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http://investmentwatchblog.com/wsj-how-google-skewed-search-results/
WSJ: How GOOGLE Skewed Search Results…
FTC staff report details how Google favored its own shopping, travel services over rivals
March 19th, 2015
A previously undisclosed report by staffers at the Federal Trade Commission reveals new details about how Google Inc. manipulated search results to favor its own services over rivals’, even when they weren’t most relevant for users.
In a lengthy investigation, staffers in the FTC’s bureau of competition found evidence that Google boosted its own services for shopping, travel and local businesses by altering its ranking criteria and “scraping” content from other sites. It also deliberately demoted rivals.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-skewed-search-results-1426793553
Secret FTC Staff Report On Bully Tactics Surfaces…
WASHINGTON—Officials at the Federal Trade Commission concluded in 2012 that Google Inc. used anticompetitive tactics and abused its monopoly power in ways that harmed Internet users and rivals, a far harsher analysis of Google’s business than was previously known.
The staff report from the agency’s bureau of competition recommended the commission bring a lawsuit challenging three Google practices. The move would have triggered one of the highest-profile antitrust cases since the Justice Department sued Microsoft Corp. in the 1990s.
The 160-page critique, which was supposed to remain private but was inadvertently disclosed in an open-records request, concluded that Google’s “conduct has resulted—and will result—in real harm to consumers and to innovation in the online search and advertising markets.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-u-s-antitrust-probe-of-google-1426793274
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