Our searches for information about Google and plagiarism produced a variety of results, many warning of penalties from Google, and others saying that Google can’t or doesn’t track plagiarism. The specific search for “google plagiarism guidelines” produced their Search Console’s page about duplicate content (1), which is more about a website’s own content duplicated within their own pages, often in an attempt to influence search results.
It is permissible to cite another’s work as long as it is a legitimate citation as long as it follows guidelines (2) and isn’t an attempt to take it for one’s own.
Despite what is or is not said about official policies and automated policing of content copied from others, it is common knowledge that copying someone else’s work and calling it one’s own is wrong in many ways.
What can you do if someone copies your content?
There are online tools, such as the Plagiarism Checker (3) which you can use to see if someone has copied your content. If you find that someone has taken your content and used it for their own, there are steps you can take to address the situation (4) and get it corrected.
1 – Google Search Console Help – Duplicate Content
2 – socialfresh – How To Use Content From Other Blogs Without Violating Copyright
4 – Business Know-How – Copyright Violation: What to Do when Someone Copies Your Web Site