Google is facing federal anticompetition probe into the way it is conducting business in the search market.
The FTC has launched a probe into Google and its behavior in the search market. The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that the Federal Trade Commission was poised to issue subpoenas to the search giant, launching the formal investigation into the company’s dominance in web search advertising.
People familiar with the matter told the newspaper that the investigation would include whether Google searches unfairly steer users to the Google's own network of services at the expense of rival providers. Expedia, TripAdvisor, WebMD.com, Yelp.com and Citysearch.com have all apparently complained about Google’s habit of promoting its own services unfairly.
Though the investigation is focused on Google’s core business, the company could have nothing to worry about. According to the Journal, it’s not illegal to own a monopoly, you just can’t acquire one lawfully or abuse one.
Google confirmed the investigation earlier today. Speaking via the official Google blog, Amit Singhal said Google would cooperate with the FTC's probe.
"At Google, we’ve always focused on putting the user first," Singhal wrote. "We aim to provide relevant answers as quickly as possible—and our product innovation and engineering talent have delivered results that users seem to like, in a world where the competition is only one click away.
"Still, we recognize that our success has led to greater scrutiny. Yesterday, we received formal notification from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it has begun a review of our business. We respect the FTC’s process and will be working with them (as we have with other agencies) over the coming months to answer questions about Google and our services."
Beside if i remember correctly it is not illegal for a content provider to promote its own services over a competitors its just illegal to block people access to a competitors service(I could be wrong :\ ).
Google has all the rights of steering searches towards it's services first in my opinion. Them companies complaining can come up with their own search engine if they really want to be up there too... much like Microsoft's Bing promotes their crap, and Yahoo and all them.
The crappy wannabes want a piece of the pie too, but since they can't get some, then they'll try to ruin the pie for everyone.
Beside if i remember correctly it is not illegal for a content provider to promote its own services over a competitors its just illegal to block people access to a competitors service(I could be wrong :\ ).
They have lots of money the same as MS and the government is just making up rulings to fine them and get a big pay out.
Expect the EU to follow suite
Mactronix
Google is vital now. We need water, we need electricity, we need internet, we need the Google. It's a verb now!!
Do we "bing" for stuff? Or "yahoo" them? NO! We google!
Google has all the rights of steering searches towards it's services first in my opinion. Them companies complaining can come up with their own search engine if they really want to be up there too... much like Microsoft's Bing promotes their crap, and Yahoo and all them.
The crappy wannabes want a piece of the pie too, but since they can't get some, then they'll try to ruin the pie for everyone.
The difference is that Walmart actually has real competition and therefore can't abuse it's market dominating position.
Walmart's net profit margin is around 5%. Google's is around 30%.
I yahoo but only because they took my webcrawler away.
Bing needs to rise
P.S. Isn't bing an already failed search engine?
I can't acquire a monopoly lawfully?
Please proofread a little more thoroughly. I find simple mistakes in articles on this site way too often.