Google wins first round in Kinderstart.com lawsuit

In the recent lawsuit against Google for lowering the "Page Rank" of www.kinderstart.com, a court has sided with Google's belief that the lawsuit should be dismissed completely against the search giant. I agree here -- unless the Kinderstart lawsuit can show definitively that Google intentionally did not rank -- or ranked lower -- the Kinderstart website, that lawsuit has no merit.

It's quite a stretch for Kinderstart to think that Google retaliated against the website for decreased advertising spending by lowering the page rank of the Kinderstart website, but that's what the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit also alleges that Google was infringing on the free speech rights by the changes it made to lower the ranking of the Kinderstart website.

While Kinderstart was allowed to amend the lawsuit to tighten up the edges a bit, this is just an initial win for the Google folks. Looks like Kinderstart will be back with changed pieces of the same lawsuit and will press on. The one thing the judge proclaimed that I agree with is that Google did not quash any free-speech rights regarding www.kinderstart.com -- and that Google has no legal obligation to ensure free speech on its search engine in this case.