In a 21-page ruling (pdf) Friday, U.S. District Court Judge James Ware ordered Google to turn over to the government some URLs that Google indexes - but not data on online search habits, because that might result in "loss of good will" among searchers, reports AFX. The Justice Department had originally asked for " billions of URLs and two month's worth of users' search queries," according to a post on the official Google blog by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel for Google.

Judge Ware's ruling was intended to balance the government's need to gather data against Google's expectation that it could operate without undue interference or fear that its trade secrets might be revealed, writes the Los Angeles Times.

The government is seeking to revive the overturned Child Online Protection Act, which would have penalized websites that allow minors to access pornographic content, but was deemed unconstitutionally broad. Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL, also subpoenaed, complied at least in part; all three declined to comment after Ware's ruling late Friday, according to the LA Times.

Previous coverage:

- Judge: Google Should Give Some Data to Government
- Google Fights DOJ Subpoena, May Face One from ACLU
- AT&T Sued for Helping NSA Spy on Citizens
- Google, Justice Department Prepare for Court Battle
- Outing Google's Dirty Little Secrets
- AOL, MSN, Yahoo Handed over Some Data to Feds
- Uncle Sam Wants Your Google Search Records