Fresh Off DoJ Split Decision, Google Faces Pagerank Suit
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Written By Reprise Media | March 20, 2006 | Share This
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Big G’s lawyers are keeping busy this week. Last Tuesday we covered Judge James Ware’s intention to force Google to release 50,000 random web addresses and 5,000 random user search queries to the Department of Justice, a substantial reduction of the government’s initial request. Friday afternoon, says News.com, Judge Ware ruled that Google wouldn’t need to turn over the 5,000 search queries after all, in news that was hailed by privacy advocates and Google alike as a win. Google said that they’d happily comply with the order for the 50,000 URLs.
But just when they thought they were out, another lawsuit is dragging Google back into court. Reuters reports that parental information vertical KinderStart.com is throwing everything they’ve got at Google because of a “calamitous” drop in the site’s search rankings last March, which they claim led to an 80 percent drop in revenue. The Search Engine Watch blog has listed the California suit’s seven counts for easy reference, but the biggest one is KinderStart’s contention that Google has violated their Constitutional right to free speech.
Not only does KinderStart want financial compensation, they also want Google to give up its secret sauce: the exact formula for determining sites’ search rankings, a jealously guarded industry secret. Plenty of sites - a percentage likely approaching all of them - have expressed frustration with Google’s mum stance on search rankings, but until now none of them have resorted to such drastic litigation. KinderStart is also trying to organize a class action suit on behalf of sites “blacklisted” by Google since 2001, and accuses Google of operating a monopoly, unfair competition, defamation and libel - all in addition to the Constitutional free speech violation - for what seems to amount to a handful of customer service complaints.
The lawsuit says that “Google does not generally inform Web sites that they have been penalized nor does it explain in detail why the Web site was penalized,” and KinderStart further complains that it’s hard to get in touch with Google and “impossible” to get explanations with regard to search rankings issues. Line forms this way, KinderStart. Just because Google’s ranking system in inscrutable and they’re sometimes difficult to deal with doesn’t mean a site has a Constitutional right to an excellent search rank. At least, we don’t think it does…we’ll see what the courts have to say. In the meantime, KinderStart should at least be pleased with the traffic increase this suit’s likely to generate.
Topics: Legal Issues |