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Theres more to Bob Massa, the search-engine swashbuckler who sued Google and also to the anti-Google zeitgeist, if Bobs crystal ball says it right. Massa Bob has a lot more on his plate today. A great but still growing idea of a niche search engine, a bear hug to the Indian outsourcing story with his Indian venture Techndu, and one who doesnt mince words to call a spade a spade. Interviewing Bob Massa is like feasting on a buffet. A buffet that you would need more than a fork (may be a spade) to dig into as he dishes out delicious opinions and hot food-for-thought peppered with his very own piquant candor... Excerpts

Why did you sue Google? I guess it was against Googles reducing the PageRank of your member sites, or something bigger? And how do you look back at that now?
SearchKing was going very good. We had about 300 portals on specific topics and were working with tools to build better value. We had some 6,900 portal partners of which these 300 were doing phenomenal work on value. In business it takes capital and we were thinking of making money.

In 2001, we were trying to explore various ways of making money. Banner advertising was not the best way to advertise on web, so we started looking at other opportunities. Then we stumbled upon something which appeared to cost $250,000 I read the details several times and talked to business associates about brokering links and their value.

I was still a moderator then. I spent about 60 days discussing the idea with co-partners at various forums. I even sent a letter outlining the idea to Google. Never got a response though. There was not a No which I assumed as a Yes.

Within the next month they penalized SearchKing. That didnt bother me so much and I didnt complain because I knew there is risk involved. But what upset me was the wrong way of acting against people who were not associated.

Then a long debate followed. Am I a spammer? Yes or No arguments kept going on. Once a Page Rank (PR) gets to our site, is it still theirs? But they wiped out the PR and admitted that they manually reduced my rankings, manually adjusting my relevancy record, which I saw as a restraint of trade and overstepping the line.

So I took this step to protect my co-partners and show to the world that Google was not right. It was more of opposing the injunction than a suit. I got a lot of backlash. Is it spamming or not, was the debate I was taking up during that time.

Six years from then, brokering links has come up as a full new legitimate business now. The world today is settling on the side that yes it is a legitimate business. I couldnt prove damages but I honestly felt a wrong being done and a restraint of trade. So I fought for what I thought right.

As glamorous as it would look to others (in fact even being called a PR stunt by some); how did suing Google back as a personal experience?
I just wanted to be on the right side, on the legitimate logic. I did what I felt right and people said that I had the gall to do so. Public opinion at that time was overwhelmingly negative but now, when you look back, people are saying the exact things in defense of their web businesses. I argued this back then.

But is the war over?
No not until Google has an intention of controlling more of the web and overstepping their territory. There should be equal opportunity for business to everyone and Google should manage the accountability issue well. There could be major lawsuits in the next three or four years and that will alter the direction considerably.

Google is what we know as a revolutionary, maverick, cool company....

Yeah, the Dont be evil guys....

But from what we have just discussed, do you see the making of another Microsoft, this time a Big Brother trying to browbeat in the Internet space? If so, why do you think that way which is opposite to their reputation of Dont be evil?
In all respect, these guys are smart and powerful enough. I respect Google. But they think they are smart enough to own the world, which in my personal opinion they cannot. Anyway, my issue and argument is very simple. Yes, you have a lot of power, but with that kind of power, whats missing is the accountability part.

For instance, in the SK lawsuit I hired a lawyer paying $25,000 and within 48 hours Google flown in four lawyers from California with a file of responses which were very technical. Knowing very well that the Judges were not that technically savvy, they were basically trying to hide behind the cloak of technology. Is that responsible? Merely grabbing more and more of web with scores of spiders and server farms doesnt change the power verdict.

They think they know all the answers, but they will just throw up a huge list of supposed answers. They dont care enough for answers. All they want is that you should keep coming back to Google and that you dont move away to another search engine.

Can a search engine give a user one exact answer? No, it will merely drown you in a list that will make you wonder Wow, they have so many results; they should be knowing the answers. But this could just be a perception of answers.

Is that what you were attempting to address with a human-oriented niche search engine?
Yes, thats what we were trying. Alas, you always need money for a good idea!

Pratima Harigunani/CMN
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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