Slashdot Mirror
Google Accused of "Cooking" Search Results and Charging MSFT Too Much
A reader writes "Google is being scrutinized by the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee for supposedly 'cooking' their search results. In an independent study comparing search results for products, Google Shopping consistently ranked 3rd. Eric Scmidt denied these accusations at a Senate hearing Wednesday." On top of all that, Microsoft is alleging that Google overcharges them as much as fifty-fold for advertising prices as compared to other buyers.
Where the competition will do literally anything, including tipping the ears of politicians with insanely expensive lobbyist to run you through the mud.
Friendly reminder:
Google's services aren't free. Gmail, Google Docs, Picasa, all the other "services" you're referring to aren't their services. Google sells advertising.
That is neither relevant nor interesting. A more interesting question is whether the bias is deliberate and targeted or not.
Here's a target practice analogy: When you shoot darts at a target, you won't get all darts in the bullseye. You might even find that your darts land more often in the lower half of the board. That's bias, and it's not deliberate.
Now suppose that a champion throws some darts, and his darts all land in the upper left corner of the board. That's bias too, but it's clearly deliberate and targeted. If moreover there's money riding on the game, and the champion was expected to win, then there's a case for cheating.
In both cases, it's completely impossible to not have bias, ie to hit the bullseye every single time always.