A Federal Trade Commission report found that Google tilted the playing field in favor of its own services, and stole from rival companies, reinvigorating debate about the search giant and whether it violated its famed slogan: "Don't be evil."
Staff at the FTC’s enforcement bureau found that Google had promoted its own tools ahead of others and stolen content from companies, including Amazon, Yelp and TripAdvisor, as they became more competitive, according to the Wall Street Journal.
[seealso slug=http://sale-online.click/2015/03/17/google-astro-teller-sxsw/%5D%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3ESpecifically, the FTC said Google copied sales rankings, reviews and ratings from Amazon. Yelp also made similar claims about Google using their reviews. The FTC added that Google caused “significant harm” to competitors by surfacing its own content in response to search queries.
Google currently has around 65% of the search market, well ahead of competitors such as Microsoft (20%) and Yahoo (13%). The company lost market share recently due to Firefox switching to Yahoo for default search in its browser, but clawed back some of those users, according to data from comScore.
The FTC’s discovery created an internal rift over how to punish Google. While its enforcement bureau recommended pursuing legal action, the FTC’s economic bureau, did not. As a result, the agency’s commissioners voted unanimously not to pursue the case.
The news is vindication for companies such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, which have complained for years that Google uses its power to push around other companies. Yelp had been among the most public with its gripes, claiming that it had been discriminated against and stolen from. The two companies are still engaged in a battle with Google, having started a public campaign in Europe to bring attention to the issues.
Luther Lowe, vice-president of public policy for Yelp, said in a statement that the FTC confirmed what his company already knew.
"This shows the FTC had direct evidence of intentional search bias by Google," he said. "Google admitted to the FTC that it knowingly placed inferior content in front of consumers so it could promote Google+."
While it does not appear that the revelation will hurt Google in the U.S., it could fuel longtime skepticism of the company's business practices in Europe, where regulators have studied Google in an ongoing inquiry. In October, an antitrust case against the company and its search dominance was reopened for a fourth time by the European Union's antitrust chief. Three settlement offers from Google have already been rejected.
The company translated its search dominance into advertising revenue of $59.1 billion in 2014. Still, analysts see reason for concern and a historical roadmap for why its anticompetitive practices could be a sign of the beginning of the end of Google's dominance.
The search giant's "Don't be evil" motto traces its roots back to around 2000, when Gmail creator Paul Bucheit coined the term during a meeting to discuss Google's values, which were meant to shame rivals;
"It’s also a bit of a jab at a lot of the other companies, especially our competitors, who at the time, in our opinion, were kind of exploiting the users to some extent," Bucheit told author Jessica Livingston for her book Founders at Work.
Right around that time, another dominant tech giant faced a major antitrust judgement: Microsoft. The software company was found to have used its power to squash competition, and ordered by a court on June 7, 2000 to break into two companies, though that ruling was later overturned.
Comparisons between the two are not uncommon, both in how the companies have used their power, and how their respective dominance did and could end. Google's pervasiveness may seem absolute, but tech watchers are starting to see the company fall behind.
Microsoft lost its hold on the industry through others innovating. The same will/is happening to Google.— Ben Thompson (@monkbent) March 20, 2015