[LINK] Re: World's first, ACCC initiates Google legal proceedings

[Janet Hawtin]

I think this is interesting from a consumer perspective.
It is interesting because the ACCC seem to be arguing from the
perspective of the right for the brand to control the search
outcomes(holler if I'm wrong).
As a consumer when I search for one thing I get a range of brands
which might be of interest because others have recognised some kind of
probability around my searching practices. Currently this is sold by
auction or high bid like ebay or realestate.

I guess I can see that this means someone can buy the space around that keyword
but I do not see how giving the brand owner the right to control the
information space around their product in an open search is in the
consumer's best interests. eg if i search for stuff about sony
rootkits or laptop batteries it is the diversity of the responses I
get which is in my best interests.

If I search for coke I get a lot of coca cola links, some links on
coke as coal, one link on pepsi and one on cocaine. The pepsi and
cocaine links fall under related search.

If I look for pepsi i get a lot of pepsi stuff and coke as a related search.

That seems pretty healthy to me.
I don't really understand why a consumer organisation is going to
court in order to change this unless they are going to mandate that
consumers are able to see all the alternative products. I can't
imagine that would be easy to do so I can only assume if the ACCC wins
I get to see less options.

It is possible I have missed something obvious but I think it is a bit strange.

Janet