Google's future looking good / Bulked-up search firm beats up rivals: "Many small Web sites also have issues with Google. All of the owners want their sites to be at the top of certain searches to increase their visibility to potential customers, but some of them complain about being relegated to relative obscurity.


To avoid this, some companies hire firms that specialize in getting Web sites higher placement on search engines by trying to game the formulas they use for rankings. In fact, one such firm, SearchKing, in Oklahoma City, filed a lawsuit in federal court last year when Google fought back by penalizing it and its clients with lower search results.
SearchKing lost the case in May, based on Google's argument that it has First Amendment rights to present search results in any order it wants. But the case underscores the importance of the issue in the minds of many Web site owners.

'There needs to be some way for people to argue and defend themselves when Google makes decisions that can affect your business,' said Bob Massa, chief executive of SearchKing. "