Google received 12,000 requests from European internet users seeking to be "forgotten" by the world’s leading search engine on the first day it offered the service. The search giant on Thursday set up an online form to allow Europeans to request the removal of results about them from Internet searches.

Last nonth, the European Court of Justice ruled that individuals have the right to have links to information about them deleted from searches in certain circumstances.

Google has not clarified how long it might take for the links to disappear.