Forum Moderators: goodroi
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is poised to serve Google Inc. with civil subpoenas, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling the start of a wide-ranging, formal antitrust investigation into whether the search giant has abused its dominance on the Web.
The five-member panel is preparing within days to send Google the formal demands for information, the people said. Other companies also are likely receive official requests for information about their dealings with Google at a later stage, the people said.
Representatives for both Google and the FTC declined to comment.
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[edited by: thirteen at 6:52 pm (utc) on Jun 24, 2011]
Does Google's ad auction operate fairly?
Does Google favor its commerce affiliates?
Does Google unfairly promote its own products in search?
[adage.com ]
By making a site more or less likely to rise to the top of its search results, Google theoretically could affect how much traffic a website got and therefore how much it could charge for advertising. If another company's website for, say, a travel service, competes with an ancillary business of Google's, manipulation of search results could be considered anti-competitive.
Read more: [theage.com.au...]
Too many mistakes Google....BIG mistakes!
Google has confirmed that the US Federal Trade Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into its search and advertising practices, and although the company says it respects "the FTC's process", it continues to insist that those search and ad practices will stand up to scrutiny.
With an SEC filing, the company said it received a subpoena and a notice of civil investigative demand from the commission on Thursday. That same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that such a subpoena was imminent.
Small cheap sites, with professional quality attention and service is my niche
The only aspects of that Google will compete with are "small" and "cheap". Not quality, and definitely not on service.
After 13 years I would have sold 90%, they haven't. Google is not going to go belly up but it will probably be crushed by Apple, Microsoft, Motorola, Erickson, Oracle and the likes on their non-search future. Google has no patents for Android. Contrary to "we're innovators" they don't even register with the big boys when it comes to new patent issued, now others paid $4.5 BILLION for 6000 patents by Nortel. No one thought the big boys with decades or R&D and patents would let newcomer sweep a rug under their feet.
Has no one noticed that Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, etc... ALL recently sold large portions of their stock.
They know something is up--maybe starting to go belly up.
Microsoft is part of a consortium that is paying $4.5 billion for a slew of patents from Nortel Networks, a Canadian networking company trying to come out of bankruptcy.
Pending U.S. and Canadian court approval, the proud new owners of more than 6,000 patents and patent applications – on wireless, networking, optical, voice, Internet, semiconductor and other technologies – also include Apple, EMC, Sony, Ericsson and Research in Motion. But perhaps more important is what company lost the bid during an auction spanning several months.
“No major industry player is as needy in terms of patents as Google,” patent expert Florian Mueller wrote in an email to seattlepi.com. “There are already 45 patent infringement lawsuits surrounding Android and makers of Android-based devices have to pay royalties to dozens of right holders. Just this week Microsoft announced that three more Android device makers, in addition to HTC, are already paying royalties on Google’s Android to Microsoft.”
In April, Google bid $900 million for the Nortel patents – one-fifth of the final selling price – to begin the “stalking horse” auction. After seeing considerable interest from other companies, Nortel decided to wait to hear more offers.
They know something is up--maybe starting to go belly up.
Has no one noticed that Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, etc... ALL recently sold large portions of their stock
Kent Walker, (Google) senior vice president and general counsel:
This outcome is disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition. We will keep working to reduce the current flood of patent litigation that hurts both innovators and consumers.
