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

Even easier.

[khasim]

Put a little link at the top of his site saying "If you're looking for Texas lawyer .... click here (link)".

What's next? Students sued because they're more popular than the unpopular students? "Sally only won home coming queen because she's a cheerleader and promiscuous! It's UNFAIR!"

TV ad - Was your child devastated when she wasn't voted home coming queen? The law offices of Dewey Cheatum can help. We also provide Google ranking services.

Re:Even easier.

[no reason to be here]

Sally only won home coming queen because she's a cheerleader and promiscuous!

I'd like to meet this Sally.

Re:Even easier.

[dourk]

Put a little link at the top of his site saying "If you're looking for Texas lawyer .... click here (link)".

No way. Why should I change? He's the one who sucks.

Re:Even easier.

[kaizenfury7]

Yeah right... like you'd really be able to recruit her into your World of Warcraft guild.

Reminds me of....

[SuperStretchy]

A quite I heard:
Fighting on the internet is like the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded.

While not necessarily the most tactful of quotes, it does ring true.

MY BLOG WAS SUED BY MICROSOFT

[Shihar]

I am totally serious. My blog was SUED BY MICRO$OFT because I made some software that was so much more awesome then theirs. I even have the letters they sent me to prove it!!11!!! Now, if the Slashdot editors will kindly accept my claim without any sort of validation and post me on a Slashdot front page...

Seriously. Show an ounce of journalistic integrity and don't give a podium to utterly baseless claims. He doesn't even say what company is suing him so we can't even bother to ask that company if this is real. Any idiot could have made this up for the singular purpose of driving up hits. I am not saying that the guy is liar (he very well could be telling the truth), just he shouldn't get a free stage to advertise until there is at least the semblance of a claim that can be fact checked.

Not convinced this guy is truthful

[Sir Homer]

I saw a link to this on his website: http://www.deanhunt.com/services/index.html

It raises some suspicion as this guy's business seems to be googlebombing. Perhaps he fabricated this story in order to get his website up in PageRank by people linking to him.

SEO slashvertisement - viral campaign

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes great. He posts a truly funny e-mail exchange on his site. And now he even gets slashdot exposure.

He even wrote: I will make a viral campaign!
http://deanhunt.com/category/seo/

This is it and you have fallen for it. Stupidos.

Even the stupidest lawyers aren't stupid enough

[Sir Homer]

To send letters like that. I have a feeling Mr. Dean Hunt is fabricating this story, as his business is mainly google bombing and search engine optimization.

Tuttle Award nominee

[DrJimbo]

I nominate the anonymous businessman for the first annual Tuttle Award.

See Misconfigured Webserver, Threats to Call FBI.

Re:Tuttle Award nominee

[LWATCDR]

Nope his is still city manger of Tuttle last time I checked.
Tuttleing:
When a person or group make an ass of themselves on the Internet by threatening legal action without just cause.
Usually involving some abuse of power or position all they while displaying a large degree of arrogance and stupidity.

THIS IS FAKE, HE MADE THIS UP! PLEASE READ.

[Sir Homer]

This man owns a search optimization business, with its only purpose to increase the PageRank of other sites. There is no threatening letters. Mr. Dean Hunt fabricated them himself. He even writes in his website:

Over the coming weeks I am going to be attempting my very first viral campaign. A viral campaign is something that has interested me for a long time, and if done properly it can be one of the most powerful tools any webmaster has.

There is NO evidence this guy is telling the truth, but there is ALOT of evidence this guy is lying his ass off. Don't believe this Slashdot readers!

Mod Parent Up

[Nasarius]

This seems *very* suspicious. Parent quotes from this post.

SEO Viral Campaign

[Zegnar]

Is this not in fact the Viral Campaign he talks about starting on his blog? Seems to be working, since he's on Slashdot already, plus all the links go to his site and none to the other (ostensibly undisclosed) address.

He is in the SEO biz, and this is a viral campaign

[Infonaut]

This man owns a search optimization business

Nice catch, Sir Homer.

Here's where he tells us he's going to mount a viral campaign.

fake news, viral marketing

[ukyoCE]

Just to reiterate what someone else tracked down in hopes of getting this (wholly ambiguous and suspect to begin with) story checked out:

http://deanhunt.com/category/seo/

Basically this guy has a side job of helping companies up their pageranks, and made all this up as an "experiment in viral marketing". Nothing to see here...and sure explains why he's keeping the company name and search terms secret.

Re:Ranking....

[Christopher_Edwardz]

I would imagine that the business owners are attempting to "fool" google's ranking system. They just assume that Dean Hunt is trying and beating them and they're crying foul.

Perhaps they paid someone like a search engine placement company and feel a little angry at being cheated?

Check out how he is doing it!

[sr. taquito]

Oh my, if you hover over the people's names who have submitted responses, seems like each person's web site that the name links to is a business. I tried to submit a response, but it was rejected! He's a sneaky devil. That is how those sites are getting higher rankings, his blog links to their sites through the fake comments.