SerpApi moves to dismiss Google scraping lawsuit
SerpApi says Google is stretching the DMCA to protect ad revenue, not copyrights — casting the case as a fight over access to public SERPs.
Topic: First Amendment to the United States Constitution
Google sues SerpApi over scraping and reselling Search data
Google accused SerpApi of 'circumventing security measures protecting others’ copyrighted content that appears in Google search results.'
SerpAPI calls Reddit lawsuit a threat to the ‘free and open web’
SerpAPI responds to Reddit’s scraping lawsuit, defending its practices and insisting that public search data should stay open and accessible.
Is Google biased? An SEO veteran’s perspective
This deep dive uses SEO tools and data analysis to explore the claims, controversies, and facts behind political search results.
Supreme Court upholds TikTok divestment order: What you need to know
TikTok to be banned for 170 million U.S. users, disrupting campaigns and forcing brands to pivot organic and paid strategies.
TikTok takes U.S. ban challenge to the Supreme Court
With not much time to spare before the Jan. 19 ban, TikTok has taken its case to the Supreme Court.
TikTok ban faces uncertain future under Trump’s return
Trump’s shift on TikTok’s potential ban could impact the app’s future in the U.S., creating uncertainty for advertisers targeting its 170 million American users.
5 underrated skills you need to be a good digital PR – and how to master them
Want to excel in digital PR? Learn the often-overlooked skills that separate exceptional digital PR practitioners from the rest.
This day in search marketing history: February 10
Google refreshes Page Layout Algorithm, plus: Google's ads impact on advertisers, poor grammar, Google Buzz reaction and more
Changes are afoot, and this time they’re going in the right direction; Tuesday’s daily brief
Plus, register for SMX Create
Yahoo and other Verizon-owned search sites favor Verizon media properties [Study]
Study compared rankings for the same queries across six Bing-powered search sites, including Bing itself.
Senate bill seeks to compel tech giants to offer ‘unfiltered’ versions of their content
The 'Filter Bubble Transparency Act' would apply to websites and mobile apps.
Report alleges Amazon manipulating search results to boost its products, profit
The company said to give its own products “preferential treatment in search.”
Trump doesn’t like Google news-search results, vows to ‘address’ the situation
He echoes long-standing complaint by conservatives that technology companies are biased against them.
Google fighting local battles over global control of its index in Canada, France
Regulators and courts seek to assert authority over global search results rather than limit decisions to their own countries.
SearchCap: Google algorithm changes, Google Maps lists & people also ask
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google: No comment on possibility of a Feb. 7 algorithm updateFeb 13, 2017 by Barry Schwartz Did your rankings in Google get better or worse over the past week? Many webmasters […]
Florida court: Google permitted to delist sites regarded as spam under First Amendment
The e-ventures Worldwide, LLC vs. Google case should have been dismissed earlier.
Florida court allows Google to be sued by publisher delisted as “pure spam”
Procedural ruling flies in the face of established legal precedent.
10 big changes with search engines over my 20 years of covering them
Search Engine Land founding editor Danny Sullivan looks at how search has changed over the two decades he's been writing about it.
RIP Google PageRank score: A retrospective on how it ruined the web
While Google will remove PageRank scores from public view in the coming weeks, the way those scores dramatically reshaped the web will remain.
Problems & Solutions: Analyzing The EU’s Antitrust Charges Against Google Over Shopping Search
The EU has raised four concerns about how Google has dominated shopping search. A close look at each charge and possible fixes that might emerge.
