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4 of the FTC's 5 commissioners reportedly believe an antitrust case should be brought against...

  • Friday, October 12, 2012, 4:09 PM ET
    4 of the FTC's 5 commissioners reportedly believe an antitrust case should be brought against Google (GOOG) for using its search dominance to promote other services. The FTC is also examining complaints the company doesn't provide data that would allow advertisers to compare the effectiveness of ad campaigns on different search engines. Meanwhile, Microsoft (MSFT) has specifically added Google as a defendant in a German patent suit against Motorola Mobility. (more)
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This news story has 13 comments:

  • It is just a matter of time. Google clearly has a monopoly as strong as the one Microsoft had on the desktop. It is pretty clear to me that Google prioritizes their links above others.

    But I think it will probably be a tough case. I'd expect Google to put up a strong defense. They will probably also start to de-prioritize their links on purpose to help blunt the drive to do a full-on antitrust suit.
    12 Oct 2012, 04:27 PM Reply Like
  • What is wrong with giving priority to your customer base before competitors or nonmembers? It sounds like good business to me. Isn't that how the world works? Who cares if Google searches give you Google customers first. I usually do not look at the first three on the list anyway. If I cannot find what I am looking for I just use other search engines.

    Information delivery should not be regulated. It would be nice if the information was always true. I only believe half of what I read anyway. Whenever governments and courts get involved they cause more negative unintended consequences then benefits. I rarely believe what they report especially in an election year.
    12 Oct 2012, 09:37 PM Reply Like
  • Could be but if you are a monopoly, its a violation of anti trust laws and subject to big fines and handcuffs on everything you do. Goog currently has almost 67% of search in the US and almost 90% in the EU and I dont know what world wide. And I dont know if that includes smartphones. Monopoly power is unsually considered to be 70%. I wouldnt want to count on that last 3% but you never know, they play pretty rough. And if Obama loses they are in trouble.
    13 Oct 2012, 10:22 AM Reply Like
  • You make a great point. If the links Google puts first aren't helping anybody then they will stop using Google.

    The thing is they do help people. Look up how they rank Ad-words advertisements... it's not just who pays the most money, but a lot of it has to do with the content of your website and how well it matches the search phrase entered by the searcher. Google is still in the process of tweaking this as well, so why would they give away information on exactly how it's working compared to other search engines? It's proprietary information.

    Google has done more good for the world in the past 10 years than the FTC has.
    13 Oct 2012, 12:52 PM Reply Like
  • hello? GOOG-3%-Obama? 67% to 43%?
    15 Oct 2012, 12:59 AM Reply Like
  • If they do, they'll be making the same mistake Msft made. Much better to work out a deal and settle. If Gates had a chance to do that again, what do you think he'd say? It's not ego, it's risk assessment.
    12 Oct 2012, 05:26 PM Reply Like
  • goog about to take a header...640 here we come
    12 Oct 2012, 06:06 PM Reply Like
  • and, here we go...
    18 Oct 2012, 12:52 PM Reply Like
  • 'sup
    19 Oct 2012, 03:09 PM Reply Like
  • However, Microsoft has that growing dividend currently over 3 percent.

    It's a tech bank which experts say to get into banks and technology stocks now for big returns.
    13 Oct 2012, 08:08 AM Reply Like
  • Sounds pretty lame to me. Using your power in search to promote other products from your company is just common sense to me. The FTC is a bunch of Luddites with this idea. Where FTC is right, is the advertiser complaint about lack of comparison. That needs to be addressed.
    14 Oct 2012, 11:35 AM Reply Like
  • Google doesn't have a monopoly in search: it has very high market share. There are plenty of alternatives, but they don't come anywhere close to google search capabilities. People don't realize that google's highest level of IP is in their search engines, in the form of machine learning and other intelligent data algos, not to mention the server side of data storage and retrieval. The FTC is truly a useless gov't org. Let the free markets decide who wins and who loses!
    14 Oct 2012, 11:47 AM Reply Like
  • The EU is nothing but a bunch of unelected socialism bureaucrats that think they know better. In the end they will destroy the sovereignty of the member countries and destabilize Europe. If NATO was not there to keep the Pease they would have done it sooner. Racial Islam and the eastern European and Asian dictatorships will promote WW III if NATO is diminished through popular sentiment and Obama gets his way in America.

    If things keep going this way I will be looking for ETFs to Ultra short Europe.
    15 Oct 2012, 12:26 AM Reply Like
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