Fagoogle has been gagged for now. The search engine tool oriented toward the gay community has been knocked down by its more famous namesake, which sent a knock-it-off letter threatening action over Fagoogle’s alleged violation of Google's intellectual property rights.
"Unfortunately, Google does not see fit to allow Fagoogle.com to operate," read a notice on Fagoogle. "This has been caused by Google's over-aggressive policing of their 'intellectual property' rights, which they feel we've in some way threatened, despite the fact that this Web site did not set out to violate any terms set out by Google."
The site said its creators contacted Google prior to launching Fagoogle, to which Google sent links to its terms and conditions, "which we read and fully cooperate with.
"We understood that by following these terms carefully, we were being given the 'go-ahead' by Google," Fagoogle continued. "Google was not satisfied, however, and are now attempting to claim that this website domain name contains their 'intellectual property': the word 'google'.
Fagoogle used the Google engine and the results came with the twist of including ads, revenues from which were earmarked to go to gay-oriented charitable purposes.
"We are scratching our heads over certain words used in an angry and aggressive email sent to us by the Google team," the site said in its posting about the dispute, but agreed to lock Fagoogle until they finish incorporating another search tool. Fagoogle added they had a short but costly run – generating only $3.91 using Google AdSense – but they donated it to an unnamed charity anyway.
Google has yet to comment on the Fagoogle situation.
