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PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google |
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SearchKing, Oklahoma's premiere parasitic link-farm, is suing Google for tweaking its PageRank algorithm to lower SearchKing's scores. For future reference, the press release itself has a PageRank of 2 out of a possible 10. And yes, higher numbers are better.
For a company in the business of artifically boosting PageRank scores and selling ads whose price is based on the boosted PageRank, this takes a lot of nerve. SearchKing is asking for a preliminary injunction (this marks the first time LawMeme has seen a legal document with a "your ad here" banner attached). The King does have a point: when your "business" consists of shoplifting and the corner store installs a security camera, you're going to go out of business quickly enough that an injunction is your only hope.
LawMeme is curious how much SearchKing is paying its attorneys to handle this suit, since LawMeme is of the opinion that any non-zero dollar figure is too much. Ill-considered legal fees may not lurk behind every dot-com death spiral, but this suit can't be very good for SearchKing's chances of survival.
Update (1150, 21 Oct 2002):
Slashdot and K5 have stories on the suit.
SearchKing's CEO explains his modus operandi in an interview, article, and posts to web boards.
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Average Score: 4.21 Votes: 96

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"User's Login" | Login/Create an Account | 30 comments |
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Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google (Score: 1) by bobking on Sunday, October 20 @ 16:26:58 EDT (User Info | Send a Message) http://www.searchking.com | This letter is intended for James Grimmelman, who had the by-line for the SearchKing sues Google article here . It was difficult to find a contact address and if this is not the correct way of reaching him and you have a way, please send it to me or forward this to him.
Thank You
Bob Massa
CEO
SearchKing, Inc.
*************************************
Just a question James.
Did it ever occur to you to maybe ask the person you're writing about for his views BEFORE insinuating I was a parasitic link farm?
If you take your web presence seriously, and accept that the words research.yale.edu means something, doesn't that put a responsibility on you to be open-minded and fair? To at least try to report objectively?
Have you even looked at the site? Read any of the SearchKing forums or tried to contact me for my opinion? If no, then shame on you.
Regardless of whether I'm just a loser who is whining about his placements or an honest businessman who has spent over 6 years building a reputable online presence with a real concern that could have far reaching effects on the further of search engines and maybe even e-commerce, wouldn't your own work be better if you at least tried to hear and present both sides?
Respectfully
Bob Massa
CEO
SearchKing, Inc. |
[ Reply to This ]
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Sunday, October 20 @ 21:53:11 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 09:29:14 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 10:31:15 EDT
- You're on Slashdot. by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 10:40:46 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 10:42:48 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 11:11:14 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 11:23:28 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 11:47:07 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 11:58:44 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 12:40:15 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 12:59:21 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 13:12:29 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 15:54:27 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 15:59:11 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 16:03:24 EDT
- Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Tuesday, October 22 @ 13:10:39 EDT
Re: PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google (Score: 0) by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Monday, October 21 @ 10:52:51 EDT | Sorry, you are a parasitic link farm. You see, I'm not interested in your customers. I'm interested in the best possible search results to my query. If you inflate PageRank for any sites for money, then you're spamming the index. You're making Google less valuable as a search tool for me. And I don't want that, so if Google has tweaked their algorithm to take spammers into account, that's great! |
[ Reply to This ]
This is not really on point but... (Score: 1) by greglas on Tuesday, October 22 @ 09:45:14 EDT (User Info | Send a Message) http://www.chaihana.com/pers.html | ... perhaps it is a little bit (tangentially) on point.
On the broader issue (raised in the comments) of possible obligations of search engines to formulate proprietary algorithms in certain ways: I recently wrote a very brief article about trademark issues in paid placement listings. Pre-publication version can be found here -- click on "Paid Placement Search Engines (pdf)". This was written before the FTC advisory came out. Thought it might be of interest to LawMemers, if only for some of the citations. |
[ Reply to This ]
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