Site sues Google over search rankings
 

hahaah fucking loosers.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/18/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes


Site sues Google over search rankings
Parental advice Web site claims its page views plummeted after Google's secretive search system penalized it.
March 19, 2006: 8:00 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A parental advice Internet site has sued Google Inc., charging it unfairly deprived the company of customers by downgrading its search-result ranking without reason or warning.

The civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, Friday by KinderStart.com seeks financial damages along with information on how Google ranks Internet sites when users conduct a Web-based search.

Google could not immediately be reached for comment but the company aggressively defends the secrecy of its patented search ranking system and asserts its right to adapt it to give customers what it determines to be the best results.

KinderStart charges that Google without warning in March 2005 penalized the site in its search rankings, sparking a "cataclysmic" 70 percent fall in its audience -- and a resulting 80 percent decline in revenue.

At its height, KinderStart counted 10 million page views per month, the lawsuit said. Web site page views are a basic way of measuring audience and are used to set advertising rates.

"Google does not generally inform Web sites that they have been penalized nor does it explain in detail why the Web site was penalized," the lawsuit said.

While an entire sub-industry exists to help Web sites feature prominently in Google results, the company is known to punish those who try to trick the system into boosting their search rankings.

The lawsuit notes that rival search systems from Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Yahoo Inc. feature KinderStart.com at the top of their rankings when the name "KinderStart" is typed in.

The complaint accuses Google, as the dominant provider of Web searches, of violating KinderStart's constitutional right to free speech by blocking search engine results showing Web site content and other communications.

KinderStart contends that once a company has been penalized, it is difficult to contact Google to regain good standing and impossible to get a report on whether or why the search leader took such action.

The suit was filed the same day a federal judge denied a U.S. government request that Google be ordered to hand over a sample of keywords customers use to search the Internet while requiring the company to produce some Web addresses indexed in its system. :1orglaugh

If their content was worth shit they would have bookmarkers and word of mouth to compensate. Relying on 70% SE traffic for an actual business site is a shitty business plan if you ask me.

what a bunch of tools.

70% of their traffic came from Google alone? I'm not buying that.

Thats what I was thinking too.. but all they would need is some stupid judge to favor in their corner and you know everyone will jump on the bandwagon to try to sue them over the same stupid shit.

I think this lawsuit can have a huge impact on our industry and the Internet itself over all. Imagine if this company ends up going broke because of this, companies world wide would start taking Google to court every time their SE rankings changed.

Like Google is a public service funded from public money, owing them a good ranking ...

A) The 1st Admendment applies to the GOVERMENT. Are their lawyers that dumb?

B) Where is it written that you have a right for your site to show up in ANY search engine. Last time I checked the lcoal newspaper and yellow pages CHARGE before you get your business in them. So what makes anything Google MUST provide their service for FREE in the first place?

C) If their business was that big they could have opened an Adwords account and paid for thier advertising like the rest of us. All the money they spent on lawyers certainly would have been better spend on Adwords.

So can I sue Google for all the sites I have that don't show in the #1 spot?

Hmmm this isn't a good time for google now they have been doing good stock wise, lets see how this rides out

But how would that be only googles fault?? People have tons of other ways to advert their stuff.. I think this would be just a lame cop out for the fact they depended on only one way to advert.

AMEN! I was thinkinging the same thing on B and C. Also A is a good point but didn't think of that one.:thumbsup

Guys Guys,

Jeez, what a crock of shit.....i can understand they are angry but since when can u sue for shit like this?
Man o Man, If i was google i would sue them back for making a shit load of money from google and not donating any of that back.

What a bunch of fuck sticks

google is going to start getting sued for EVERYTHING i bet.

another Google detractor. just wait and see, Google will prove its worth.

Wouldn't suprise me sue happy america.. One person gets an idea and all run with it.

To play devil's advocate here for a second...

an argument can be made that Google is a service that is available to all of the public and therefore should not supress the 1st amendment right of this company. In the same way that Private Golf Course Clubs with Open access to the public for tournament viewing were challenged by Women golfers.

The only problem with that argument is Google has not removed their listing...simply dropped them down.