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Errant Google Snippet Draws Lawsuit For Webmaster |
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pSometimes all it takes is precedent to fuel similar actions, so webmasters should be aware a Dutch court found a website operator liable for how a snippet appeared in Googlersquo;s search results, even if the appearance was the result of an algorithmic quirk. br /
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a href="http://www.miljoenhuizen.nl/"Miljoenhuizen.nl/a appears to be a real estate directory site, but the translation of the a
href="http://www.telegraaf.nl/digitaal/3924626/__Site_aansprakelijk_voor_Google-indexering__.html?p=3,2"De Telegraaf Digital/a article mentions there is an auto dealer section as well. On that page, among others, was a listing for a href="http://www.zwartepoorte.nl/"Zwartepoorte/a, a Dutch BMW dealership. br /
img border="0" align="right" style="margin: 6px;" src="http://images.ientrymail.com/webpronews/article_pics/website-blamed.jpg" alt="Website Blamed" title="Website Blamed" / br /
After rumors circulated that Zwartepoorte was bankrupt, the dealership conducted a search with the (in Dutch) keywords ldquo;Zwartepoorte bankrupt.rdquo; Google brought back the Miljoenhuizen site with a snippet reading: Full name: Zwartepoorte. Specialty: BMWhellip;This company has gone bankrupt.rdquo; br /
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The key to the snippet is the ellipsis between ldquo;BMWrdquo; and ldquo;This.rdquo; Googlersquo;s algorithm searched the page for keywords ldquo;Zwartepoorterdquo; and ldquo;bankruptrdquo; separately and retrieved the lines of text with those words in them. The text, however, refers to two separate entries on the same page. Obviously, to the searcher not clicking through or not understanding how this works, the snippet suggests something untrue. br /
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One immediate reaction is that this is Googlersquo;s error and not the website operatorrsquo;s, but Zwartepoorte opted to sue Miljoenhuizen instead since snippet appearances are ultimately under the webmasterrsquo;s control. The dealership won this case, the judge agreeing the site owners could change the text on the webpage so that the text would no longer appear but had refused to do so./p
pHat tip to a href="http://www.24oranges.nl/2009/05/17/site-convicted-for-googles-%0Aautomatic-abstracts/"24Oranges/a./pdiv class="feedflare"
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