Another Court Affirms Google’s First Amendment Control Of Search Results
Europe and the U.S. continue to drift further apart on Google. Even as European parliamentarians and regulators seek ways to restrain Google’s discretion over search results, U.S. courts continue to affirm Google’s right to do whatever it wants with search results — paid and organic. A California state court in San Francisco recently granted Google’s […]
World War II, Communism Subtext In Right To Be Forgotten
From an American legal perspective, the recently established European Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF) is a disaster. It’s a confusing, vague, impractical and possibly even dangerous decision. But from a European historical perspective, it makes considerable sense. The different histories of the U.S. and Europe in the 20th Century have shaped different attitudes and rules […]
Blogger Fined By French Court Because Negative Restaurant Review Was Too Prominent In Google
A French court has ordered a blogger to pay a substantial fine and change the title of a restaurant review because the review was too prominent in search results and harmed business at the restaurant. The post has since been removed but can be viewed here (via TechDirt). The restaurant, Il Giardino, complained to the […]
The Myths & Realities Of How The EU’s New “Right To Be Forgotten” In Google Works
Depending on what you read, a “Right To Be Forgotten” court ruling in the European Union this week means that now anyone can ask for anything to be removed from Google, which will soon collapse under an overwhelming number of requests. In reality, it’s far more limited than it sounds, though the ruling does raise […]
US Court Says Baidu Has Free Speech Right To Censor Search
Late last week, Chinese search engine Baidu succeeded in gaining dismissal of a lawsuit by pro-democracy activists based in New York (Zhang et al. v. Baidu.com, Inc). Plaintiffs had sued in the US and argued that Baidu improperly blocked them from seeing content on the search engine. Specifically, according to Reuters, the plaintiffs said that people in the US couldn’t […]
Wow! See How Much Screen Real Estate Google Is Giving Rivals In Its EU Antitrust Settlement
Google’s finally reached a proposed agreement with the European Union over antitrust charges. Judging from screenshots the EU has released, it will give Google rivals unprecedented positioning in Google’s results, sometimes for free, sometimes for a fee. Consider how the EU is saying that shopping results will appear, as part of the agreement. The before: […]
VA Court Delivers Blow To Yelp, Free Speech Of Users
A Virginia state court of appeal has ruled that Yelp must disclose the real identities of seven individuals who posted anonymous, critical reviews of an Alexandria, Virginia carpet cleaning business, Hadeed Carpet. Yelp and free speech advocacy groups have decried the decision. Hadeed said that he didn’t believe that any of the reviews came from actual […]
Sponsored Study Argues Google’s “Rival Links” Don’t Drive Enough CTRs To Rivals
Google’s original antitrust settlement proposal, negotiated with the European Commission, was attacked by Google competitors and critics as being a token concession to competition. Anti-Google lobbying group FairSearch.org sponsored a consumer study that argued Google’s presentation of three “rival links” to competitors in search results did little to drive traffic to competitors’ websites. In September Google presented a […]
EU Goes Public With Google Antitrust Proposals, “Market Test” FAQs
The EU released documents this morning that detail Google’s antitrust settlement proposals and explain the Competition Commission’s position on various aspects of the investigation. First here’s what the EU says Google has proposed: Google offers for a period of 5 years to: (i) – label promoted links to its own specialised search services so that […]
Google Avoids Link Tax But Vague “Ancillary Copyright” Law Sets Up Future Legal Battle
In August of last year, a number of German lawmakers were pressing proposed “ancillary copyright” legislation that would have required Google and others that indexed or aggregated news to pay for links or excerpts from those news items. The proposed law was championed by German magazine and newspaper publishers who, like their counterparts in the US, are seeing […]
Five Steps To Successfully Navigate Negative Online Reviews
Last month, D.C. contractor Dietz Development made news when it filed a $750,000 Internet defamation lawsuit against its former customer, Jane Perez, for negative reviews she posted on Yelp and Angie’s List regarding renovation work at her home. The company claimed the reviews, which alleged that Dietz did not complete its work and stole jewelry […]
After A Month, Silence From The FTC On Search Engine Disclosure
A month ago, I sent a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission asking it to review how search engines are complying with its guidelines on disclosing listings where payment is involved. The silence since then, as the saying goes, has been deafening. That’s a pity given how important that review is to the on-going antitrust […]
Second Google-Sponsored Legal Report Argues Government Would Lose Antitrust Case
Google is playing a sophisticated form of “head games” with antitrust regulators. A second legal report-cum-brief (embedded below) has appeared. It argues that antitrust challenges against Google are likely to fail because Google’s critics’ arguments lack legal merit and/or make little sense from a policy perspective. The report was written by lawyers from the Ammori […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 9, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 10 Great Adwords Options For Boosting Conversions We all know that Adwords is the most used system in the world to drive paid traffic to websites. The Adwords system is an […]
Does The First Amendment Create A Complete Defense For Google Against Antitrust Regulation?
Google now faces antitrust investigations on multiple continents. The US FTC recently hired a prominent outside litigator in a sign that it may be preparing to bring an action against the company. But does Google have a “slam dunk” defense against such a case (at least in the US) under the First Amendment of the […]
An Unprecedented Video Glimpse Into How Google Crafts Its Search Results
How does Google create its search algorithms, its recipes for making the listings and search results you get? For the first time, the general public gets a glimpse into the decision making process, through a video that Google has posted of one of its search quality meetings. The Video I was fortunate enough to witness […]
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) Stalls In Congress
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee abruptly adjourned today without voting on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a controversial measure that would impose radical new requirements on search engines, ISPs, ad networks and other key internet players. The hearings will resume “earliest practical day that Congress is in session” according to the chief sponsor of […]
Santorum & Google’s Search Quality Czar Matt Cutts Makes The Colbert Report
The search industry is getting a little more mainstream recognition every day, as tonight’s episode of The Colbert Report picked on Google’s handling of the Spreading Santorum situation. This time the target was software engineer Matt Cutts, long known to search industry insiders as head of Google’s Web Spam and search quality team, he doesn’t […]
Should Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem” Be Fixed?
Is Google (and Bing, by the way) not being “responsible” by failing to remove an anti-Rick Santorum web site? The Republican presidential candidate believes so, speaking out this week against an unfavorable listing for his name. But “fixing” Santorum’s “Google problem” isn’t as easy as it sounds. Defining Santorum For those who aren’t familiar with […]