FTC begins antitrust investigation into Google Android, web services

[FrozenTomato]

The Feds Are Looking At How Google Favors Its Own Services In Android, Web Services


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904823804576500544082214566.html


On a related note:

Just a few days ago i saw Google putting a Link on its search front page to a FREE Google-branded Nexus S phone.

i think this may be another evidence against Google. Using it's search engine monopoly to leverage it's other business.

http://www.slashgear.com/google-offers-free-nexus-s-today-only-03169368/

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Frozen what is your problem with google and what appears to be blind hated for them

As for your screen shot I suggest you read the article and you would see it would not have any effect. As that page does not have any way for ad words to be bought. It is basically Google's home page so they can put something like that. It is about how page ranking is done and is good abusing its page rankings. If it turns out Google stuff pops up higher not because Google is forcing it but valid in that then it is complete legal.

 

[FrozenTomato]

I suggest you focus on the topic.


FACT: The Nexus S is a Google-Branded phone.

By putting a link on its front *search* page, it *may* appear to the FTC that Google leveraged its search engine to funnel customers to its OWN service/product.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I suggest you focus on the topic.


FACT: The Nexus S is a Google-Branded phone.

By putting a link on its front *search* page, it *may* appear to the FTC that Google leveraged its search engine to funnel customers to its OWN service/product.

That fine. It only about the search results. By your logic apple could not link apple.com to iTunes.
As I pointed out your screen shot has no issue here. It fine for them doing that. Also remember most people do not go to Google.com any more for most of their searches but instead us tool bars of some type.

 

[FrozenTomato]

That fine. It only about the search results. By your logic apple could not link apple.com to iTunes.
As I pointed out your screen shot has no issue here. It fine for them doing that. Also remember most people do not go to Google.com any more for most of their searches but instead us tool bars of some type.

The difference?

Google.com IS a search engine. it's supposed to be NEUTRAL and UNBIASED.

Apple.com is a CORPORATE WEBSITE. corporate websites are allowed to link to it's own products.


This looks bad on Google no matter how you spin this.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

The difference?

Google.com IS a search engine. it's supposed to be NEUTRAL and UNBIASED.

Apple.com is a CORPORATE WEBSITE. corporate websites are allowed to link to it's own products.


This looks bad on Google no matter how you spin this.

Again I will point out that it only looks bad if you have a blind hated for Google which clearly you do. If you can not understand that having an ad for a Google product on the Google homepage before you put in any search and if they are screwing with the search results you are pretty far gone.

It has ZERO let me repeat again ZERO effect on if the FTC brings a case against Google and would have ZERO baring in court if they did take it to court.
It is already pretty clear you never really even read the article and what the case is about. You just read the headlines. Go read the article and look at what the FTC was looking into. Your screen shot has nothing to do with it as I already pointed out multiple times and I even tried to explain to you.
Answer me this WHY DO YOU HATE GOOGLE?

 

[FrozenTomato]

It has ZERO let me repeat again ZERO effect on if the FTC brings a case against Google and would have ZERO baring in court if they did take it to court.

You have no proof to back up your claim.

All evidences however, supports mine.

Focus on the topic.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

You have no proof to back up your claim.

All evidences however, supports mine.

Focus on the topic.

None of your evidence supports your claim other than your blind hatred of Google. It is already clear you have not read the article or do not understand it.
What is on Google.com or pops up there as the ad is not what the FTC is looking into.
FTC is looking into is Google screwing with the search results pushing their stuff to the top and Google being default on Android devices which in that case I can show you that Google is not forcing neither the carriers nor the manufactures to do that. Just look at Verizon. Default on those is Bing. Hell they are pretty heavily bingafided.


Answer the question why do you hate Google?
It is very relevant to the topic because it is showing why you are passing over what I have pointed out multiple times.

So answer the question instead of dodging it. It is relevant.

 

[FrozenTomato]

First, You're repeating yourself. You obviously dont know what youre talking about.


