Judge Dismisses SearchKing's Lawsuit Against Google
U.S. District Court Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange on Tuesday granted Google's motion to dismiss a suit that alleged the company manipulated search results in its powerful Web index and denied a motion for a preliminary injunction brought by SearchKing, who claimed Google unfairly removed links to its site and those of its partners from the index, causing financial losses. The judge dismissed the case on the grounds that Google's formula for calculating the popularity of a Web page, or "PageRank," constitutes opinions protected by the First Amendment. "PageRanks are opinions--opinions of the significance of particular Web sites as they correspond to a search query," according to the decision filed in the U.S Western District Court of Oklahoma. "The court simply finds there is no conceivable way to prove that the relative significance assigned to a given Web site is false," the decision said. "Accordingly, the court concludes Google's PageRanks are entitled to full constitutional protection." [Full story: Judge dismisses suit against Google - CNET News]
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