Search Engine Review

Google sued by American Blind

American Blind sues Google in NYC: American Blind & Wallpaper Factory in Plymouth, Michigan has fired back in its legal dispute with Google. The online retailer of home decorating products last week filed a lawsuit against Google in federal court in New York. American Blind contends that when Google sells competitors paid ads on search results pages for combinations of words like "American blind," it amounts to copyright infringement. Google distribution partners, including America Online (TWX), CompuServe, Ask Jeeves (ASKJ), Netscape and Earthlink (ELNK), were also named in the suit. "We spend millions of dollars annually to build brand awareness and cannot stand idle while Google allows our competitors to ride our coattails," American Blind CEO Steve Katzman said in a statement, according to CNet.com. In November, Google filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., asking the court to rule on whether its keyword-advertising policy is legal. According to the complaint, Google pursued a court ruling after receiving legal threats from American Blind about its advertising policy. Google had said it would block advertisers from buying keywords that directly infringe on American Blind's trademarks, including "American Blind Factory" and "DecorateToday" but said it could not block other descriptive phrases American Blind wished to protect. Those phrases included "American wallpaper" and "American blind."

Yahoo, Google primed for search war

Yahoo on Wednesday said it will drop search partner Google during the first quarter of 2004 in favor of its own technology, opening a new phase in the battle for Web search dominance. Google currently processes approximately 80 percent of all search requests on the Web through distribution deals with Yahoo, Time Warner's America Online and Ask Jeeves, according to market share data compiled by research firm Comscore Media Metrix. When Yahoo ends its deal with Google, that share is expected to drop to about 54 percent. Yahoo's reach, meanwhile, could jump to 42 percent, based on its own search traffic and a deal that provides Inktomi results to Microsoft's MSN Web portal. Read the whole yahoo! story.

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