'top spot for sale'....at Google..
Date Published 20/09/2007 - Click here for more recent news
Here at EASIserv.com central, we sometimes have cause to ponder those great imponderables:
- does a fish drink water?
- if ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?
- why do people answer the phone if it’s the wrong number?
and finally..... - why keep on enacting ‘new’ laws when we already have more than we can break?
That final ‘legal’ imponderable came to mind today - when we read about the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) taking legal action in their Federal Court against Google Inc (and 2 of their subsidiaries Google Australia and Google Ireland) over allegedly deceptive conduct related to "Sponsored Links" on its websites.
Amongst everything else newsworthy that’s flying around today we took notice of this news ‘snippet’ particularly for two reasons: firstly a general one, because anything to do with Google is worthy of a bit of anyone’s attention and secondly a personal one, because one of EASIserv.com’s major clients participates in Australian PPC and we like to pay attention on their behalf.
The ACCC case against Google first raised its head back in July this year and revolves around the ‘appearance’ of the PPC hyperlinks [advertisements in other words] that appear in the shaded area titled "Sponsored Links" by Google. The thrust of the ACCC case is Google’s encouragement of this [alleged] 'deceptive conduct’ by allowing "Sponsored Links" to appear at the top of the list of search results [on the right hand side of the list too - although that wasn’t specifically mentioned in the ACCC court filing] and in the same format as the “organic” search results.
The consumer watchdog further alleged that Google does not do enough to differentiate “organic” search results – those ranked by relevance – from "Sponsored Links" Google, of course, defended their business model vigorously and the case was adjourned for further directions in the same court on October 4.
Well do give us a break! There’s a certain element of letting people behave like grown-ups going on in this debate and when the courts of any country start to try and legislate in this kind of ‘paternalistic’ way, at EASIserv.com towers we say, ‘fair-dinkum-mate’ – but No Way José!
We’ll watch this case unfold with interest – so watch this space.
Update 4th October
The ACCC has today dropped its legal action against the two Google subsidiaries, but vows to continue its fight against Google Inc. Oh, the ACCC have also now amended their filing to include the "Sponsored Links"at the side of the page too! Wonder who spotted that one, eh?
The Australian court will revisit the ACCC case on November 16 - and so will we. Make a date in your diary!
Update 16th November
Today, in the continuing contretemps, Australia’s Federal Court Friday set a 23 June 2008 hearing date for the case brought by the ACCC. Google has denied the allegations. Google said in a statement Friday, “The ACCC’s claims against Google are entirely without merit and we will continue to defend against them vigorously. We’re very much looking forward to making our arguments to the court..” An ACCC spokeswoman declined to comment.
Talk about floggin' a dead horse...anyways, let's all block-out 23rd June 2008 in our diaries and go along to Sydney's Federal Court and blow a collective raspberry at the ACCC and the Federal Court. You'd think that they had some better things to expend their energies on... like improving the potency of their beer for starters!
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