Slashdot Log In
Lawsuit Against Google Dismissed
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun Mar 25, 2007 02:56 AM
from the and-a-pony dept.
from the and-a-pony dept.
Weather Storm writes in with news from PCWorld that a US District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Google by a company that accused them of manipulating search results for political and religious reasons and skewing results in favor of companies that compensate Google financially. The lawsuit (discussed on Slashdot last year) was filed by KinderStart, a parenting information Web site that claims it was illegally blocked from Google search results. The judge not only dismissed the lawsuit but granted a motion by Google to sanction KinderStart and one of its lawyers. Google can now seek "reasonable compensation" for attorney fees because KinderStart's lawyer filed claims that were factually baseless and did not perform an adequate investigation before filing the lawsuit.
Related Stories
[+]
Technology: Suing Google Over Pagerank 427 comments
Yardboy wrote in to tell us about a story from Reuters describing a lawsuit by parental advice company Kinderstart.com against Google for 'charging it unfairly deprived the company of customers by downgrading its search-result ranking without reason or warning.' Kinderssart claims Google is responsible for 'a "cataclysmic" 70 percent fall in its audience -- and a resulting 80 percent decline in revenue.' I guess the courts will now decide: Can google taketh what they giveth?
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Go to your room! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not far enough (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, so what if Google skews their search results? They aren't under any obligation to link to the whole web or to do so in an objective manner.
Re:Not far enough (Score:5, Interesting)
Kinderstart didn't have any claims that had merit, so there wasn't really a possibility of creating any new precedent or caselaw. They judge just tossed the whole thing out, and then as a bonus, said they were so ridiculously bad, that Kinderstart should have known not to bring such a steaming pile into the courtroom, in the first place.
In order to 'go any further,' Kinderstart would have needed to have a claim with a modicum of merit, which they didn't.
I guess maybe you can hope that someone smarter will sue Google for the same thing tomorrow, but I think they're probably just happy for the moment.
Parent
Re:Not far enough (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Not far enough (totally OT) (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe it's just early in the morning, but I read that phrase as "creating any new precedent or coleslaw."
Then I thought WTF? You mean the judge wanted to make salad out of KinderStart? Why not just give them their just desserts?
Re:Not far enough (Score:5, Funny)
And it would put a bunch of lawyers out of work. What are you? Some kind of commie?
Parent
Imagine if NewsMedia Had To Do This! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Imagine if NewsMedia Had To Do This! (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The media is inane enough, it doesn't need more help from people who 'know what is good for us'.
A Good Start (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Wait, maybe I missed something (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Haha (Score:4, Funny)
Well, Google Can Sue Them (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.kinderstart.com/cgi-bin/sqlsearch.cgi?
They have been removed from KinderStart's search engine, in violation of their first amendment right to free speech!
Parent
Something in the water (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I never understood (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not to say that I agree with Kinderstart.com's reasoning, but they do have one: Google has become, in effect, the world's online navigation system. Being de-listed from Google (or even demoted; who wades through more than the first few pages of results unless they are looking for something specific?) is the WWW equivalent
Why have Google ads then? (Score:3, Funny)
I thought the Reality Distortion Field only applied to Apple...
This is funny stuff (Score:4, Funny)
"All options are being explored. That's all that we are going to say at this point," Yu told news agency Reuters.
I imagine those options probably include "running away" and "hope to god they don't sue us".
Baseless claims and no adequate investigation (Score:3, Funny)