Second, Its none of your business whether i hate Google or not.


Third, people like you dont get to ask me questions. Got it?

 

[decafjava]

First, You're repeating yourself. You obviously dont know what youre talking about.


Second, Its none of your business whether i hate Google or not.


Third, people like you dont get to ask me questions. Got it?

Hmmm first he's repeating himself because you don't give direct answers maybe?

Second well why not answer the question? Not difficult to answer.

Third, who is "people like you"? Can I ask you a question? Can someone else? Ca anyone? Look anyone can ask any other person a question, but no one is obliged to answer.

 

[FrozenTomato]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

focus on the topic

 

[boss.king]

The Feds Are Looking At How Google Favors Its Own Services In Android, Web Services


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904823804576500544082214566.html


On a related note:

Just a few days ago i saw Google putting a Link on its search front page to a FREE Google-branded Nexus S phone.

i think this may be another evidence against Google. Using it's search engine monopoly to leverage it's other business.


Image


http://www.slashgear.com/google-offers-free-nexus-s-today-only-03169368/

You are misunderstanding the article. What it refers to is Google placing their ads in higher priority places than those of other companies. This has nothing to do with their front page. They can advertise anything they want there as there are no ad slots up for sale on that page.

The difference?

Google.com IS a search engine. it's supposed to be NEUTRAL and UNBIASED.

Apple.com is a CORPORATE WEBSITE. corporate websites are allowed to link to it's own products.

This looks bad on Google no matter how you spin this.

Google.com is also a corporate website. Get it? Cos it's owned by a corporation. It is not required by any law to be neutral or unbiased (please point me to anything stating otherwise), it has a reputation for being unbiased but that a completely different thing.

(Just noticed Hellhammer said most of this while I was editing my post lol)

 

[Hellhammer]

The difference?

Google.com IS a search engine. it's supposed to be NEUTRAL and UNBIASED.

Apple.com is a CORPORATE WEBSITE. corporate websites are allowed to link to it's own products.


This looks bad on Google no matter how you spin this.

Google.com also happens to be Google's homepage, it's no different from Apple's Apple.com. Google isn't owned by any government or organization, it's a corporation just like Apple and their goal is to generate revenue and profit, hence nothing obligates them to be neutral and unbiased.

 

[maflynn]

While the government operates at a glacial pace, it could impact google at some point.

Federal Trade Commission lawyers, in conjunction with several state attorneys general, have been asking whether Google prevents smartphone manufacturers that use its Android operating system from using competitors' services, these people said.
...
And they're looking into allegations that Google unfairly takes information collected by rivals, such as reviews of local businesses, to use on its own specialized site and then demotes the rivals' services in its search results.

I think its if they use negative reports to down rank competitors and a different set of heuristics to up rank business partners then the government has a problem with that.

How is google different then apple in preventing apps on android phones? Apple has been dictating what can be installed since the app store opened and they've done so inconsistently with a set of unpublished rules (for the most part).

Frozentomato wants to lambast any non-fruit company however apple has been doing this all along.

 

[neiltc13]

No one forces anyone to type Google.com into their browser.

 

[KnightWRX]

The difference?

Google.com IS a search engine. it's supposed to be NEUTRAL and UNBIASED.

Apple.com is a CORPORATE WEBSITE. corporate websites are allowed to link to it's own products.


This looks bad on Google no matter how you spin this.

Hum... this would be illegal tying and would look bad if it went like this instead :

You type Google.com to go to Google's search engine, which is a monopoly player in the Internet search industry. Instead of the search field, you get a link to buy the Nexus-S which is touted as "The only way you can perform searches on Google.com is by doing it on a Nexus-S device!", thus forcing you to a product B to access product A.

If it was like that, you'd have a point. There is no glaring anti-trust issues in promoting a product on their search engine page. There is only glaring issues in illegal tying of a monopoly product to gain a monopoly in an other field. That is not happening here.

Of course, Florian Mueller and other Google haters will tell you otherwise, but you can't really expect an objective stance on their part and they will never admit to being wrong.

