The Wall Street Journal
Every move you make, I’ll be watching you.
Sting sang those lines back in 1983, but the sentiment could well apply to the current relationship between Google and regulators all over the world. Google remains the 800-pound gorilla in the search-engine space, and it will continue, it seems, to be watched very very carerfully.
The weekend was chock full of Google news.
Trouble in Texas? For starters, Greg Abbott, the Texas attorney general, is conducting an antitrust review of Google’s core search-engine business, a sign of widening government scrutiny of the Web giant.
Texas’s top prosecutor has inquired about allegations by several small companies that Google unfairly demoted their rankings in search results or the placement of their advertisements on the search engine, Google said Friday.
The Internet giant disputed the allegations, which have been reported previously, tracing them to three companies with ties to rival Microsoft. Click here for the story, from the WSJ’s Amir Efrati and Thomas Catan.
A Payout over Buzz: On Friday, it was also revealed that Google has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a private class-action lawsuit that alleged its Buzz social networking service violated users’ privacy. Click here for that story, also from Amir Efrati.
Seven users of Gmail had alleged that Google violated privacy law in February by exposing their email contacts to users of Google Buzz, which is built into Gmail and borrows elements of Twitter and Facebook by allowing users to share comments, photos, videos, and Web links with other users who “follow,” or track their updates.
Most of the money will help fund organizations focused on Internet privacy policy or privacy education, with slightly over $2 million going to plaintiffs’ attorneys.
DOJ Looking Hard at ITA Deal: Finally, Efrati and Catan reported on Monday that the Justice Department is looking hard at Google’s proposed purchase of ITA Software Inc., which powers the Web’s most popular airline-ticket search and booking sites, said people familiar with the department’s review.
Justice antitrust authorities are focusing on two potential areas of concern: whether rivals would continue to have access to ITA’s data and whether Google would unfairly steer Web searchers to its own travel services.
ITA software is used by flight-comparison sites including Kayak.com, SideStep.com and Hotwire.com, among others, as well as by Bing, the Internet-search engine owned by Microsoft Corp.
Sting sang those lines back in 1983, but the sentiment could well apply to the current relationship between Google and regulators all over the world. Google remains the 800-pound gorilla in the search-engine space, and it will continue, it seems, to be watched very very carerfully.
The weekend was chock full of Google news.
Trouble in Texas? For starters, Greg Abbott, the Texas attorney general, is conducting an antitrust review of Google’s core search-engine business, a sign of widening government scrutiny of the Web giant.
Texas’s top prosecutor has inquired about allegations by several small companies that Google unfairly demoted their rankings in search results or the placement of their advertisements on the search engine, Google said Friday.
The Internet giant disputed the allegations, which have been reported previously, tracing them to three companies with ties to rival Microsoft. Click here for the story, from the WSJ’s Amir Efrati and Thomas Catan.
A Payout over Buzz: On Friday, it was also revealed that Google has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a private class-action lawsuit that alleged its Buzz social networking service violated users’ privacy. Click here for that story, also from Amir Efrati.
Seven users of Gmail had alleged that Google violated privacy law in February by exposing their email contacts to users of Google Buzz, which is built into Gmail and borrows elements of Twitter and Facebook by allowing users to share comments, photos, videos, and Web links with other users who “follow,” or track their updates.
Most of the money will help fund organizations focused on Internet privacy policy or privacy education, with slightly over $2 million going to plaintiffs’ attorneys.
DOJ Looking Hard at ITA Deal: Finally, Efrati and Catan reported on Monday that the Justice Department is looking hard at Google’s proposed purchase of ITA Software Inc., which powers the Web’s most popular airline-ticket search and booking sites, said people familiar with the department’s review.
Justice antitrust authorities are focusing on two potential areas of concern: whether rivals would continue to have access to ITA’s data and whether Google would unfairly steer Web searchers to its own travel services.
ITA software is used by flight-comparison sites including Kayak.com, SideStep.com and Hotwire.com, among others, as well as by Bing, the Internet-search engine owned by Microsoft Corp.
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