back to article US Senate to probe the Obama-Google love-in

The US Senate’s subcommittee on antitrust and competition will investigate why President Obama’s political appointees at the top of the FTC closed an investigation into Google. The American watchdog's own staff found sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to merit a prosecution – specifically, evidence of Google abusing its …

  1. The Dim View

    Dominance?

    Google search is dominant only among those who "don't get it". Even with AdBlock Latitude some of those pesky adverts slip through.

    I never thought I'd praise anything from Micro$not .... but, BING is my default search engine.

    Of course Google has been trying to dismantle MS for yonks. What with the Chrome "OS" and the Chrome browser, etc. So far as I know Redmond is still hanging in there. Slick Willy Gates still tops Forbes List of the richest people in the world.

    Senators - find something to do that actually is productive.

  2. Identity
    Holmes

    So...

    Google:Obama=Enron:Bush. At least Google does less harm to society AKA "Don't Be [too] Evil"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So...

      Are you sure Google does less harm? Contrlloing what people should think is the worst harm you can do. Google is on a 'Citizen Kane' track...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Trollface

        Re: So...

        Let me knock the door.

        LSD brings up an interesting point (but when doesn't LSD). If you find all things Googly just about down right disturbing and sad right now, is that feeling induced by Google? If I tell you to pick a number ending in 'leven', have I put 11 in your mind...?? OOhhh, Ahhh...

        Remember what the door man said!

  3. BillG
    Facepalm

    You Must Remember This

    I'm shocked, shocked, that gambling is going on in this establishment!

  4. Durant Imboden

    It's worth noting that Microsoft is one of Senator Lee's top campaign contributors. Looks like it's time for Google to ante up.

    1. h4rm0ny

      Actually, Google outspend Microsoft on lobbying. Given the current situation described in the article, it looks like Microsoft have been outbid.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    The golden rule of Silicon Valley is...

    Whoever has the gold makes the rules!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The golden rule of Silicon Valley is...

      True, but whoever has the gold, is also the target.

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    Duckduckgo...

    ...It's working much better recently - nearly a drop-in replacement for Google search now. With Startpage and even Bing as backups, I wouldn't miss Google search if it lost it's monopoly position and couldn't afford to offer the same search options.

    1. tom dial Silver badge

      Re: Duckduckgo...

      The fact that you and anyone you can switch to DuckDuckGo or another search portal with little effort proves that we do not need government intervention to resolve this problem. Google has the monopoly because it is widely perceived to produce good search results and relatively few people care enough about its alleged misbehavior to take relatively easy action to avoid it. If that were to change, Google's monopoly would evaporate fairly quickly.

      I never have seen claims that other portals like DuckDuckGo, Bing, or Yahoo produce superior results to Google's, only that they come very close. As long as that is the case I would not expect Google's usage to decline without government intervention that would reduce the aggregate utility of web search to users.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's a company town

    As I use Google Maps on my Android phone to find the location of the nearest Starbucks, my Google car drives me there, auto-pays with Google Wallet, and the automated barista slowly pours the perfectly prepared beverage from the #RaceTogether cup into my waiting gullet, a small spark of consciousness can be briefly seen on my eyes, but my attention is instantly diverted by my Google Glass, which displays my receipt and the latest Tweets.

    Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, a small voice sings..

    "Row row your boat, gently down the stream, life is but a dream.."

  9. Dana W

    They are getting so desperate, they are looking at an election in a couple of years, and most of their top criticisms are based on Fox News fantasies. they NEED a scandal desperately. Their polls are not great, they are NOT carrying the new youth vote at all, and they won't have the benefit they had last time of a large number of seats in VERY gerrymandered districts.

    They will dig and dig and dig. A scandal will be made of something because after six years of dragging the US economy to a stop and crying about Obama, finger pointing and scandal mongering is all they can do.

    So far their campaign for 2016 is a platform of "stop the gays" and no matter how you feel about that subject, its not a presidential platform for people who want to win.

  10. Mark 85

    Senate checking who's bought who?

    Reminds me that Senate Ethics and Senate Intelligence are both oxymorons. Let's check the Senate first and see who's been bought, shall we?

  11. jnffarrell1

    Vaudeville is alive and well in the Senate

    Today, GIFs would be the preferred medium for standup comedy. As Will Rogers could have said, he gets the same feeling when Congress is in session as watching a baby opening a can of wuppass.

    Too bad the Senator can't tell it's his.

  12. DerekCurrie
    Angel

    ANY Action To Cut The Corporate Oligarchy Puppet Strings...

    ... Is great with me!

    I don't care who the corporation is. Hands Off My Government! We The People run the US government. Not corporate overlords.

    If I had my way, every corporate lobbyist would be burned (to medium rare) at the stake, then fed to the pigs. Then what a feast we would have! - - Only barely kidding. :-P

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It will really show how far Googles political influence goes depending on what the US senate finds. If the US senate finds nothing fishy about the abrupt stopping of the FTC investigation by Obama's FTC appointees then it'll be clear how far Googles political influence goes. How is it that americans tolerate political interference of this kind?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      political interference

      > How is it that americans tolerate political interference of this kind?

      it's baked in into our Constitutional System of Government. We have the best politicians money can buy.

  14. bussdriver

    it's the NSA stupid

    Google's interactions with the NSA are ongoing. ATnT helped the NSA and they have been thanked. Why wouldn't google get some "benefits" for being "friends" with the NSA?

  15. Uncle Ron

    You Just Had to Know it.

    You just had to know it would be no time at all before the new Republican-controlled US Senate would launch dozens of nonsense hearings to tie up the President and his staff's time in useless appearances and probes and investigations that will lead to nothing, go nowhere, and prove, for the thousandth time, that the that the current amateur, incompetent, blowhard Republican party in the US is incapable of providing any kind of leadership, and capable only of taking money from the rich, and from big corporations. There is an especially hot and fiery place in Hell being reserved for the whole lot of them.

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