tedster - 9:50 pm on Jan 10, 2010 (gmt 0)

A recent court ruling in France [webmasterworld.com] required Google to remove the French word for "scam" or "swindle" from the Google Suggestions for a certain company.

Google has always maintained that the Suggestions are set algorithmically and they shouldn't be required to make such changes. I'm happy with the French ruling, because Google's position has always seemed naive to me, at best.

It is common for people to make searches that include words like "scam", and "lawsuit" in order to perform due diligence and check out a company. The Google Suggestions algorithm just seems to pick up the search activity and, voila, you've got a nasty bit of potential defamation included in the Suggestions box -- even if there is little or nothing online about the topic.

I've seen this happen with "Searches related to" suggestions as well, when clicking on the link sometimes provides only one or even no results! I'd say this is an algorithm in dire need of attention. Google should not be so academic as to ignore the effect that their Suggestion can have on a company's reputation.

Even if it is automated, Google is still publishing the suggestion. That means they should be subject to all laws related to defamation, slander and libel - in my opinion (IANAL). Google is working very hard and very cleverly to amass great amounts of power. They need to match that power with even greater amounts of responsibility.