Google's autocomplete function is both the most helpful and funniest thing about the Internet. Whether you type in "Who is" and are glad Google pulls up "the richest person in the world" or you get a completely unexpected result, such as "Who is Gossip Girl," there's never a dull moment when autocomplete is around.
However, one Google user isn't laughing. A Hong Kong court is allowing billionaire Albert Yeung to sue Google for the way his name autocompletes in search, according to a judgment released Wednesday. Yeung filed a defamation lawsuit against the tech company after it refused to remove suggestions that appear in autocomplete when someone searches for Yeung's name. Words such as "triad," which refers to organized crime gangs, show up in the search engine when one types in Yeung's name.
Yeung is the chairman of Emperor Group, which owns businesses in several different sectors, such as finance, entertainment and publishing. He is the 45th richest person in Hong Kong, according to Forbes' Hong Kong's 50 Richest list, with an estimated net worth of $1.12 billion.
With this potential link to organized crime, Yeung argues that his reputation has been "gravely injured," and he seeks compensation for the damage. Google objected to the lawsuit, with the company's lawyers arguing that Yeung would be better served by getting the websites to remove defamatory statements about him, and the company tried to have the case dismissed before it made it to trial. However, Judge Marlene Ng ruled in favor of Yeung, saying that Google could censor material.
"I have found there is a good arguable case that Google Inc is a publisher in respect of the Words on the Websites as alleged by Yeung," said Ng in the official court judgment.
This ruling comes just weeks after a federal judge ruled against Google's request to dismiss a privacy lawsuit claiming the company had given conflated user data from various products to advertisers without permission. Google has also recently faced lawsuits over in-app purchases in the Google Play store and allegedly incorrectly reporting a restaurant's hours of operation in Google Places.
Now that Yeung's lawsuit has grabbed headlines, one has to wonder how many people will be Googling "Albert Yeung triad."
