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Our thoughts on the European Commission review

Tuesday, November 30, 2010
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Labels: Competition , Google in Europe Blog

18 comments :

  1. TigNovember 30, 2010 at 4:40 PM

    I don't get the whole anti-competitive crap quite frankly! After all, you don't see them whining that big companies aren't advertising competitors in their offices, so why insist we do it on the internet!?

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  2. UnknownNovember 30, 2010 at 4:47 PM

    Fair play, I respect your operations as an individual and business man. However, an organisation with such power will be scrutinised at every possible angle.

    Great read and excellent defence strategy.

    James

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  3. UnknownNovember 30, 2010 at 4:56 PM

    I agree completely, some people seem to have certain expectations about what a search engine should be and consider any change a violation. A search engine is a question answerer not a traffic pump, also what will this talk about ranking mean when search evolve beyond blue links, facilitated by advances in artificial intelligence and other innovations and breakthroughs.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 30, 2010 at 5:57 PM

    Obviously the EC is new to the whole internet game.

    Otherwise they'd understand that the free market has already weeded out the huge volume of search engines that went down the "biased results" or "hidden advertisements" path.

    Users have already spoken, which is why Google is so dominant. No regulator (or business for that matter) can ever be as powerful as a free market.

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  5. UnknownNovember 30, 2010 at 6:49 PM

    It may seem obvious, but people sometimes forget this -- not every website can come out on top, or even appear on the first page of our results, so there will almost always be website owners who are unhappy about their rankings. The most important thing is that we satisfy our users

    But when Google features are automatically promoted to the top? A normal web site would require a link farm to get this to happen, which would get them banned.

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  6. UnknownNovember 30, 2010 at 7:42 PM

    "But when Google features are automatically promoted to the top? A normal web site would require a link farm to get this to happen, which would get them banned."

    When I use Google to search for a Google product, I would expect the Google product to be the first result. Same for if I'm using Yahoo or Bing. What exactly are you expecting?

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  7. AnonymousNovember 30, 2010 at 11:41 PM

    I welcome the EU antitrust probe wholeheartedly. I am happy that authorities are treating Google as the powerful monopoly it is, and hope that they choose to be not too narrow in their scope. I am not saying that Google is a bad organisation per se. Clerly that is not the case. Rather there are certain to be areas where it may well need its wings clipping. I know this from my experience having worked closely with Adwords for many years now. I have seen the way that some genuinely competent sites are effectively banned from advertising. This was one of Foundem’s key complaints that is often glossed over, instead focusing on their organic ranking qualms.

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  8. UnknownDecember 1, 2010 at 2:45 AM

    It's absurd. Are regulators going to now start determining what companies like facebook can show?.. Will they be forced to show twitter results?..

    Microsoft and Yahoo complaining that they have no market share, is frankly their own fault. They dropped the ball and decided not to pursue search when they had the chance, they both could have purchased Google for nothing back in the day.

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  9. UnknownDecember 1, 2010 at 2:58 AM

    The EU seems to think I should be able to buy windows from apples web site I guess...

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  10. UnknownDecember 1, 2010 at 4:59 AM

    Mark,

    Who said that I was looking for a Google product? I am expecting the results to be ranked the same, regardless of their source. Just because Google has a product that matches my search criteria does not mean that it should be at the top of the list. I would expect the same from Bing and Yahoo (before they started using Bing as their engine).

    If a search engine is to be trusted, it must not return biased results. Google products must compete on an equal footing with the rest of the internet. The reason that I started using Google was because they didn't, at that time, offer paid placement. Now, at least, the paid results are separated from the rest of the results.

    As it currently stands, I don't feel that I can trust. Maybe I should start having all of my searches filter Google results?

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  11. PMI ServiziDecember 1, 2010 at 11:05 AM

    Today I posted an article about it and I show as an example of the work of Google a comparison between the results of Google and the results of Bing for the same query ... it is clear that Google works and this bothers... We are with you Google.

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  12. UnknownDecember 1, 2010 at 11:52 AM

    Hola!

