Does Google favour its own products over others in its search results? The Federal Trade Commission is investigating, and it's just extended the probe to include Google Plus, the search giant's social network, Reuters reports.
The charge is that Google manipulates results to prioritise its own results above others. It announced on Tuesday that posts from Google Plus will feature more prominently in results. So search for cheese, and any blog posts or photos from Google Plus involving cheese will be right up there near the top.
Bloomberg cited two sources claiming the probe had been extended to include Google Plus. The FTC declined to comment, while a Google spokesperson claimed the FTC had not asked about Google Plus, or given any indication it was looking into the search giant's social network.
But Reuters reports that the Electronic Privacy Information Center -- a public interest research centre focussing on civil liberties and privacy -- had asked the FTC to investigate Google's decision to include its own social network in search results.
A spokesperson for the Electronic Privacy Information Center said, "Google's business practices raise concerns related to both competition and the implementation of the Commission's consent order," referring to a settlement between the FTC and Google that established privacy safeguards for anyone who uses Google's services, as well as subjecting the search company to regular privacy audits.
Google said in a statement that including results from its social network would help people find what they were looking for, and essentially we could like it or lump it. "We believe that our improvements to search will benefit consumers by better surfacing social content, and the great thing about the openness of the Internet is that if users don't like our service they can easily switch to another site."
Back in September Google's Eric Schmidt denied claims the company favoured its own services over others in search results.
Is Google too powerful? Or is this a case of people trying to chip away at a successful company? Let us know below, or over on our Facebook page.
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Comments 5
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anonymous 14 January, 2012 14:53
There is a clear conflict of interest here, Google.
Tom Ford 16 January, 2012 01:52
It only is a conflict for those who don't want to see the newest, most relevant information...
anonymous 16 January, 2012 11:18
I can see why Google would do it. One could argue that it's not so easy to get such results from Facebook or Twitter, but Google has access to Google + (naturally), so it's really the only service that Google can take such liberties with.
Of course, I really didn't like the way Google commented on this; it reads like "You'll take what you get, or you'll go somewhere else." I have a lot of respect for Google, but that right there didn't feel very good at all. It was a stupid thing to say.
The real question in all this is "Does it help?" Does it truly benefit us, whether or not we participate in Google +, or does it only benefit Google + members, therefore somewhat unfairly luring people into signing up for the new social network?
anonymous 16 January, 2012 12:33
my goodness !! ONLY IF YOU ARE A GOOGLE PLUS USER !!! i just signed out of my google plus and searched for something using google ..and in my results there was ABSOLUTELY no google plus posts that i saw in my results ....! and when i signed in again ..the results i got yes included some google plus posts BUT i have the option on clicking the 'world' icon just next to the 'person' icon on the top left corner and WALA ..i dont see any G+ posts!!!
i think its just a feature that is exclusive for G+ users ...its kinda fun to see what the poeple in my circles have said about the subject im searching for ... :)
anonymous 16 January, 2012 17:41
I think Google are acting ethically: it's their search engine and as such it should be assumed they can prioritise their own products and services.
If you're searching for something specific, Google will show it to you, and how accurate you are in typing your search criteria usually defines how near the top your result will be. So put "Facebook" in Google, and up pops facebook, right at the top. Put "Social Network" in, and don't be surprised that Google suggests Google+.