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BBC News reports that, following a 5-year investigation, the EU have filed an official anti-competition complaint against Google:
The Commission is responding to complaints that Google, which accounts for more than a [sic] 90% of EU-based web searches, favours its own products in search engine results.
The European Commission has investigated the antitrust allegations - made by Microsoft, Tripadvisor, Streetmap and others - since 2010.
They object to the fact that the firm places reviews from Google+, directions from Google Maps, music and videos from YouTube, and adverts from its AdWords platform ahead of others' links in relevant searches.
Google have not officially replied to the complaint yet and have ten weeks to do so, although they have informed staff they have "a very strong case" and that competition to its search business was "thriving". Competition commissions in India, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Taiwan and Canada have opened investigations - the US commission dropped its probe in 2013 after Google agreed to several non-binding commitments. Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has also launched an investigation into the Android operating system.
Google Search Senior Vice President Amit Singhal has published an unofficial response to the complaint. The Register has additional coverage (article from yesterday), reactions from interested parties, and a longer analysis by Andrew Orlowski. Bloomberg has a timeline of key events spanning the 5-year investigation.
(Score: 1) by wisnoskij on Wednesday April 15 2015, @03:40PM
I don't know if it is anti-competitive or not, but I sure would prefer there to be a law preventing search engines from messing with the results in anyway. Other than maybe some algorithm used to give unpopular results a chance to be occasionally seen and a chance to get popular. definitely not in anyway to promote specific products, ideas, or politics.
From what I understand, corporations are allowed to campaign for a particular ideology/political party? So Google could legally choose to redirect all searches for "Republican" to anti-republican websites? And filter out all negative feedback from "democrat" searches?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2015, @03:45PM
It's the subtle, probabilistic changes that could be more problematic. Most users do not click past page 1 of search results.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday April 15 2015, @03:49PM
I only vote for Repucrats the party for us Grey people! ;^)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2015, @03:56PM
This reminds me of net neutrality: the ISP should not fuck with the traffic depending on content, a similar logic should apply to search results.
I lolled hard when I read "the US commission dropped its probe in 2013 after Google agreed to several non-binding commitments." The US sure spanks its megacorps...
I myself won't touch anything google with a barge pole.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday April 16 2015, @02:15AM
From what I understand, corporations are allowed to campaign for a particular ideology/political party? So Google could legally choose to redirect all searches for "Republican" to anti-republican websites? And filter out all negative feedback from "democrat" searches?
I believe it was AOL that got caught doing this years ago, although it was the opposite with searches for issues and political parties all coming up Republican.