back to article EU gives Google JUST WEEKS to submit stronger search biz concessions

Google is being strong-armed by the competition wing of the European Commission to quickly come up with a revised and more palatable offer to fix for its alleged abuse of dominance in the search market. It has weeks to respond, antitrust commissioner Joaquin Almunia told reporters today, according to Reuters. Google's most …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't worry about hitting them with a fine.....

    ...just make them switch all new Chrome installs default to Duck Duck Go....and force them to offer the choice to current devices, bit like MS with the browser choice.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They've been buying everything else, why don't Google buy the EU commission?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      another suggestion

      can they also, like, buy themselves and cease trading?

      ...

      yeah, I'm sure their usual friends (MS, FB, to name but a few) would pool in to help them with the purchase ;)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "They've been buying everything else, why don't Google buy the EU commission?"

      You mean they haven't?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "They've been buying everything else, why don't Google buy the EU commission?"

      They couldnt affford the EU salaries + required bribes....

  3. Martin Gregorie

    Far reaching changes? Really?

    My guess is that a oneliner to set the 'use standard page-rank' database attribute on google sites would take about 5 minutes to write and maybe an hour or two to run.

    1. DaLo

      Re: Far reaching changes? Really?

      But then you'd need to use standard page-rank on every search result and you'd be back to a sprawl of SEO spam filling every search result.

      Their current algorithms work far better than page-rank for useful results.

      1. ratfox

        Missing the point

        The complaints are not about how the results are ranked. They are about adding to these results boxes which display information obtained from other Google products, like Maps, Finance, Shopping.

        When you google for "London", you get a box on the right which contains a map showing London, linking to Google Maps.

        When you google for "nikon d3200", you get a box titled "Shop for nikon d3200 on Google", linking to Google Shopping.

        This is the part that competitors are complaining about. It is not part of the organic search results.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Missing the point

          "When you google for "London", you get a box on the right which contains a map showing London, linking to Google Maps."

          I know. Bloody useful it is, too - particularly on mobile. Shame it looks like we're going to lose it and have useless links to ukstreetfarts and the like instead.

  4. websey

    I remember a simpler time when there was a small company who's moto was do no evil,

    10 years on I see a teenage company that has renamed itself to microsoft jnr,

    How monopolies change companies

  5. Lars Silver badge
    Flame

    DuckDuckGo

    I went DuckDuckGo. Google has become too big and they have started to smell like Microsoft. I suppose it's normal and inevitable.

    1. Mark 65

      Re: DuckDuckGo

      I went Duck Duck Go too but then decided I didn't like searching, I liked finding.

  6. normcf

    Nothing they do will be sufficient

    The microsoft lead consortia of complainers will never say the concessions are enough. They will just keep banging on it forever.

  7. Matt Siddall

    Erm

    From what I can see here, Google hasn't actually done anything illegal. The EU commission is having a go for supposed "Monopoly" behaviour, but they've got a near-monopoly because they're the best at what they do. If someone came up with a better search engine, there's nothing stopping us all from moving to it (and I'm sure there are some people who do use Bing and the like).

    So Google have done nothing wrong, but the EU is threatening them with fines because their competitors are unhappy about them doing so well. What's wrong with this picture?

    1. SImon Hobson Bronze badge

      Re: Erm

      > … they've got a near-monopoly because they're the best at what they do. If someone came up with a better search engine, there's nothing stopping us all from moving to it

      If *ALL* it was about was the search engine then you'd be right. But it isn't.

      They've used their massive dominance (not monopoly) in search to allow them to just step into any other market and dominate it too. I find it "somewhat suspicious" how they can introduce a new product and miraculously it leaps straight to the top of the search results - straight past existing (and sometimes good and well established) alternatives. They also give their own stuff special dominance - such the the way their shopping isn't "just another search result" like the other shopping sites, but it's own special section.

      Unfortunately the damage is done, and short of dismantling Google I don't see how it can be undone. The logical outcome was plain to see (and some people can now say "told you so") a long time ago - but for a combination of reasons nothing was done when there was scope for preventing the damage (just as with Microsoft). The two main reasons (IMO) are that the regulators can't do anything until damage is actually done and someone complains, and when they do finally take action it takes years during which the players can further entrench their position and make it even harder to undo.

      Google, Microsoft, IBM, Standard Oil, … All have used pretty much the same tactics over the decades.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like