    I definetely agree with the opinions above. I think also that, as a matter of fact, the EU reflects the opinion of lobbies and/or EU´s investigations get triggered by factors rooted in interests "behind the scenes". You just need to have a look at German media and check how the wording "enemyfies" this investigation procedure by the EU. Germany is the land of "Bedenken und Kontrollanspruch" (Concernals and desire for control) and I think to a large degree some German interests are being represented in this investigation. I would appreciate if Google could in the future put up something like a "Corporate Lanscape" for users and policy makers to keep the overview of "Who makes what for whom".
    Regards,
    Gab

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  13. UnknownDecember 1, 2010 at 2:18 PM

    But when Google features are automatically promoted to the top? A normal web site would require a link farm to get this to happen, which would get them banned.

    Right.... So when I search for "Cars" why is it that the "Google Feature" is the 8th result?

    Or that "Used Cars" reveals google's "Local" results in at result 7?

    Or "buy Used Cars" comes up with google news as the last result on the page.

    If google was "favoring" its results shouldn't it be listed as:
    1) Shopping - Buy a car
    2) Books - Read how to haggle
    3) Images - pictures of cars
    4) Videos - Watch Top Gear
    5) Maps - Find a dealer near you
    6) News - Car dealerships closing
    7) Finance - GM's IPO
    8) Groups - forums about cars
    9) Sites - Create your own Cars website
    10) <Organic Search Results>

    The fact is Google isn't even pushing its own services unless it thinks they have the best answer for your query.

    you want a confusing list of crap results scattered with sponsored ads that you are only informed by some grayed out size 7 font at the end of the result, goto Dogpile.com

    For the rest of us we'll just stick with what actually gives us meaningful results. The only reason google has this "monopoly" on search, is because people like the results. Thats why they stopped using Yahoo, dogpile, Altavista, MSN, and every other search engine that's tanked. Nothing is stopping people from using something else. Hell, Microsoft even made MSN the default homepage and search engine for 15 years before offering a choice and people still meaningfully and thoughtfully changed it to Google.

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  14. AmberCatDecember 1, 2010 at 4:08 PM

    As the developer of UK Shopping Search Engine http://www.ratingsworld.co.uk, I find it difficult to see a huge problem in the way that Google presents its results.

    If we want to compete with Google then we have to produce results that are better than Google.

    Unfortunately, most companies will not be able to match the resources that Google can throw at a solution, and we cannot disqualify companies just because they have huge resources.

    Are they using their resources unfairly by promoting their own solutions? No, I don't think so.

    Are they acting unfairly by promoting those companies that pay them? No, they are a business, not a charity.

    Are they misleading the public? I don't think so. Currently paid ads on Google are displayed in separated areas at the top, bottom and right-side of the page are are clearly identified as such. However many small search engines, including my own, live off affiliate revenues. Small businesses and small search engines are not charities either.

    Of course the EU got in quite a tiz when Microsoft bundled IE in with Windows. The EU often investigates the wrong issues. It would do much better to investigate the price disparities between Micorsoft's products in the UK and the USA.

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  15. Confused BritDecember 1, 2010 at 4:55 PM

    And this doesnt happen on Yahoo? Search on Yahoo for something, and if there is a yahoo group for it, yep, its one of the top results.

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  16. rtpHarryDecember 2, 2010 at 1:26 PM

    I guess this means that to play fair the vertical search engines will be sending traffic to Google instead of keeping it all for themselves? :P

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  17. e22December 3, 2010 at 3:17 PM

    The trouble is that Google tend to do things well. This means that when I search for "16GB Memory Card" their very good search engine returns their very good price comparison site in the top few results! This is exactly what I want to happen until such a time as the other price comparison websites become less thoroughly rubbish at what they do.

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  18. A_flj_December 4, 2010 at 9:09 AM

    You may want to have a look at this text - the EU's announcement of the investigation: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/1624&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

    This quote from that text seems extremely relevant to me:

    "This initiation of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has proof of any infringements. It only signifies that the Commission will conduct an in-depth investigation of the case as a matter of priority."

    The EC is legally bound to follow up on any complaints it receives. It is IMO better for Google to have this investigation pass as soon as possible.

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