Jon Christian Ryter's Conservative World

Friday, April 01, 2011

Clash of the titans: Microsoft v. Google
as Google stifles Internet competition.
Antitrust suit filed by Microsoft.
As computer giant Microsoft, which launched its Bing search engine in June, 2009, filed an unfair trade complaint (i.e., antitrust action) against rival Google with the European Commission, its lawyers threw the weight and economic muscle of Microsoft behind an existing probe of whether or not Google is unfairly thwarting its global competitors in the online search market. In a press conference in Brussels on March 31, Microsoft General Council Brad Smith confirmed that Microsoft had filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google citing what he termed a growing concern at Microsoft over "...a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive alternative..." to Google. Smith said that Google, which owns YouTube, restricts competing search engines—including Bing—from properly accessing its video portal.

Microsoft has its fingers crossed that the European Union will not only sanction their antitrust argument but that they will convince FCC regulators in the United States to do the same. Microsoft's primary complaint against the search giant is centered on what Microsoft calls "Google's most egregious offense"—their indexing policies that prohibits competitors from indexing data from properties that Google controls. While Google touts is global mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Smith noted that while "...this is a laudable goal...it appears Google's practice is to prevent others from doing the same thing."

Al Verney, a Brussels-based spokesman for Google told the Associated Press that Google was not surprised that Microsoft was preparing a lawsuit since one of its subsidiaries was one of the original entities that filed the initial complaint being investigated by the European Commission. Verney said that Google was only too happy to explain to anyone how Google works and what they can, and won't, do. Smith, on the other hand noted that Microsoft has provided the Commission with several specific examples of what they term to be "anti-competitive practices by Google," involving some of Google's "pet projects."

A spokesman for the European Union's Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, said the European Commission had taken note of Microsoft's complaint against Google and would give Google the opportunity to response and tell its side of the story.

The European Union launched its investigation of Google in November, 2010 after it received several complaints from small Web companies that Google has a long history of burying certain websites in the search process as well as engaging in other forms of anti-competitive practices. Two of the companies which filed the initial complaint with the European Commission was an online shopping site, Ciao, which is owned by Microsoft's search engine, Bing, and United Kingdom-based Foundem which is a participant in a Microsoft-sponsored technology trade organization.

Microsoft's latest complaint is that Google blocked Microsoft's Windows Phones from "...operating properly with YouTube..." while offering better service to owners of its own Android phones and to iPhone (because Apple does not own a search engine).

Although Bing has partnered with third rival, Yahoo, neither Bing nor Yahoo have figured out how to close the search engine gap with Google, which controls 90% of the search market. It is unclear if Microsoft's EU antitrust action will find its way into the U.S. federal court anytime soon even though Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is currently conducting an antitrust investigation of Google and several other States are "discussing" the same type of action.

via jonchristianryter.com

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