Google protects its search results : Google charged Comcast, the high-speed Internet access provider with hosting some accounts that had abused its terms of service by performing "automated queries." The crackdown cut a wide swath, taking out a block of IP addresses, shutting down the guilty and innocent alike. Lockouts are hardly unprecedented on Google, which has long banned computer-generated search requests that can sop up substantial system resources and help unscrupulous marketers manipulate its search rankings. Things like this can only portend a crossfire with several innocent Web surfers caught in between.