Jan 4, 2013 at 2:54pm ET by Greg Sterling

The post-mortem analysis of Google's antitrust settlement happened very quickly yesterday and this morning with some journalists and analysts concluding that factors other than the law were responsible behind the scenes. For example, Politico asserts it was largely "a calculated and expensive charm offensive" (lobbying) that drove the outcome yesterday. An even more absurd analysis argues that Google is essential to US foreign policy and thus the FTC let the company off the hook. While Google lobbying may have had an impact, in reality the the facts and the law weren't on the FTC's sid [...]

FTC Closes Google Antitrust Case: “Law Protects Competition Not Competitors,” Not Enough Evidence To Prove “Search Bias”

Jan 3, 2013 at 2:16pm ET by Greg Sterling

After 19 months of investigation, political maneuvering, lobbying and intense speculation the FTC has closed its antitrust investigation of Google. The outcome is almost exactly as we reported yesterday and it's probably legally correct. Google comes away largely unscathed from the process. Once can hear the celebrations getting started in Mountain View. The settlement has three components. Henceforth there will be no involuntary scraping of third party content for inclusion in "specialized" (vertical) Google search results (the Yelp case). Google will also enable easier exporting of AdW [...]

Report: Google Antitrust Settlement Coming Tomorrow, Opponents Frustrated With FTC

Jan 2, 2013 at 5:19pm ET by Greg Sterling

Much is already known about the contours of the likely antitrust settlement between Google and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The terms of the settlement were previously "leaked" (intentionally or otherwise) a couple of weeks ago and critics quickly berated the FTC as having "rolled over." Broadly speaking, the rumors were that Google would make certain "voluntary changes" and avoid a consent decree (mostly) or any formal finding of antitrust violations. The settlement was supposedly to be announced in mid-to-late December but was delayed amid harsh criticism the FTC received follow [...]

Reports Confirm Google To Escape FTC Antitrust Wrath

Dec 17, 2012 at 7:31am ET by Greg Sterling

Confirming a report from the New York Post last week, the Wall Street Journal and Politico both published articles that said Google would emerge basically unscathed from the FTC's antitrust investigation. Google will apparently agree to make voluntary changes to various practices and will thus avoid having to sign a consent degree. The voluntary actions, according to the articles, would involve limiting use of third party content in some of Google's services (e.g., restaurant reviews) and to make it easier for AdWords campaigns to be transferred to competing platforms (i.e., adCenter). G [...]

Google In Privacy Flap With Germans Over New iOS Maps

Dec 14, 2012 at 3:31pm ET by Greg Sterling

According to a report in Computerworld, Google has violated German data protection and privacy rules with its new Google Maps app for the iPhone. When users install the app and agree to the terms and conditions there's a check box that authorizes Google to collect "anonymous" user location data. The fact that this box is an opt-out (rather than an opt-in) violates German privacy regulations, which require "informed consent" where personal data collection is involved. The fix is obviously easy for Google: simply uncheck the box as the default. Yet the likelihood that people will op [...]

Google Transparency Report Now Showing False Takedown Requests

Dec 13, 2012 at 2:48pm ET by Barry Schwartz

TorrentFreak reports that Google updated their transparency report to now show the number and specific details on the false takedown requests attempted. You can see this level of detail by going to a specific takedown request. For example, looking at takedown request ID 266534 shows that of the 886 URLs reported for DMCA violations, 3% of them, or 24 URLs, Google decided not to take down. It is listed in the "no action taken" section. If you scroll down a bit, you can sort by that column and then click on the details to see specifically which URLs no action was taken against. Here [...]

Report: FTC To Say Google Did Not Violate Antitrust Laws

Dec 13, 2012 at 1:08pm ET by Greg Sterling

The New York Post is reporting that relatively soon, possibly as early as next week, the FTC is scheduled to announce a settlement of its antitrust investigation and potential claims against Google. The Post says that settlement will substantially let Google off the hook: Federal regulators are expected to close a year-long probe of Google’s search business without finding any antitrust violations, The Post has learned. The Federal Trade Commission is expected to announce before the end of the year that Google’s search engine did not cause any consumer harm or favor its own businesses, [...]

