The feds' war on Google

Regulators may investigate whether Google is unfairly dominating the competition. Are the complaints legit, or just sour grapes?

Google is the world's most popular search engine, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission wants to launch an antitrust investigation to see if it is too popular for users' good.
(Image credit: CC BY: Robert Scoble)

U.S. regulators might launch an investigation into Google's dominance of the internet search industry, Reuters and Bloomberg reported Tuesday. It's not the first whiff of antitrust troubles for the tech giant. Last week, Microsoft filed a complaint with the European antitrust regulators who have been investigating Google for months. Does Google really do no evil, as its corporate motto demands, or should it get slapped down by the feds? (Watch a Bloomberg discussion about the rumored investigation.)

Google deserves some scrutiny: The tech titan is certainly big enough to unfairly steamroll lesser competitors if it wants, says Gavin Dunaway at Adotas. Its planned acquisition of travel-industry-focused ITA Software Inc. has airlines "scared [that] Google will manipulate travel search results to favored partners — the ones who pay to be high in Google's search results." If that happened, "everybody in the game would start shelling out to Google," then hike fares to compensate. "Wouldn't that be evil?"

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