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."
It's only natural.. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:When you can't compete, sue... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:More on this... (Score:5, Interesting)
If Google is listing its own products above those of their competitors, they're doing a pretty shitty job. Doing a google search for "search engine" gets me a wiki, an aggregator site, Altavista, Bing and then Google ;-)
The first news result is about Google facing some sort of Texas AG inquiry though...
Re:When you can't compete, sue... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:There's no solution (Score:3, Interesting)
I could honestly see several potential alternatives:
(1) Microsoft and / or Yahoo paying Stanford NOT to grant Google a new, exclusive license.
(2) Stanford (in the interest of advancing technology) NOT granting Google a new, exclusive license.
or (3) any number of various governments (to include the U.S. government) wringing some sort of concessions (let your imagination wonder about this one...)