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Group Calls For Google Antitrust Probe
CWmike writes "Advocacy group Consumer Watchdog called on the DOJ to launch a broad antitrust investigation into Google's search and advertising practices and consider a wide array of penalties, including possibly breaking the company up (PDF). The watchdog, along with a mobile entrepreneur and two lawyers representing Google rivals, called for an investigation focusing on a number of issues, including Google's marriage of search results to advertising and its book search service. '...We think all remedies should be on the table, including, we think, the possible breakup of the Internet giant,' said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog. Adam Kovacevich, senior manager for global communications and public affairs at Google, discounted the criticisms, saying Consumer Watchdog has been 'relentlessly negative' about Google. The group recently questioned the reasons why Google stopped censoring search results in China, and criticized Google's privacy Dashboard as inadequate, Kovacevich said."
it's not fair to bet when the answer is known to be YES
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
May be something, may be nothing - TradeComet's lawyer (one of the two lawyers in TFA) is from the same firm that does all of Microsoft's anti-trust work. It's tough to imagine such a firm would take on Google in an anti-trust case without at the very least getting Microsoft's blessing. It's not impossible though, MS may have nothing at all to do with it. It could all be coincidence.
Oh and TradeComet's anti-trust lawsuit was dismissed on a technicality - the judge ruled that the Adwords contract venue stipulation applied.
Also Google has a collections lawsuit pending with myTrigger.com (the other lawyer in TFA) for unpaid bills. That's funny, because this is all about sites being redirected away from legitimate business, but the only time one pays for Adwords is if someone clicked through.
Sounds like these guys are full of shit to me. There is a reason Google faces dozens of antitrust lawsuits every year, and there is a reason none of them go anywhere, even when there are high-powered law firms behind them. It's because they have no merit.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
I'm a bit of a fan of Google but I think this investigation should go ahead. I am confident that Google will not be found guilty, as you said this is not Microsoft, Google has a monopoly in search but unlike MS they don't use their dominant market position to crush competition or prevent new competitors from entering the market.
It's not just MS gunning for Google, Apple is doing it as well. Google represents the end of the Apple/MS business model if they are successful with Android and Chrome. Seeing as the EU hasn't even made a whimper about Google I doubt they have much to worry about.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Sigh, it's not anti-capitalist to insist upon having unmanageably sized corporations broken up. Especially when said corporations grow huge based upon buying out the nearest competitor to create a monopoly position. Just because large corporations don't like it doesn't mean that it's anti-capitalist. Capitalism requires eternal vigilance in order to ensure that one source doesn't become the only source of every product or service.
Had the DoJ been doing its job in the first place a number of those deals would never have taken place. In fact, I doubt that MS would've been brought into court at all had the clowns running the DoJ during the early portion of this century been in charge.
Sopssa, you're an idiot.
I suspect that he's actually the single longest-running and most successful troll in the history of Slashdot, by far. I just can't explain being contradictive to Slashdot groupthink on every single point otherwise.