March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. won a partial victory in a battle with the government when a federal judge ruled yesterday that the company didn't have to turn over customer search queries to the U.S. Justice Department.

U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose, California, refused to make Google, the most-used Internet search engine, give the agency 5,000 search queries as part of an effort to defend a law aimed at keeping children from accessing Internet pornography. Ware did rule Google had to comply with the U.S. demand for 50,000 Web addresses from its index of Web sites.

Google's success in limiting the government's access to customer search records came after a two-month battle that led to concerns that some Web surfers might avoid using Google, which profits by displaying ads next to search results and earning fees when consumers click on the ads.

This is a victory for Google, said Andrew Serwin, a lawyer in the San Diego office of Foley & Lardner, who has followed the case. Google didn't want to give up search terms or anonymous customer data, and they didn't have to.

Ware ordered Google and the Justice Department to come up with a method to randomly select the 50,000 Web addresses in a way that would not force Google to disclose any confidential information. He gave both sides until April 3 to raise any problems with the confidentiality requirement.

1 Million Addresses

The government had originally sought as many as 1 million Web addresses, then agreed at a hearing earlier this week to narrow the data request to 50,000 Web addresses, of which the government would examine 10,000. The government also wanted the 5,000 search queries, of which it would look at 1,000.

This is a clear victory for our users and for our company, Nicole Wong, associated general Counsel at Google said on the company's Web site. We believe that if the government was permitted to require Google to hand over search queries, that could have undermined confidence that our users have in our ability to keep their information private.

The government wants the data to support a lawsuit pending in federal court in Pennsylvania over whether a federal law may prove more effective in limiting minors' access to pornography on the Internet than filtering software.

The search query data could have shown why filtering software doesn't always work, Serwin said.

The ACLU and other privacy rights organizations have so far successfully sued to block enforcement of the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, or COPA, since it was signed into law in 1998. A trial in the Pennsylvania case challenging COPA is set for Oct. 23 before U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed in Philadelphia, Fine said.

`Significantly Hampered'

Ware said that Google must turn over the Web addresses because they could help the government study the effectiveness of filtering software. Because Google is the biggest search engine, the government's effort could be significantly hampered if it didn't have access to some of the information it sought.

What the government has not demonstrated, however, is a substantial need for both the information contained in the sample of URLs and the sample of search query text, Ware wrote in a 21-page ruling released yesterday.

Ware said groups challenging the government's anti- pornography law may also seek information from Google that may implicate Google's confidential commercial information.

Shares of Mountain View, California-based Google rose $1.02 to $339.72 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading yesterday.

The case is Gonzales v. Google Inc., 5:06-mc-80006, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).

Commentary: