Search Manipulation Posts
Canada’s Competition Bureau Joins List of Agencies Investigating Google
Monday, May 20th, 2013
Canada’s Competition Bureau plans to open a formal antitrust investigation into Google’s business practices in Canada, the Financial Post reported Friday afternoon. The full scope of the inquiry is not clear yet, but it seems likely that the company’s practices involving search bias will be part of the probe. The Financial Post article elaborated on Read more »
Roundup of Comments on Google’s Proposed Commitments to European Commission
Thursday, April 25th, 2013
The European Commission today announced Google’s proposed commitments to settle allegations that it is abusing its dominance by giving preferential treatment to its own services in display and ranking of search results. Google proposal to label where it promotes its own products above generic search results and offer links to “three rival specialised search services Read more »
FTC Chairwoman: Google’s Voluntary Agreement Not Precedent; Search Bias Pro-competitive Though It Harms Competitors
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
Many were disappointed with the Federal Trade Commission’s and Google’s unprecedented voluntary agreement in January on advertising data and the “scraping” or excerpting of content from sites like Yelp. Now, it seems, the chairwoman of the FTC is apparently dismissing the agreement as a one-time deal that other companies should not expect. Additionally, the newly Read more »
Psychologist Finds Google Could Sway an Election with Search Manipulation
Friday, April 5th, 2013
Research psychologist Richard Epstein has made a provocative and stunning discovery through a series of experiments manipulating search results: Google could sway an election without much notice. According to stories in The Washington Post and PBS, Epstein’s hypothetical Kadoodle search engine found candidates fared far better when favorable links were promoted and unfavorable ones were Read more »
Consumer Group Calls for Google to Offer ‘Objective, Non-discriminatory’ Search Results
Monday, March 25th, 2013
A European consumer group has echoed FairSearch’s call for strong remedies to end Google’s search bias and anti-competitive practices under investigation by the European Commission. On March 22, BEUC, a consortium of 39 national consumer organizations from thirty European countries, issued a six-page paper on the remedies that should be adopted to resolve Google’s anti-competitive Read more »
FairSearch Strongly Supports Decisive Action by European Commission on Google
Thursday, March 21st, 2013
Thomas Vinje, Brussels-based counsel to FairSearch.org, said today: “Google has had ample opportunity to come forward with serious proposals to end its abuses. The time to act is now. FairSearch would strongly support decisive action by the Commission.” Vinje’s comments follow today’s open letter from 11 companies active in Europe, including FairSearch members Foundem, Expedia, Read more »
FairSearch Files Objections to Google’s Top-Domain Name Land Grab
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Last summer, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, invited applications from organizations to acquire and control the administration of new generic top level domains (gTLDs). Confused? A gTLD is the last component of a web address, such as “.com” or “.org.” Not surprisingly, Google is “one of the more ambitious applicants” as Read more »
What Google Isn’t Saying in “How Search Works”
Friday, March 8th, 2013
Last week, Google launched “How Search Works,” an interactive website that explains “the entire life of a search query” on the company’s sites, though scrolling through the site reveals that Google’s site leaves a few important things out of its explanation. Search Bias The site describes search results pages that can take a variety of Read more »
Politico Pro: Rosch Wanted to Sue Google for Deceptive Practices
Thursday, January 10th, 2013
Politico Pro reported today that there is more to the story of the Federal Trade Commission’s disappointing decision to not address Google’s deceptive and anti-competitive practices in a meaningful way. J. Thomas Rosch, the outgoing FTC commissioner who often was the swing vote on the commission, told Politico Pro he sought to sue Google for Read more »
FT: Almunia Aims to Address Google’s Search Bias
Thursday, January 10th, 2013
According to a report today from the Financial Times, Joaquin Almunia, Europe’s top antitrust regulator, is determined to address Google’s anti-competitive practice of manipulating search results in the European Commission’s investigation of the search giant. Google will be forced to change how it presents search results or face antitrust charges for “diverting traffic” to its Read more »
