Ranking Suit Against Google Dismissed

[dutter]

KinderStart will amend its complaint against Google for effectively dropping the KinderStart website from its index when Google assigned the company a zero PageRank.

The lawsuit against Google by KinderStart may have been dismissed, but it has not ended. Attorneys for the plaintiff noted in a statement made after the judge's decision that they "have the full opportunity to amend all Nine Counts in the class action complaint."

However, the attorneys may wish to attend to their website first. At press time, the GlawInfo.com website returns a message that the page has been suspended. That's not a good impression to make on visitors looking for more information.

In their statement, KinderStart's legal team appear to have chosen a new tack as they amend the complaint ahead of a September 29th court date:

A most serious concern for Google now is defamation. The decision suggests that, if properly alleged, Google may be defaming a whole class of Websites sacked with a '0' PageRank. If Plaintiffs show that Google manually tampered with even a single Website's PageRank, Google's entire claim to the world of "objectivity" of its search results and rankings could collapse.

The defamation claim is not as far-fetched as one may think at first glance. Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University assistant professor and director of the High Technology Law Institute, reviewed the KinderStart opinion, and said "there are very few novel or surprising aspects of this ruling."

He also examined the defamation issue in the case:

Despite the relatively unremarkable nature of Google's win, one area of the opinion definitely caught my attention. The judge's reactions to the defamation claim were not wholly favorable to Google and could signal some risk to Google.

Goldman excerpted the judge's opinion as it pertained to defamation, and dissected its potential for causing Google some headaches:

Reading between the lines, I think the judge may be saying it he doesn't like Google's apparent duplicity on its PageRank descriptions. Google claims PageRank is objective in its public statements, yet in court Google claims that PageRank is its subjective opinion. This duplicity just doesn't look good for Google.

Goldman sees Google as ultimately winning the case, due to the "skill of Google's counsel." But it's mostly a sure thing now, instead of definitely.

[incrediblehelp]

Of course many that have followed this case knew KinderStart was not going to win. Not sure how this "defamation" suit will work. The shitty PR number is just that, a number. In fact when Google shows that most of the SEM community has already dismissed its value and only think of to as "entertainment", I am sure the judges will laugh this one off to. And even if they went the route of defending the number as a algo score, then that is all it is, it is not public defamation. Of course that is just my opinion, which doesn't mean much. Good luck Kindernuts.

[urknighterrent]

I am not a google fan. I advertise on it, but I don't usually use it. Especially when I'm looking to spend money.

That said:

Google has the right to list anyone they want for whatever reasons they see fit. Kinderstart is a buch of crybabies. I visited their site the week after it filed suit. IT SUCKED. There was no unique content on it at all. It was just links to "related" sites. If I were google I'd of ranked them 0 too.

[wifiglobal]

How is it that Google is the only PR10 search engine? (At least in the top ten I frequent). And not just that, Yahoo and MSN (rated #'s 1 & 2 by the way with Alexa, for what that's worth, Google dropped a spot), loaded with content and information, and, oh yeah, those ads, which Google does not have at google .com, hold a PR of 7 and 9 respectively for the portal pages, while search.yahoo.com is ... (drum roll) a PR8. Geez, seems like someone thinks pretty well of them selves, and that with 50 non- validation issues at the W3C.

Google? Bye, bye. Uninstalled stuff, including the toolbar, the heck with thier Page Rank, lawsuits galore, click fraud, and China tears it.

Probably all alone here, but I do not care. I am sick of Greed is Goog.