News about Google (Not to be Confused with Google News)

Subpoena limited. Yesterday, a Federal judge limited the amount of information the U.S. Department of Justice was able to subpoena from Google. The judge ruled that the DOJ has a compelling reason to request information about certain URLs from Google, it does not have sufficiently compelling reasons to ask for information about users’ search terms. Especially considering that the release of such terms would harm the confidence of the search engine’s many, many users.
Lawsuit filed. A suit has been filed against the search engine by a site that claims it was wrongfully “sandboxed” by the Web giant. The site, Kinderstart has asked that Google be required to notify owners of websites before dropping them from it’s database. Google has defended the mysterious formula it uses to determine the relevance of websites as an opinion protected by the First Amendment. Whatever the verdict in such cases, it’s clear that people have come to rely on Google so much that they see it almost as a utility - like hot and cold running water. At some point, that may mean that the search engine industry will become a regulated one.

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Cara 03.18.06 at 8:10 pm: The sandbox can be a tricky thing. I have had some sites get sandboxed for a month and then I have had sites go almost straight into google. Its strange.
2 Teresa Valdez Klein 03.21.06 at 1:32 pm: Someone at the seminar last week said that Google’s behavior is so unpredictable sometimes that people treat them like gods that need to be appeased.

It really makes you wonder what they’re up to in there.