Bitcoin.org "official site" claim discrepency

[ghost]

"Official site offering documentation, forums and the open source client software which permits to send and receive bitcoins." - Site Description showing up on Google.

"Bitcoin.org is not an official website. Just like nobody owns the email technology, nobody owns the Bitcoin network. As such, nobody can speak with authority in the name of Bitcoin."
on page https://bitcoin.org/en/about-us
Most users will see the description that appears in Google and will never read the disclaimer on the other page.

[harding]

I can confirm that Google provides the text listed in the issue.

I just ran git grep -i official on the repository, and I don't see that text string (on anything like it) anywhere on the site. We also don't have a meta description of any kind on the main page, which is what I think Google attempts to pull from. It's possible that's meta description for the old site and Google just hasn't updated it because we haven't provided a new meta description.

I don't think it would hurt to add a meta description of our own which drops the official claim.

[saivann]

I tried using he "noodp" metadata tag in the past to try forcing Google to renew the description and stop using DMOZ (and to avoid translating a meta description for every page). But apparently it didn't work and I forgot about this issue.

How about we use the following description:

Bitcoin is an innovative payment network and a new kind of money. Find all you need to
know and get started with Bitcoin on bitcoin.org.

See commit: b3d6e56

Preview on Google:

As mentioned previously, I will take care of moderation and deleting inflammatory comments or issues from @millybitcoin. Unverified accusations are unhelpful:

The site description is an attempt to mislead visitors as to the nature of Bitcoin.org.

[harding]

@saivann commit b3d6e56 LGTM. Thanks!

[saivann]

Just pushed the meta description, hopefully it will work this time.

[harding]

As a post script: the new meta description seems to have taken effect on English Google. Thanks again, @saivann!

[saivann]

@harding It's apparently not the case yet on google.ca, but it's great to know! Thanks for suggesting the right way for fixing this issue. All translated landing pages already did have an updated description.