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Company Pays Google for "Frivolous" Suit

  • CNET News, Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:45 AM
A parenting Web site that sued Google for engaging in the seismic search shift known as the "Google Dance" has been ordered to compensate Google for certain legal fees resulting from the "frivolous" lawsuit. KinderStart, a directory and search engine focused on parenting information, sued the search giant last year for behaving anti-competitively after it fell to a "zero" ranking in the company's search index.

Among other things, the parenting site said Google skewed its search results to maintain its industry dominance, reserved top search placements for those that paid premium fees and discriminated against sites for religious and political reasons.

Frivolous, indeed. You wonder who these KinderStart lawyers were, because they obviously know nothing about Google or search. First, Google is more than welcome to tweak its search algorithm whenever it wants. In fact, the company updates its search engine once a month on average, a process known to the search industry as the "Google Dance." It certainly doesn't sell natural results, or participate in site discrimination--unless a site artificially inflates its natural search ranking, a practice that's gotten many a Web publisher kicked off Google.

The judge called KinderStart's case "factually baseless," accusing the company's attorney of failing to perform "an adequate investigation." The court now has to determine the amount it has to pay Google.

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