Posted On: May 4, 2005, 2:17 pm CDT

Posted By: Florida Product Analyst

The article is unclear whether Google has stopped AutoandHome.com from appearing under Response Insurance as a Sponsored Link, or whether Google has stopped their page from appearing at all among the search results. If Google has merely stopped showing their link as a Sponsored Link, that decision I can get behind; it's a matter of running advertisements via one's service, and I believe infringement laws apply there. (I'm not well-versed in that area of law, but that's been my understanding.)

However, if they're now blocking the result from appearing at all, I'm concerned about that. My analogy for this is that it would be like a phone company refusing the publish the phone number of Kids 'R' Us because Toys 'R' Us has filed an infringement complaint. In the latter case, the dispute is between the those two businesses, and the directory service shouldn't be involved as a tool or participant. Granted, I've seen Google as a commercial venture (rather than its image as a directory service) err on the side of "censorship" in the past, so I don't suppose I'd be surprised.