company also released a developer preview of the Android N mobile operating system.

Google to remove Right to be Forgotten requests from global search results

Google is to remove Right to be Forgotten requests from its entire global search database, but only when people search in the country of origin for that delisting.

"Starting next week, in addition to our existing practice, we will use geolocation signals (like IP addresses) to restrict access to the delisted URL on all Google Search domains, including google.com, when accessed from the country of the person requesting the removal," said Peter Fleischer, the firm's global privacy counsel.

Google AlphaGo AI engine wins first match against Go world champion

Google's AlphaGo artificial intelligence engine defeated the world number one Go player in the latest example of AI's growing prowess.

"I was very surprised because I did not think that I would lose the game. A mistake I made at the very beginning lasted until the very last," said world champion Lee Sedol.

Android N: Google releases developer preview early instead of at I/O conference

Google released a developer preview of the next version of Android for Nexus devices, codenamed 'N', offering several updates and new features.

Google usually waits until its annual I/O conference, which this year kicks off on 18 May, to make developer previews available, but the firm has decided to do things a little differently this year.

Google gets 100,000 piracy takedown requests an hour

Google reported that it receives 100,000 requests an hour to take down links to pirated content.

The figures suggest two things: the copyright industry is serious about contacting Google about piracy takedowns; and Google spends a lot of time indulging in the practice.