Google wins PageRank litigation
Last year we covered the litigation launched by US parenting information website KinderStart, when their Goggle PageRank score was reset to zero out of ten. The two key things about any Google website rating are:
- Keyword Ranking - supposedly an objective ranking done by a Hypertext Matching Analysis algorithm
- PageRank Score –which looks at how important your page is by looking at the links pointing to it.
PageRanking impacts on Keyword ranking, as do up to 250 other undisclosed factors (known in industry parlance as ‘Google’s secret sauce’) used to decide where a page should rank in a keyword search.
Judge Jeremy Fogel dismissed KinderStart’s case, saying it had failed to demonstrate a provably false statement or that Google has caused injury. One of the main problems for KinderStart seems to have been the legal strategy and tactics adopted by its lawyer Gregory Yu of Global Law Group. Judge Fogel will be sanctioning Yu at an upcoming hearing for not removing unsubstantiated allegations that Google discriminated and manipulated web search rankings, as he had been directed at an earlier hearing. It looks as if KinderStart should have avoided claiming defamation and trying to make their case into a class action suit and instead focused on whether Google PageRank is an objective or subjective system. There may be an appeal by KinderStart. As Google had previously obtained an anti-SLAPP for the case, they can now apply to have KinderStart pay all their legal fees!