Google Out Ranks KinderStart.com in Lawsuit
Yesterday it was announced that a California judge granted a motion by Google to dismiss a lawsuit by KinderStart.com over the site’s rankings in the Google search engine. KinderStart.com alledged that a change in Google rankings is responsible for a 80% drop in advertising revenue after its site was dropped from Google.
According to the suit, KinderStart.com felt that Google’s decision to lower their rankings for terms in search engine results was a violation of KinderStart.com’s free speech rights.
Brian White @ Blogging Stocks comments:
It’s quite a stretch for Kinderstart to think that Google retaliated against the website for decreased advertising spending by lowering the page rank of the Kinderstart website, but that’s what the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit also alleges that Google was infringing on the free speech rights by the changes it made to lower the ranking of the Kinderstart website.
While Kinderstart was allowed to amend the lawsuit to tighten up the edges a bit, this is just an initial win for the Google folks. Looks like Kinderstart will be back with changed pieces of the same lawsuit and will press on. The one thing the judge proclaimed that I agree with is that Google did not quash any free-speech rights regarding www.kinderstart.com — and that Google has no legal obligation to ensure free speech on its search engine in this case.
