Google today will try to convince a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the heart of the company"s business: its methods for indexing and ranking Web pages. In March, Google was sued by KinderStart.com, which alleges it suffered crippling financial harm after its Web site got dropped from the search engine"s index.
The case reflects the enormous impact of search engines on the business world at large. It has become crucial for many businesses to rank well in search engine results. An entire industry has sprouted to serve this "search engine optimization" need.