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They are suing Google because they don't like what appears on the top search results

by Wechito
32 replies
Yesterday I was reading the newspaper and I saw something that I would like to share with you. One camping from Spain have sued Google because the first results when you search for the name of the campning (Els Alfacs) are not their website but one article from Wikipedia and images about one tragic accident that happened in the camping in 1978 where 243 people died.

They are asking Google to modify their search results in order to make those articles and images about the accident disappear becauese it is not good for their business.

In my opinion, those people have no idea how Google works. You can not make Google modify their algorism just because it is not good for your business. Besides, they have not made SEO at all. The site has less that 100 links.

Can you imagine the repercussions this can have if they win?

Do you think their petition is justified?

This is the link to the newspaper's article (It is in Spanish, though)
El cámping Els Alfacs demanda a Google para que retire enlaces sobre la tragedia de 1978 · ELPAÍS.com
#appears #google #results #search #suing #top
  • Profile picture of the author RyanHend
    They won't win. It is a ridiculous lawsuit that should be thrown out the moment it is filed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Miranda
    What a crazy lawsuit but I am not that surprised because nowdays people sue someone for looking at them the wrong way. People are too sensitive.
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    • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
      Originally Posted by Steven Miranda View Post

      What a crazy lawsuit but I am not that surprised because nowdays people sue someone for looking at them the wrong way. People are too sensitive.
      Did you just tell me I was too sensitive? In a public forum? I know YOU didn't say my name, but I am PEOPLE, so what is your address, you are going to he be hearing from my lawyer buster!

      lol... I was going to PM, but figured there would be more dramatic effect if I just posted in here!
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  • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
    I think it's MORE fair for the company's website to appear higher than Wikipedia, and I think in fairness Google SHOULD think this too. After-all it's their company the people are searching for.

    Though the lawsuit is probably senseless and it won't go their way.
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    • Profile picture of the author Wechito
      Originally Posted by Intrepreneur View Post

      After-all it's their company the people are searching for.
      Not necessarily. Some people might not been searching for the camping but for the accident that happened there.
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    • Profile picture of the author WhamSoft
      Interesting topic.

      Filing a law suit against Google is clearly not the answer and the wikipedia article is not the only issue. If you search for the term from Google UK you'll see countless news articles and also a few graphic pictures of the accident.

      If I were running this company I would seriously consider a change of name, and re branding of the company because the name and the accident appear to be permanently linked to each other and both good and bad results will always be shown for any related keyword search.

      Lee
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      • Profile picture of the author Wechito
        Originally Posted by WhamSoft View Post

        Interesting topic.

        Filing a law suit against Google is clearly not the answer and the wikipedia article is not the only issue. If you search for the term from Google UK you'll see countless news articles and also a few graphic pictures of the accident.

        If I were running this company I would seriously consider a change of name, and re branding of the company because the name and the accident appear to be permanently linked to each other and both good and bad results will always be shown for any related keyword search.

        Lee

        This is what I think. Google is not responsible for their lack of marketing skills.
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  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    This is retarded.

    Excuse my language but #$&*ing go to the wikipedia page and "edit" it, to display both the positive and negative of the location.

    I hate peoples ignorance
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
      Banned
      Originally Posted by LMC View Post

      This is retarded.

      Excuse my language but #$&*ing go to the wikipedia page and "edit" it, to display both the positive and negative of the location.

      I hate peoples ignorance
      There you go, using your head. They can't win a nice settlement if they do that. Not that they will for attempting litigation against Google. In my opinion the case has no basis.
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  • Profile picture of the author DanDasilva15YearOldIM
    Is this really a surprise for you people? This is what the world has boiled down to...

    Maybe I should contact them and sell them some SEO. !!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me.

    This is so typical of people now a days. They haven't done any SEO to speak of, and so they blame Google for their poor showing in the SERP.

    My answer to this, get off your lazy butt and do some SEO, or as one poster stated, change the damn name of your company.
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    Tim Pears

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    • Profile picture of the author Targeted Traffic
      Originally Posted by timpears View Post

      The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me.

      This is so typical of people now a days. They haven't done any SEO to speak of, and so they blame Google for their poor showing in the SERP.

      My answer to this, get off your lazy butt and do some SEO, or as one poster stated, change the damn name of your company.
      Definitely do agree! they should do some ass kicking SEO!

      It's human nature...pointing your finger to others for any mishaps...Adam started it all...
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      • Profile picture of the author Martin Luxton
        I think there is another side to this.

        Els Alfacs was a one-off accident caused by an exploding gas truck. OK, fine, they should do some SEO and/or rebrand, but their stance is that it wasn't their fault so why should they be damned for all time?

        Which brings us to the other side of the coin. What about people/companies who use SEO to hide their wrongdoings? Should we expect Google to have any social responsibility built into their rankings?

