Kinderstart.com v Google
Kinderstart.com Sues Over Drop in Rank
Kinderstart.com claims that Google.com has mysteriously downgraded the search ranking of its web site geared to help parents care for young children, causing a ``cataclysmic fall'' in advertising revenue and the number of monthly page views. The civil suit by KinderStart.com seeks financial damages and more information about Google's secret method for ranking sites. The lawsuit , filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, seeks class-action status for other sites that have seen their rankings drop without warning or explanation from the Mountain View search giant.
The recently filed lawsuit claims that since Kinderstart.com launched in May 2000, it had built up its traffic to more than 10 million page views a month, with much of the traffic coming from Google search users. Yet, in March 2005, page views plunged 70 percent and advertising revenue fell 80 percent and has not recovered. KinderStart.com suspects that Google erected invisible barriers that divert consumers elsewhere when they type in a search but says Google will not explain what happened.
The drop-off was so sudden that Kinderstart suspects Google has a flawed method or blocks sites subjectively despite Google's pledge to provide objective search results.
