Kinderstart sues Google over lower page ranking

Found on Reuters on Saturday, 18 March 2006
Browse Legal-Issues

A parental advice Internet site has sued Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research), charging it unfairly deprived the company of customers by downgrading its search-result ranking without reason or warning.

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.

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.

Everybody who relies on Google should quit doing business. It's not some official search engine who has to list you; it's just another company. Chances are very high that this other search engine got ranked down because of questionable practices. It looks like a PR gag to get some attention; after all, tons of news sites will probably link to them now, so they ranking will rise again.