Texas Opens Inquiry Into Google Search Rankings 178
Hugh Pickens writes "The AP reports that Texas' attorney general, Greg Abbott, has opened an anti-trust investigation against Google spurred by complaints that the company has abused its power as the Internet's dominant search engine. The review appears to be focused on whether Google is manipulating its search results to stifle competition. European regulators already have been investigating complaints alleging that Google has been favoring its own services in its results instead of rival websites and several lawsuits have also been filed in the US that have alleged Google's search formula is biased. However Google believes Abbott is the first state attorney general to open an antitrust review into the issue."
Uh...it's free... (Score:4, Insightful)
People are going to draw parallels between Google and Microsoft or Intel. However, I need to point out that unlike the later two, Google's services are free to the end user. Not only that, but it's also monumentally easier to stop using Google than say, Microsoft.
I don't know if Google is doing what they're accused of, but so what? It's free, I'm not locked in, and they never said that they were impartial (so no false advertisement).
There's no solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Two alternatives: you either let them do it or you force them to publish their ranking algorithms.
If page rank were public, there would be no search engines worth using. The whole internet is bad enough with spam as it is.
Better let Google do their stuff, it's not as if they were keeping others from posting their own search results. I started using Google when they started giving me better results than Altavista, which was the search "monopoly" back then.
How DARE they!! (Score:1, Insightful)
An advertisiment service company advertising it's own company on it's own services!
Why that's.... downright logical! Sue them! Quick! Before it catches on!
Re:When you can't compete, sue... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a politician looking for attention, not a competitor trying not to compete.
Re:When you can't compete, sue... (Score:3, Insightful)
More like "When you can't fix the real problems plaguing your shitty state, distract attention by opening up a pointless investigation on a very well known, big company."
I'd be 100% in favor of Google opening up their own investigation of Texas. Start with the Texas revolution. That was questionable.
Biased? Who? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think we should start an inquiry about bias with Texas attorneys, not Google. It seems that they are too embedded in the old boys network to have anything to do with justice.
Look at the companies that file complaints: three companies that anyone would rather filter out than in. Seems to me that these aren't the companies that warrant the investigation. So I've got a very strong feeling this other company is behind it.
For me, this is just a big ploy to get to the page-rank algorithm. It would not be hard to leak it when the investigation starts for real.
Re:When you can't compete, sue... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's like every site owner has to sit in front of their PC all day long building links to compete
The good websites don't have this problem, they get links because people like them, and link to them. If you have to spend all day building links, maybe you should look at your website's content/service first. That could be where the problem lies.
Re:"no lock-in"? See 15 U.S.C.A. 1 (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:More on this... (Score:1, Insightful)
It would be pretty pointless to artificially change the ranking for the term "search engine" when you are already using their search engine.
Try searching for "email" or "checkout" for example. I am not claiming they are altering results, but if you keep searching for generic terms that are in their market space you'll see they rank rather well which could be simply due to their high profile.