My only post in this garbage thread. I don't know why the moderators tolerate the obvious flamebaiting in all the threads starting by this OP.

 

[yg17]

You mean a company actually had the audacity to advertise their products on their website? The horror! Not only should Google be ashamed of themselves, they should be shut down by the government for this unspeakable act!


Wall Street is screwing the world economy into oblivion, and the FTC decides to investigate a company for advertising their products on their website. Glad to see they have their priorities straight

 

[MacNut]

So why no antitrust against Apple locking down the app store? Last I checked Android was open.

 

[maflynn]

So why no antitrust against Apple locking down the app store? Last I checked Android was open.

I think the US gov't has opened up an investigation to apple's practices regarding the app store.

 

[fireshot91]

Google is a corporation. That article had nothing to do with what Google put up in regards to Android on their home page.

 

[MacNut]

Google is a corporation. That article had nothing to do with what Google put up in regards to Android on their home page.

Indeed, Google is allowed to sell its own wares. Google is more than just search now. As long as their results don't just link to their products I don't see what the problem is.

 

[fireshot91]

Indeed, Google is allowed to sell its own wares. Google is more than just search now. As long as their results don't just link to their products I don't see what the problem is.

No, see, I failed to mention an important aspect in my previous post.

Google isn't fudging up the search results- All they're doing is putting a link to something else on their website. Something they have full rights to be able to do.

It's not an ad-generated link. That would be a problem if most ad-generated links were for Google's products.


It's not in the search. That would also be a problem. If somebody searched for ABC, and then the results put Google's version of ABC above some other version (Due to Google themselves messing with the results), THAT would also be illegal.


But they're not. They can put whatever they want to on there. Just like how on the top of www.google.com they have links to Shopping, GMail, Images, Videos, etc.

 

[FrozenTomato]

You are misunderstanding the article. What it refers to is Google placing their ads in higher priority places than those of other companies. This has nothing to do with their front page. They can advertise anything they want there as there are no ad slots up for sale on that page.

i said:

On a *related* note:


and

this *may be another* evidence against Google.


Google putting a link on their front page was an observation that I put out there as something *related* to the main topic. I did not say it was the MAIN topic.

Google.com is also a corporate website. Get it? Cos it's owned by a corporation. It is not required by any law to be neutral or unbiased (please point me to anything stating otherwise), it has a reputation for being unbiased but that a completely different thing.

Everything you said is valid and will be discussed/decided in court/by the FTC.
This MAY or MAY NOT be used against Google but that's up for discussion/debate. If they see this maybe they'll say, "HEY that's anti-competitive we'll add this to the list of complaints" or maybe they'll say "No its not". the FTC/court will decide that. NOT YOU or ME.


No. http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/corporate/index.html is Google's corporate web page.

Google.com is google's search engine. 99.999999% go to Google.com to SEARCH.

Apple.com is Apple's corporate website.


By putting a link on its front SEARCH page Google is using its massive market dominance to steer and influence its search engine users to use ITS OWN product instead of other competing products EVEN BEFORE they start searching. IN MY OPINION, the very definition of anti-competitive behavior.

Again this is just all my opinion/observation. I'm not presenting this as FACTS. so you can disagree/agree.



EDIT:


Now. If Google WAS selling Ads on it's FRONT PAGE and Google was competing with other advertisers (and paying for the same rate ie. Google's Android Division paying Google's search division) for eye balls then that's a bit acceptable IMO. Hey, maybe Google should break up their company

 

[fireshot91]

By putting a link on its front SEARCH page Google is using its massive market dominance to steer and influence its search engine users to use ITS OWN product instead of other competing products EVEN BEFORE they start searching. IN MY OPINION, the very definition of anti-competitive behavior.

So..you're saying if they want to put up a link to Gmail (Google's product, not at all related to search engine), they should also put up a link to Yahoo! Mail?

 

[MacNut]

Google.com is a hub page. No search results come from that page.