You may remember a story we wrote last week about whether or not Google was genuinely worried about Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, or if it was bluffing about the whole affair to make itself seem that bit more vulnerable in case of an anti-trust scenario.
That campaign seems to be continuing with the news today that Google has been downplaying its own seemingly unshakeably position to anyone who’ll listen. The latest comes from Google’s senior competition counsel, Dana Wagner, who says that competition is just ‘a click away’.
Of course, all of this comes amid Google’s examination by various different bodies for any number of potentially anti-competitive situations it seems to have arranged, including (but not limited to) the cross-pollination between Google and Apple’s boards of directors. Moreover, even the New York Times has taken a jab at Google’s statement to the effect that it has to remain competitive, describing the response with the phrase, “Eyes are rolling,” and understandably so. Last year alone Google sold $22 million worth of advertising, which is more than any other media company on earth.
It’s only natural that Google be worried about the close eye being kept on it, but at the same time, it’s always going to be a hard sell to convince people that having two thirds of the internet search market to yourself isn’t a very big deal indeed.
You can read more at the New York Times with a fairly comprehensive breakdown, here.
Tags: anti-trust, bing, google, monopoly
