Google -- Guilty of search abuse?

The European Union have today accused Google of anticompetitive behaviour: claiming that the search engine unfairly rates its own companies and companies who are giving them money over everybody else.

In particular it is being blamed for unfairly promoting its own shopping services over the competition.

Google however claims this is not the case and they are doing nothing wrong.

There is more information here: on the BBC website.

What do people in the Bad Voltage community think about this?

First of all, this is nothing but politics. Something that is typical of all political entities, wherever they may be. If Google was an EU based company, the commission there would have yawned and gone on to other frivolous things to do, pretty well the same way the FTC in the US did on similar issues with Google. And if Google was a EU based company, I would imagine the FTC would be all over it.

Second, by principle, all companies would be considered anti-competitive. When someone buys a new Ford auto, the person is encouraged to bring the vehicle in to the dealer for maintenance. Should that be considered as anti-competitive as they are not first recommending Joe’s Garage? Now, if Ford were to cancel the warranty if the vehicle is serviced anywhere but a Ford dealership, then there would be a problem. So, as it is, does Google not list any services but their own?

Third, a matter of personal perspective. What I see is companies worth boatloads of money complaining that this other company, worth boatloads of money, is doing something that they have not been able to manage to do well. Should I feel sorry for them when there are so many in this world that cannot feed themselves or their families, or are having so much trouble obtaining potable water?

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I need to dig into this a bit more. But my gut reaction is similar to what @oldgeek said.