Online Store to Sue Blogger Over Google Ranking?

An anonymous reader writes "An online business owner is threatening to sue blog owner Dean Hunt (DeanHunt.com) because he is upset that the blog owner is doing better than his business in the Google search rankings. After an initial threat, Dean received a follow-up threatening to take legal action against him. So far Dean has elected not to name and shame this business owner."

Comments

Get a Clue.

[shaneh0]

We don't live in some utopian communist star trek world. I would prefer such a world, but nobody in charge asked me what I wanted.

You're talking about wanting an internet that's not shaped by profit. Guess what: It's gone and it's never coming back. It's been gone since, at least, 1995. And you know what else? That's a good thing. The internet would not be what it is today if it weren't for companies and the driver of profit. It would be full of Geocities websites, academic resources, resumes and term papers. Yawn.

Furthermore, the fact that you equate seo with things like fraud and price fixing is totally overblown. But before I get to that, I want to address your "google would have more time to wipe my ass if SEO didn't exist" remark.

Think again. That same company that purchased my services, as I mentioned in another post, paid Google nearly 3/4 of a million dollars in Adwords.

Google is what it is today because of FOR PROFIT companies. It would've never made it out of stanfords basement labs if the web wasn't what it is.

But lets get back to your idea that SEO is a bad thing. I live in a midsized city, about 300k people. One of our Malls that is well-located has been growing and growing for 20 years now. It's grown so much that it's actually put 3/4 of the other malls in the city out of business.

Furthermore, many businesses close locations all over the city just to move to the neighborhood with this mall.

Location Location Location.

This is what SEO is. It's getting the best location on the internet that you can.

It doesn't hurt anybody, because these same techniques can be used by ANYBODY. It's a level playing field. So you can "hate me" all you want--I promise you that I don't care--but all you're doing is proving your ignorance.

Slashdot is full of people that think that software should be free, search engine rankings should be sacrosanct, and it's a bad thing when people make a profit.

Unfortunately, we don't live in a world like that. I butter my bread writing software and I cringe every time somebody suggests it should be free. Free software doesn't work. There is no model in existence of a major free application working. All of the free applications were paid for by somebody. The developers that work on Linux, MySql, OO, are *paid* developers. The companies that pay them do so by selling other software or services.

SEO isn't hurting anything. I would argue that your attitude, if it were actually held by enough people to even matter, would. Significantly.

Re:Get a Clue.

[shaneh0]

"5 - Is telemarketing good business? Junk mail? Sure, the rules are level, it's a tool that can be used. But it's a detriment. It's a drain. "

This is your thinking, and this is why you're wrong.

What is a drain about Junk Mail? It GIVES PEOPLE JOBS. It MAKES PEOPLE MONEY.

Get over it. You want a fantasy land. The things you want would only be possible in a "star-trekien no money exists" world. Telemarketers aren't a "drain" on ANYTHING. What are they draining? Please, tell me. What are junk-mailers draining? Who is hurting because Junk Mail is sent?

You seem to have this idea of moral absolutes. Like I said. You have a black & white mind in a gray world. That sums up my entire argument.

I'm done here. I have to go optimize some other websites. Maybe if I'm really lucky I'll somehow inconvenience you while doing it.

Re:Mod Parent DOWN

[StikyPad]

I'd say "Somebody set us up the bomb!"

Mod Parent Up!

[frogblast]

Why do i always see the best posts when i dont have any mod points. bah.
I totally agree with your point. creating jobs/money is not the most important thing when determining the legality/morality of an activity.
unfortunately many activites that harm other are allowed because (ironically) they harm everyone. pollution is the classic example - the polluter takes all the financial gains from not desposing of the waste properly/not producing the wast in the first place. everyone on the planet is affected by the negative results, but only a little bit each. The gains are concentrated with those who cause the problem and the damage is spread over many people.
the idea is explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_Common s

i think this is a good way of looking at the problem of SEO/junk mail/spam
for each individual it might only be a slight annoyance, and it is always logical for a company to do it but eventually the 'environment' is damaged to a point where it is not usable.
i.e. email becomes unusable because of the levels of spam, search engines become useless because of the artificial results
some of these things are already happening...
how many google searches have you done where the first page was just a load of rubbish - price comparison sites, fake 'reviews', review sites where nobody has even reviewed the thing your looking for. and of course the classic ebay results which seem to fill most searches (get a clue - if i wanted to buy it on ebay i would search on ebay!)