        Google results for James Arthur Ray show his website at number one and his Wikipedia entry at number two before we come to a couple of videos about his conviction for negligent homicide.

        If you Google 'BP' all you will find about the gulf oil spill on the first 3 pages is a couple of short one-line entries.

        So, for those of you being derogatory about this Spanish camping site, if a scammer or hater ever hurts you and this is facilitated by their great SEO skills, remember this thread.


        Martin
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        • Profile picture of the author Wechito
          Originally Posted by Martin Luxton View Post

          I think there is another side to this.

          Els Alfacs was a one-off accident caused by an exploding gas truck. OK, fine, they should do some SEO and/or rebrand, but their stance is that it wasn't their fault so why should they be damned for all time?


          Martin
          We do not have control over the 100% of our lives and some times we are victims of external events that we can not control. When this happens you have two options:

          -Self-pity and passive attitude
          -Be proactive and work to get over it

          Many people choose the first option because it seems to be the easiest solution and then they realize that this has consequences and try to get others to solve their problems.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vlad Romanov
    If I was Google I would manually remove their website from the rankings after they lose the lawsuit... Now that is something the can easily do!
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  • Profile picture of the author Sonny Am
    I too think this is a tad ridiculous. But i can understand the companies reasoning. It must be incredibly stressful to have built a website and to expect it to rank higher because you have little knowledge of seo.
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  • Profile picture of the author DanielDeus
    Or alternatively we could all club together and get some backlinks with the keyword "Els Alfacs" to their site and get them to number one in Google quickly - if only to see their lawyer stand up in court and just say "Ahh... err... actually... Nothing!" and have to sit down again
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  • Profile picture of the author dotgirish
    Instead of suing he could have got a good WSO and get him ranked first .. that would be a wise choice ..
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  • Profile picture of the author Oranges
    lol Algorism sounds like Orgasm in OP's post.
    That was hilarious!
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  • Profile picture of the author mrdanilodiaz
    I myself don't like what appears on the top of search engine. I can easily be manipulated by SEO experts.

    Google's believe that a high quality article or website will naturally get backlinks.

    The truth is, most high quality sites are being shared using twitter, facebook, etc., which is no follow. When people share a good article, they use anchor text that are clearly non keyword rich like "click here".
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  • Profile picture of the author Gee S
    If the money they spend on legal fees was put into SEO instead they'd probably dominate that term and probably countless others.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Wizard of Oz
    How insane! Anyone with half-a-brain would re-brand the park under these circumstances. If they win this stupid court-case, I'll be next in line to sue Google for not putting my sites at #1 in the searches. (Yeah right!)
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  • Profile picture of the author SUPER Louie
    Really absurd. This is similar to the girl who sued McDonald's for not putting a label 'Caution Hot' in her coffee
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    • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
      Originally Posted by siocowiz View Post

      Really absurd. This is similar to the girl who sued McDonald's for not putting a label 'Caution Hot' in her coffee
      and she WON
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    • Profile picture of the author LMC
      Originally Posted by siocowiz View Post

      Really absurd. This is similar to the girl who sued McDonald's for not putting a label 'Caution Hot' in her coffee
      Yea but she won... and won a lot.

      She changed the labeling market forever
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      • Profile picture of the author sadiecopywriter
        Originally Posted by LMC View Post

        Yea but she won... and won a lot.

        She changed the labeling market forever
        Actually, I've met one of the people involved with that case at a party once. That one really wasn't as silly as this one sounds.

        McDonald's had already been warned several times about having faulty caps on their cups. They kept giving out the faulty caps because they were already paid for and they figured it didn't matter. They also superheated their coffee way past the boiling point so that if any part of your skin touched it would be burned instantly. Superheating it was easier than trying to keep it at normal temperature for hours on end.

        I wonder if there's not more to this story too. We all know the media rarely tells the whole truth.
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        • Profile picture of the author tim_benedict
          Now if the Spanish company involved has been in existence longer than the accident has been news, I guess I could see some concern about not re-branding. But if not, that was strike one-bad choice of brand names. Strike two was blaming Google for their own poor choice of branding. Strike three? Not doing good SEO of their own, for ANY search engine. Boot them. They're out.
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  • Profile picture of the author provenmarketingorg
    Yes it seems a bit silly, but it really is annoying how wikipedia seems to get such high preferences, when it is so easy to have extremely biased trolls editing out anything controversial to fix the conventional 'status quo' mold. Its really being shown to much ranking and its sad not to have a more balanced choice of views at the top
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    You don't sue google, you hire what is called a "reputation management firm".
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  • Profile picture of the author CurtisSWN
    Actually, I was thinking of suing Google for not sending enough traffic to my website...
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