In the current legal proceedings where Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges misleading and deceptive conduct by Trading Post and Google, Alan Kohler writes:
“If you google the phrase ‘Alan Kohler’, the top link in the main, unpaid search results is one of my articles on smh.com.au. Next is Eureka Report. But above that, against a beige background, there are two other links – one is to Eureka Report and the other is a link to Australian Stock Report, one of our competitors.”
…
“In essence the ACCC claims two things: a business’s competitors should not be allowed to ‘buy’ its name and muscle into its search results page; and the ‘sponsored links’ are not sufficiently distinguished from the main, unpaid, results in the middle of the page. The ACCC is not saying this, but I think it would accept a settlement based on the latter point, and not press on the first. In other words, Google could probably end the case with more prominent signage on its sponsored links.”
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/17/1184559788867.htmlEarlier stories highlighted on TechNewsReview are available at http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=2002 and http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=1992.
au: Vanishing up each other’s google by Alan Kohler
In the current legal proceedings where Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges misleading and deceptive conduct by Trading Post and Google, Alan Kohler writes, “In essence the ACCC claims two things: a business’s competitors should not be allowed to ‘buy’ its name and muscle into its search results page; and the ‘sponsored links’ are not sufficiently distinguished from the main, unpaid, results in the middle of the page. The ACCC is not saying this, but I think it would accept a settlement based on the latter point, and not press on the first. In other words, Google could probably end the case with more prominent signage on its sponsored links.”