Hugo Barra, Director of Google Product Management, talks about Google Now, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, June 27, 2012. Google Now is one of the new features in Android.
AP Photo

"Is Google a Monopoly? Wrong Question"

Op-Ed, Bloomberg

July 8, 2012

Author: Susan P. Crawford, Former Faculty Affiliate, Information and Communications Technology and Public Policy Project, January–December 2012

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: The Cyber Project; Science, Technology, and Public Policy

"Google responded last week to European antitrust regulators investigating a long list of claims against the world's largest search engine. Whether or not the complaints against Google are valid, they may be looking backward. Increasingly, Google is not a search engine.

Yes, Google accounts for 80 percent of all Web searches in Europe. It is facing criticism (some of it prompted by Microsoft) for favoritism toward Google's own specialty search products — travel, finance, hotels, restaurants, maps — that may put its competitors at a disadvantage. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission has also been investigating Google for the past year.

As pressure mounts on Google to change its practices, it's not clear whether antitrust regulators are asking the right questions...."

Continue reading: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-08/is-google-a-monopoly-wrong-question.html

For more information about this publication please contact the Belfer Center Communications Office at 617-495-9858.

Full text of this publication is available at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-08/is-google-a-monopoly-wrong-question.htm
l

For Academic Citation: