Now that Microsoft's
browser selection story is all but settled, it looks like the
European Union is gearing up for a new antitrust probe, with its crosshairs aimed generally in
Google's direction. According to the search giant's Senior Competition Counsel Julia Holtz (via its European Public Policy Blog), complaints from three European internet companies -- legal search group
EJustice.fr, price comparison site
Foundem.co.uk, and German-based Microsoft subsidiary
Ciao.de -- have prompted the European Commission to launch a preliminary, fact-finding probe. The charges? Anticompetitive practices stemming from unfair downranking of its competitors in search results. Google denies any wrongdoing, while adding ,"we are also the first to admit that our search is not perfect, but it's a very hard computer science problem to crack." The Microsoft connection seems particularly notable to Google; Holtz reiterates that the company had a good relationship with
Ciao until the Redmond company picked it up in 2008 -- "we started receiving complaints about our standard terms and conditions." Like we said, at this point it's just a fact-finding probe that could end up going nowhere, but seriously,
Google's lawyers cannot seem to get a break these days.
posted February 23rd 2010 9:47PM
Does Europe still have separate countries anymore?
I still like Google.
These EU antitrust probes seem like they are launched to make the population think the government is looking out for their interests.
Why don't they works on issues that matter to people?
Pick your browser! Pick your Search Engine! It's all free!
"Anticompetitive practices stemming from unfair downranking of its competitors in search results." Really? If I Google "yahoo", I still get Yahoo.com as the first result. Same with Bing.
I see no one bothered reading the article.
Google is allegedly DOWNRANKING competitors. If Google is using its dominant position to thwart competition it must be investigated.
This is not an antiamerican crusade, other american companies are being affected too.
@Pguard
But tell me this- why would you use Google search to find other search engines? Not a rhetorical question- I'm just wondering. It's not like I found out about Google by searching "web search engines" back in my Yahoo days....
@Pguard
Good for Google... now they should remove search-engines from their search results all together.
Nothing is more annoying than trying to search for something and getting a million hits that just link you into other search engines.
Some one call a wambulance!
The EU needs to stop being such a jealous bitch. Why don't you deal with your countries that have 15 percent plus unemployment rates. Maybe there would be more jobs if you weren't so BUSINESS UNFRIENDLY!
Quite apart from the fact that there is no correlation between this antiprobe and EU unemployment rate whatsoever, here are a few facts: the average unemployment rate in the EU is 9.3%, the average unemployment rate in the supposedly more "business-friendly" US is 9.7%, so...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate
Just sayin'...
How do apply the term anti-trust and/or anti-competitive to a product that is free and not forced upon any one? Based on limited information, that would be like expecting Chevy to put in their advertisements that Ford is better than Chevy. I thought Google's page rank was based [loosely] on how well it matches the search term combined with the actual number of page hits. Strangely enough, if you search for "Microsoft Bing" on Google, Bing's website is page ranked number one. Now if it "decided" you were really just looking for a search engine and threw Google up first...then you might have an argument.
This has really gotten stupid. As much as I don't like Microsoft, I still don't completely agree with all of the legal actions taken against them, and I really won't agree if this with Google goes any further then a [very] basic probe.
How is promoting competition business unfriendly? Quite the contrary.
This is only about the EU trying to strong arm another company to take money away. It's not about anti trusts, anyone being a monopoly, or anything, it's about the EU using legal resources to steal money. And it's not that I am bashing the EU, governments do this all the time.
I did a google search for "Ciao.de" and it was the first result.
I remember searching for "engadget" in Google search for some reason had "Nexus Review" in the top of the list
Of all the possible review articles done by Engadget, Nexus was featured
Wonder why?
http://www.twitpic.com/142slv
@venukb haha gj man lol @ google
What can you expect from the EU? They held a conference over the curvature of a banana.
Wait till Google has its own private military in few years, with jets and sharks with lasers. I'de like to see EU take on Google then.
I would be annoyed as hell if the top 5 results for any search were for other search engines.
You searched "Engadget"
Search for "engadget" on Yahoo!
Search for "engadget" on Bing!
Search for "engadget" on Alta-vista
Search for "engadget" on dogpile
Engadget - Wikipedia
Engadget - full downloads/warez
Engadget - RapidShare downloads
Engadget - full torrent download search
Engadget - Engadget.com
that would be really helpful!
@SophT
Why don't we all just point out the fact that Bing has the SAME layout as google?
Doesn't the EU realize that companies like Google and Microsoft ultimately are money-making businesses?
Why do they hate America?
The EU is investigating complaints just like the DOJ and FTC do in the US and the Completion Bureau does in Canada. They might find out there is no basis in these complaints, they might find that Google is engaging in anti-competitive behaviour... We'll find out eventually. The comments here seem really reactionary and somewhat nationalist.
Maybe economics should be a required course in high school and university.
@waterloo The comments are really reactionary because the fact that the EU is even going ahead with this 'preliminary' probe is non sense. Let the EU antitrust witchhunting begin...
Nine times out of ten, when the EU starts "investigating", you've already been found guilty. The only question is what the size of the fine will be, how many fines there'll be, and whether Google will be forced to make one-fifth of its searches redirect to Bing. :p
While I generally think it is good to keep an eye on Skynet, it is particularly funny that MS is backing this up via Ciao.de! Whenever I search for a product, Im being bombarded with Ciao.de links pretty near or at the top of the results... I wish google would actually downrank them and all the other similar garbage portals...
how come when i search google for "search" it brings up all the major search engines but when i search bing for "search" no google on the top ten?? how is that bing dosent find the most popular search engine available???????????????????
Who wants to learn about anti-trust and monopoly?
Click on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C4gRRk2i-M
im from the UK and when i type search it comes up with 1. Google , fair enough it is their site and then 2. search.co.uk whose search engine is powered by Google and then 3. Bing . i don't really think this is unfair also 4. is yahoo.co.uk ? its google . people are not going to search for SEARCH ENGINES when they are already using one. OH AND BY THE WAY ENGADGET . SEARCH.CO.UK HAS STOLE YOUR LOGO WITH THE BLUE BENDS ! ! !
I can't say that I'm surprised that the EU brought an anti-trust probe to Google's doorstep, but I am surprised that its over search rankings. There's so much other junk that Google does in attempts to make its self a quasi monopoly (or at least price it's competition out of market) by offering every service under the sun for a song. I for one don't trust Google with any of my information, which is why I block Google's cookies, dont use their search engine, phone, OS(es) or any other products from Mountain View. I just don't think any good can come from one company knowing every little piece of information about me. In an amusing note though, a search for 'Search Engine' in Google return 'Google faces EU scrutiny after complaints' as a Google News headline as result #4.
HELLO I'M EUROPE AND I TRUST NOBODY! YOU'RE ALL THIEVES AND WHORES EXPLOITING OUR GOOD CITIZENS!
Generally I'm all for antitrust with big corporations but this is just ridiculous.
Maybe these EUer's will sue me out of my house next week. Jesus flippin christ on a popsicle stick do they all carry a lawyer in their back pocket and pull it out everytime they cry?
I understood the problem with the Browser Ballot, but I dunno really about this...
Google problems are not only about the monopoly which makes of Internet a Google-net. You can find also problems in privacy of your data which must be dealt with. Google store and cross data from many applications with the excuse of the Patriot Act.
http://managersmagazine.com/index.php/2010/03/el-lado-oscuro-de-google/