John Simpson Posts

The Competitive Implications of Google’s “Wide Net”

Monday, September 10th, 2012

In Friday’s edition of Canadian Business, Jeff Beer ponders the consumer impact of “Google Now,” writing: “Now might be the first Google product that screams loud and proud just how much the company knows about you—and how much more it wants to know.” Why is that information important from a competition perspective? Well, put simply, Read more »

Google’s Privacy Shift Troubling Government Officials, Consumer Advocates

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Google’s new privacy policy goes into effect today and a lot of people have raised concerns about how Google is using its overwhelming dominance in search and search advertising to strong-arm users into its new privacy policy. FairSearch agrees. See, when a single company controls 79 percent of the market for search in the U.S., Read more »

FTC Investigation of Google Generates Strong Response

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Last week, the FTC launched a broad, formal investigation into whether Google has used its dominance in Internet search to thwart competition. Here is a round-up of what legal experts and Internet analysts are saying: “We believe there’s a very compelling case that Google is abusing its dominant position in search to stifle competition and Read more »

Bloomberg: Ohio, Wisconsin AGs Weigh Google Antitrust Probes

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

As the DOJ continues its review of Google’s proposed acquisition of ITA Software, and the European Commission continues a broader antitrust probe of Google, Bloomberg reports that Google also “faces possible antitrust probes by Ohio and Wisconsin over its business practices” in this must-read article. Sara Forden and Brian Womack report that: “Ohio Attorney General Read more »