Google to Face Federal Antitrust Probe

[JMcEntegart]

Google is facing federal anticompetition probe into the way it is conducting business in the search market.

Google to Face Federal Antitrust Probe : Read more

 

[RogueKitsune]

Google offers a bunch of services in one place so you don't have to go everywhere on the web, and offers(in my opinion)great service to the end user.... Isn't that pretty much what WalMart and other super-retail stores do now a days(well except maybe the customer service part). They don't get called monopolies just because people like getting everything there and ignore the specialty shops(places that only offer one service). So why should Google get in trouble for essentially doing the same thing.
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 :\ ).

 

[kire]

I would just like to quickly point out that when you do a google or a google map search for establishments (i.e. restaurants, apartments, etc) that it pulls up results from yelp, apartments.com, and such.

 

[mactronix]

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

 

[the_krasno]

Remember that little town in Florida that disappeared from Google one day and as a result its local business lost thousands of dollars worth of online and phone sales?
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!

 

[rottingsheep]

there was a time when searching for a specific web browser, google lists an ad link to google chrome first.

 

[Kileak]

And why exactly does Google have to be "neutral" and not promote it's own services? It is a company right? Not a government-run public service.

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.

 

[molo9000]

[citation][nom]roguekitsune[/nom]Google offers a bunch of services in one place so you don't have to go everywhere on the web, and offers(in my opinion)great service to the end user.... Isn't that pretty much what WalMart and other super-retail stores do now a days(well except maybe the customer service part). They don't get called monopolies just because people like getting everything there and ignore the specialty shops(places that only offer one service). So why should Google get in trouble for essentially doing the same thing.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 :\ ).[/citation]

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%.

 

[digiex]

Google will be like M$, crippled to the balls, then Apple and Facebook will rule the world... beware!

 

[ironmb]

Google > All other search websites.. It's simple, fast, and hardly any ads.

 

[a-nano-moose]

[citation][nom]the_krasno[/nom]Do we "bing" for stuff? Or "yahoo" them? NO! We google![/citation]
I yahoo but only because they took my webcrawler away.

 

[xerroz]

I hope they get crippled. Google is too big and they keep abusing the massive power they have by doing what they please with your personal info.
Bing needs to rise

 

[leafman420]

um Yea I used "Bing" once. It didn't find anything I was looking for. Yahoo was cool, I still "YaaaaHOOOO!!!" Messenger that is. When I want to search the World Wide Web, I'm sorry there only seems to be one search and that is Google. Expedia, TripAdvisor, WebMD.com, Yelp.com and Citysearch.com

 

[leafman420]

--heard of one or two of these, but why would I use something that is clearly not working. (What ever happen to MaBell)

P.S. Isn't bing an already failed search engine?

 

[cheepstuff]

According to the Journal, it’s not illegal to own a monopoly, you just can’t acquire one lawfully or abuse one.

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.

 

[madjimms]

Google has such a clean front page that it makes all other search engines redundant. Its much different than Microsoft in terms of monopoly, Especially considering theres about 1000 different ones!

 

[smithereen]

My brain blurred two headlines together to say "Enter to Win Federal Antitrust Probe!"

 

[master9716]

ARE THEY SERIOUS? Who ever enitiated this should be taken care of , if you know what i mean. If I owned google id have someone to take care of this anoyances so they dont happen again.

 

[master9716]

but then again . if google is taking businness again from others on purpose when people are searching the internet then that should be taken care of because it actually affects our searches and what we find online.

 

[maxiim]

The competition will always be a little jealous, of the company that dominates them.

 

[dread_cthulhu]

I don't see how google's doing anything illegal. Plenty of other companies show up on their top lists. Their search is very impartial, and from what I understand, they organize the results based off of the number of users that hit that site... and some other criteria I'm not sure of. But I'm going to continue using Godgle, they work the best! XD

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]master9716[/nom]but then again . if google is taking businness again from others on purpose when people are searching the internet then that should be taken care of because it actually affects our searches and what we find online.[/citation]
If Google services give the best deals, I don't care if they direct me to Google sites. Anyway who actually said that Google could not place their own services above others? They created, run and keep the search engine running, why not link their own services to it? If I was Google I sure as hell would make sure my services came up first cause like all companies I would want to make money out of the stuff I created. It's not like Google is removing those companies completely from the searches, they are still there and if they can do better then Google people will go to them.

A companies priority is protecting and advancing their own brands and services first, this goes for ALL companies, every single one in the world and that is what Google is doing. I believe it's called protecting your investments, doing what you can to make your company better.

 

[qu3becker]

Sure, what about any other company, for example, Best Buy that tell people to use their Geek Squad instead of any company that offer services like the Geek Squad...

 

[Benihana]

Never heard about those other companies, 'cause Google does whatever they do better. Hell it's because of Google I have more than 10 MB of email space and actually have a "benihana@.org" address, rather than some crappy "benihana2465@hotmail.com".

 

[Benihana]

It was supposed to be "benihana@my_site.org" but the "my_site" disappeared.