Infected Search Results Jump 80% During Holiday Season

Dec 12, 2012 at 2:00pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Chris Larsen from Blue Coat Security shared new statistics on the number of poisoned search results during the holiday shopping season. The new stats show an 80% jump in the number of clicks on infected search results from their last report in August. Specifically, they tracked 13,616 different clicks over 10 days, which is an average of 1361.6 different search engine poisoned clicks per day. During the August or Olympics research set, they had a total of 28,277 different search engine poisoned clicks in 39 days, which is about 725 per day. That is over an 80% increase in the number of [...]

Bing Shopping As A Poster Child For Consumer Confusion About Ads

Dec 7, 2012 at 9:00am ET by Danny Sullivan

Bing has been escalating its attacks against Google Shopping over consumer transparency since launching its "Scroogled" campaign just over a week ago. Well, consumer confusion is a serious issue. Indeed, Bing itself can be used to illustrate some of the problems consumers face at both Bing and Google. The day after Bing's campaign launched, I found the full-page ad to the right in my copy of the Wall Street Journal. A similar ad apparently ran in the New York Times. Meanwhile, at least one blogger has gotten a "Scroogled" t-shirt, and the official Bing blog has done two further anti-Goo [...]

US, European Antitrust Regulators To Confer On Google Case

Nov 30, 2012 at 1:10pm ET by Greg Sterling

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the top two US and European antitrust regulators will meet in Europe next week to compare notes and discuss potential outcomes. Both are negotiating with Google to settle antitrust claims that would avoid formal legal action. The FTC's Chairman Jon Leibowitz will meet with the EU's Joaquin Almunia. The claims against Google on both sides of the Atlantic are similar, though not identical. In addition, European and American antitrust laws are different though they express the same overarching principles. The WSJ reported that any concessions made [...]

Bing Attacks Google Shopping With “Scroogled” Campaign, Forgets It’s Guilty Of Same Problems

Nov 28, 2012 at 3:55pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Bing is attacking Google over its shift to a pay-for-play shopping search engine through a new "Scroogled" site, pledging that Bing has "honest search." Great campaign, if it were true. It's not. Bing itself does the same things it accuses Google of. It's also another indictment of how little the FTC is doing to protect consumers from "search results" they might not realize are ads. Google Shopping Goes All-Ads Earlier this year, Google changed to a "paid inclusion" or pay-to-play model of accepting listings for its Google Shopping site. Phased in over the summer, as of October 17, only merc [...]

Curtain Rises On Act 3 Of Google Antitrust Drama As Larry Page Meets With FTC

Nov 28, 2012 at 11:09am ET by Greg Sterling

Google CEO Larry Page met with representatives of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday, according to a Bloomberg report, as the company engages in antitrust-settlement talks to avert potential litigation. The article also says that formal settlement discussions have been going on for about a week. The Bloomberg piece also reports that the FTC "has told Google it won’t accept a resolution short of a consent decree." However Google doesn't want this outcome apparently because of the ongoing enforcement authority it would grant the agency. Neither Google nor the FTC truly want [...]

Report: FTC Likely To Abandon “Vertical Search” Antitrust Claims Against Google

Nov 21, 2012 at 10:25am ET by Greg Sterling

There are now enough indications to suggest that any antitrust settlement between the FTC and Google -- and the FTC would much prefer to settle than test its case in court -- won't involve "vertical search." An earlier Reuters report, probably resulting from an internal FTC leak, suggested that vertical search wasn't the core of the agency's case against Google. Today Bloomberg is reporting that the FTC is "wavering" on whether to pursue a formal action against Google. In particular the agency's own people (anonymous sources) suggest they can't make the "vertical search bias" claim stick [...]

