A Milan Court ruled that Google must censor out the derogatory search suggestions and completions used on Google Instant. Personally, I find it a bit crazy but not everyone agrees with me, including this Italian court.
I mean, look at the image I used on this post. If Google dislikes anything, it is people calling the company evil. And the first instant completion you get from Google for [Google is...] is Google is Evil. Did Google censor that out? Not yet.
But that might change, because an Italian court doesn't want anyone to have to fight with Google over their names or company names being defamed via Google's search suggestions.
The issue is that someone was searching for a particular name and Google offered search completions for the name with con man or fraud. The individual sued forcing Google to filter out those suggestions and won, requiring Google remove any libellous search suggestions for his name. The Court of Milan upheld that ruling on March 31st.
Quoting myself there.
Personally, if I had some bad search suggestion for my name or company name, I'd be very upset. But as a searcher, maybe it would help? Google claims it is purely algorithmic and based on search volume and other metrics. So why shouldn't Google show even derogatory suggestions?
What do you think? Take my poll:
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
