Mac Duggal LLC: 68% of Prom Dress Retailers Would Join A Google Blockade

CHICAGO, Jan. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In a poll conducted by Mac Duggal LLC, 68% of prom dress retailers reported that they would participate in a Google blockade protesting the search engine's role in prom dress buyers getting ripped off by counterfeiters. The goal of the proposed blockade is to pressure Google into shielding prom dress buyers from being preyed upon by counterfeiters. Google's search index is infested with counterfeiters.

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Retailers joining the protest would block Google's spider from crawling their websites for a week. The  blockade of "Googlebot" is largely a symbolic protest, but will apply pressure on Google to filter out apparel counterfeiters, much as the search engine demonstrated it is capable of doing when it filtered out pharmaceutical counterfeiters. Google would lose the ability to find new pages or new content being added to the participants' websites. The Google spider would be blocked by adding "disallow" to the text file that specifies how a website should be crawled. 

According to fashion designer Mac Duggal, "Counterfeiting of designer dresses has existed since long before Google came on the scene, but the search engine has made the problem exponentially worse." Counterfeiters gain perceived legitimacy by appearing in Google's search results, buying ads at the top of search results pages, and utilizing U.S. fashion designers' photography. The counterfeiters then sell unsuspecting teenage girls horribly made dresses that do not fit and often don't arrive in time. Approximately 500,000 knockoff and counterfeit designer dresses are sold to US consumers every year. A prom dress retailer in the U.S. loses 100+ sales annually to counterfeiters.

Additional details about the proposed Google blockade, as well as reports from prom dress retailers on teenage girls getting ripped off by counterfeiters, is provided at http://www.macduggal.com/Page/Google-Blockade-Details

About Mac Duggal, LLC
Mac Duggal (http://www.macduggal.com/) designed dresses have turned heads for 30 years. Under the direction of accomplished designer Mac Duggal, the company is one of the fastest growing fashion houses in the world. Mac Duggal dresses, including prom dresses, couture gowns, red carpet dresses, and pageant gowns are carried in 35 countries by the world's leading bridal and special occasion dress retailers.

SOURCE Mac Duggal, LLC