Brussels pushes harder in Google probe

Google's regulatory worries are deepening today, with the news that the European Commission has agreed to broaden its inquiries into the dominant search engine's alleged anti-competitive practices. Officials announced they will investigate more claims that Google has rigged its algorithms against rivals. The new complaints …

[Anonymous Coward]

Pardon me if I don't find this at all funny

The EU has shown itself toothless in so many significant areas of genuine public, as well as competitive interest, that I cease to expect anything impressive of it when taking on a Large multinational.

IF they do any better against Google than they did, on a comparative basis, against MS or Apple then I will buy a hat and eat it!

I'm not anticipating a need for hat tenderising condiments any time this decade!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Joke

"they will investigate more claims that Google has rigged its algorithms against rivals"

Does anyone really think Google are going to supply their algorithms? Or will the EU run some tests whose results will be the subject of much adacemic debate in court?

Google will appoint the best lawyers money can buy and string this out for years. Yes, Microsoft did the same and eventually got hit with a fine, but I think this case will be harder to prove.

[Grease Monkey]

Fine?

Yes Microsoft got hit with a fine, but more importantly their legal bill would have been enormous. That's the real penalty when these big corporations defend these cases. The defence often costs more than the fine they would get if they just admitted their guilt.

Even if they win they are unlikely to be awarded costs.

[gjw]

The joke will be on Google and their silly astroturfers, there's no doubt about it

If you want to play on the biggest single market in the world, you have to play by their book. The book gives the commission power of the shock and awe kind, just to enable them to deal with Google and their do no evil ilk.

Google will be fined into oblivion if it doesn't do what the commission orders them to and then it still has to comply, and all the best lawyers their monopolistic money can buy won't change that.

Oh, and don't forget: there may still be some anti dumping complaints in the pipeline.

Europe is not Merika. Live with it.

[raivn]

Guys?

Someone should tell them they have an enormous debt crisis and the euro is going down the toilet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Problem solved

Find Google guilty and make the fine big enough to solve the EU debt issue.

[Lars]

Debt crisis

True enough, but then again, perhaps you (Americans) should concentrate on the same matter in

the US where that crisis is bye far bigger and perhaps even harder to deal with.

Also it is the dollar that vent down the toilet years ago, and as long as the dollar is below the euro it is still down the toilet, deep deep down.

Then again why bother about things out of individual control.

Happy Christmas or what ever.

[Steven 33]

Is it really a problem?

I mean, obviously as a company who is trying (and succeeding) at making a proffit, it doesnt really make business sense to be promoting someone who is in a competative industry... I mean, a search engine that doesn't want to advertise an alternative search engine... is it really that surprising?

Ok, granted... a search engine down-ranking another map service for example would be a bit bad, but a search engine, with it's own mapping service, down-ranking a competitor with their own mapping service... I think its just business smart...

[Owen Carter]

Why a monopoly

This is dumb.. Googles lawyers will wrap them in knots; or are the people promoting this so confident they can bend reality through the power of prolonged legal argument?

You see, I have always had choices; I am NOT forced to use Google for search, and indeed, I don't; I principally use Bing these days, mostly because I think they do a better job of matching technical terms in searches. and partly because I'm lazy and it's it's two less characters to type.

To summarize my argument:

www.cuil.com

www.bing.com

www.yahoo.com

www.altavista.com (yeah! history.. to emphasise that Google has never been a monopoly)

- How about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines

Install windows and it will not default to Google; (it will sorta default to Bing, if you click 'ok' everywhere like most users do).

All this emphasis on search via google.com diverts attention from where real problems might be found.. such as in Android and Chrome; where Google is embedded in the device at a very deep level.

[The Fuzzy Wotnot]

Best of luck

Even if they do get anywhere and fine Google, how much are they going to fine them? $250M, $500M, those figures are peanuts to a company like Google.

I appreciate the EU trying, exactly what they should be doing, but somehow "doomed to fail" springs to mind.

[william_7]

@Owen Carter

cuil - you forgot to use a joke alert icon.

[william_7]

cuil - seriously?

their website is not even online - how does this help your apologist argument?