Study: 39% Of Google Search Referrers Now “Not Provided”

Nov 13, 2012 at 9:00am ET by Barry Schwartz

It is just over a year since Google began encrypting search by default for signed-in users. A new study finds that as a result, 39% search-related traffic from Google to web sites now has search terms withheld. Optify conducted a study over eleven months with 424 web sites, involving 17,143,603 visits and 7,241,093 referring keywords, to see how serious the "not provided" issue is. "Not Provided" is what Google Analytics shows in cases where Google no longer reports a search term due to encryption (other analytics programs may use other phrases). The study found that 39% of terms ar [...]

Google Fined $208,000 In Australian Defamation Case, May Appeal

Nov 12, 2012 at 4:02pm ET by Matt McGee

Google has been told to pay the equivalent of $208,000 (USD) after recently losing a defamation case in Australia involving how it showed a 62-year-old man's name in search results. Google is examining the original jury verdict and may file an appeal. A judge in the supreme court of the Australian state Victoria issued the fine today and, according to Phys.org, compared Google's search results to that of an online publisher: Google Inc is like the newsagent that sells a newspaper containing a defamatory article," Beach said in his judgement. "While there might be no specific intention to [...]

China Blocks Google Search, Gmail, Google+, Maps & More

Nov 9, 2012 at 2:39pm ET by Barry Schwartz

TheNextWeb reports China has decided to block Google services. Currently, Google search, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Google Drive, and other Google products are currently not working when trying to access them within China. TheNextWeb received confirmation from Google that China is indeed blocking their services. This is happening during the 18th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China. It is unclear if the block is temporary for the 18th Party Congress or if this is something that is more long term. GreatFire.org has more details on the block, show [...]

Google And Rosetta Stone Agree To Settle Suit Over Trademarked Keywords

Nov 1, 2012 at 10:10am ET by Pamela Parker

One of Google's most well-funded and tenacious opponents in the legal arena, Rosetta Stone, has agreed to settle its trademark suit against the search giant. The language learning software company had contended that the use of its trademarks as “keyword triggers” infringed trademark law and confused consumers. Terms of the settlement agreement weren't disclosed. The three-year-old case was one of the highest-profile legal battles over a practice that has raised the ire of many trademark holders. In the U.S., Google allows AdWords advertisers to bid on trademarked keywords, so [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Legal | Legal: Trademarks | Top News

Google Loses Australian Defamation Case, Awaiting Decision On Damages

Oct 31, 2012 at 4:23pm ET by Matt McGee

Google is awaiting a judge's decision on damages before it decides what to do after losing a defamation case over its search results in Australia. A jury in the supreme court of the Australian state Victoria, ruled Tuesday that Google is liable for defamation because its search results connected the plaintiff, 62-year-old Milorad Trkulja, to phrases such as "Melbourne crime" and showed his photo near images of suspected members of Melbourne's organized crime scene. It's a complicated and strange case that the BBC details well. In short, my summary would go like this: the plaintiff wa [...]

After Meeting With Eric Schmidt, France Stands By Threat To Write Law Forcing Google To Pay To Link To News Sites

Oct 29, 2012 at 8:01pm ET by Matt McGee

The French government is digging in its heels. After a meeting today with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, French President Francois Hollande reiterated the government's plans to create a new law to force Google to pay when it links to newspaper websites. The spat has been going on for a few weeks, since the French government first proposed a law that would require search engines to pay to link to content. After the original back and forth, plans were made for today's meeting in Paris. As Reuters is reporting, President Hollande didn't back down. The president reiterated that F [...]

Google’s Eric Schmidt Seeks Rapprochement With French Over Proposed Newspaper-Linking Tax

Oct 26, 2012 at 9:01am ET by Greg Sterling

Earlier this month Google, which past French president Jacques Chirac once called an agent of "Anglo-Saxon cultural Imperialism," threatened to stop linking to French news websites after French publishers and the French government floated a proposal to require the search engine to license their content. Current French President Francois Hollande's government is essentially seeking to tax Google to help support or subsidize the country's ailing newspaper industry. Google has vigorously opposed the notion of paying to index and link to news sites as a threat to the company's "very existence [...]

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