Uncle Sam has Google perplexed.
The search giant yesterday took to its official blog to confirm it is the target of a broad Federal Trade Commission probe but said it wasn’t certain what regulators were after.
“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,” Googler Amit Singhal wrote in the post.
The FTC is just the latest entity to dig for dirt on Google, following European regulators, the US Congress and several states Attorneys General — all of whom are concerned Google is violating antitrust rules.
At the core of the probes is whether Google is a monopoly, according to legal experts.
The company said it’s not, and pointed out in the blog post that users can easily switch to a competitor.
The “free to go” argument is a good start, but the company will need to address a number of other concerns as regulators investigate Google’s search practices, said Marc Schildkraut, an ex-regulator and lawyer with Dewey & LeBoeuf.
Google powers about two-thirds of Web searches in the US. Google is being looked at for whether it favors its own Web products over rivals when processing search results. Also, at issue are Google’s advertising practices.
Even if regulators do find Google favors its own products and substantiates other allegations of anti-competitive behavior by rivals, then it becomes a matter of whether that constitutes wrongdoing.
“Are they or are they not using objective search criteria?” Schildkraut said. “If not, do they have to use objective criteria? Is Google a public utility because of market share and market power, so they can’t favor themselves? That’s not the easiest argument in the world to make.”