Google facing US competition probe

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 6 Sep 2010 at 09:55

Google is facing its first US anti-competition probe, after the Texas Attorney General approached the company following complaints over search rankings.

The search and advertising giant is already facing a possible probe in Europe after rival companies claimed their sites were being ranked poorly in Google's search results, which are a major source of traffic for many companies.

EU competition watchdog Joaquín Almunia said earlier this year that he was looking into complaints from three companies, one of them Microsoft, that felt they had been demoted by Google.

Across the Atlantic, Google admitted it had been approached by Attorney General Greg Abbott following complaints from three companies, but said it was confident it was acting within the law.

It’s unsurprising that some less relevant, lower quality websites will be unhappy with their ranking

Indeed, Google took aim at the complaining companies. “Occasionally, we’re asked about the 'fairness' of our search engine,” the company said in a blog. “Why do some websites get higher rankings than others? The important thing to remember is that we built Google to provide the most useful, relevant search results and ads for users.

“In other words, our focus is on users, not websites. Given that not every website can be at the top of the results, or even appear on the first page of our results, it’s unsurprising that some less relevant, lower quality websites will be unhappy with their ranking.”

Google then went on to rubbish the claims of the companies concerned and hinted that the complaints were all backed by Microsoft.

Of the first company – British price comparison site Foundem – Google was particularly scathing.

“They claim that Google’s algorithms demote their site because they are a direct competitor to our search engine,” the company said. “We don’t discriminate against competitors.

"Various experts have taken a closer look at the quality of Foundem’s website, and New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann concluded: 'I want Google to be able to rank them poorly'.”

Foundem, which Google claims is backed by the Initiative for an Online Competitive Marketplace (ICOMP), "an organisation funded largely by Microsoft”, had not returned a request for comment.

However, the company is vociferous in its blog about what it considers to be breaches of "search neutrality".

"With the introduction in 2007 of what it calls Universal Search, Google began discriminating in favour of its own services, brazenly inserting them at or near the top of its search results for a vast and rapidly increasing number of queries," the company said. "This strategy has transformed Google’s ostensibly neutral search results into a powerful marketing channel for Google’s own services."

In its defence of its practices, Google went on to suggest that two other websites, SourceTool and myTriggers.com, were both being represented by Microsoft’s antitrust attorneys, although it didn't specifically say Microsoft was behind the campaign.