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Jetée · 07-18-2011, 06:51 PM

Google confirms FTC probe | MercuryNews.com

Article written by Mike Swift, excerpt as follows:

Quote:

The company confirmed in a blog post that the Federal Trade Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into its business, a probe that focuses not only on search but also its extraordinarily profitable advertising venture. Google said it would cooperate fully but expressed confusion about the probe.

"We respect the FTC's process and will be working with them (as we have with other agencies) over the coming months to answer questions about Google and our services," Google Fellow Amit Singhal said. "It's still unclear exactly what the FTC's concerns are, but we're clear about where we stand. Since the beginning, we have been guided by the idea that, if we focus on the user, all else will follow."

The investigation is expected to examine whether Google has used its dominant standing in search to improperly promote its products at the expense of its competitors, but may also look at whether its advertising policies discourage users from easily choosing between Google and competitors such as Microsoft and Yahoo.

[...]

In remarks last month in Silicon Valley that now appear to have foreshadowed those concerns, one of the five commissioners, J. Thomas Rosch, linked online advertising and search as he questioned whether Google had acquired lawful or unlawful monopoly power in both markets.

"I have not yet made up my mind about that," Rosch said in a speech about antitrust law at Latham & Watkins, his former law firm in Menlo Park. "I do not think this technology is moving too fast for the commission to challenge conduct or transactions that we have reason to believe will injure consumer choice."