KinderStart.com, a parenting Web site, filed a lawsuit challenging the fairness of how Google calculates the relative popularity of Web sites.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - A federal judge Friday questioned whether Google Inc. defamed a small company by cutting it from its Web search ranking system or whether Google is free to choose which sites it features.
Judge Jeremy Fogel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California heard arguments in a lawsuit by KinderStart.com LLC that seeks to challenge the fairness of how Google calculates the relative popularity of Web sites.
KinderStart, a Norwalk, Connecticut-based Web parenting site that features links to information about raising children, alleges violations of antitrust, free speech, unfair competition and defamation and libel laws in its suit.
Fogel said in opening comments that he was concerned attorneys for plaintiff KinderStart had not met the legal standard for defamation at the core of its complaint.
"I guess I am still not convinced ... that a provably false statement has been alleged," Fogel said during a court session on whether the suit should advance to the evidence discovery stage or be dismissed outright.
The judge asked whether Google has a free speech right to prioritize some sites over others in how it constructs computer formulas in its search system. "Assuming Google is saying that KinderStart's Web site isn't worth seeing. Why can't they say that? That's my question," Fogel said.
Details here from Reuters via InformationWeek.com. (My earlier post about this lawsuit is here.)