learn Google’s protecting Response To European Antitrust prices

After weeks of rumors, the eu commission formally introduced antitrust costs against Google (April 18, 2015). the main complaint alleges that Google uses its domination of web search to desire its personal services and products on the top of search outcomes. The eu fee also launched a separate antitrust investigation into the practice of bundling Android instrument with a full Google apps suite, stated the new York instances. these days, Google has long past on the protective, firing back in two blog posts, one filled with records helping Google’s claim that its search does not harm businesses, and every other arguing that Android has in fact elevated consumer option around the globe. Google is mainly pronouncing: whats up, needless to say cell operating gadget that about 84% of the world makes use of? Yeah, that was us. without spending a dime. you might be welcome.

The european antitrust suit alleges that Google makes use of its internet search dominance (in Europe, Google debts for ninety% of searches, compared with 68% within the U.S.) to raise outcomes for products or products and services that advantage Google. Google Search government Amit Singhal’s blog post brushes off these complaints through pronouncing that net customers have extra choice to get entry to content than ever ahead of, from Siri or Cortana-powered searches, a slew of other search engines, and specialty sites (like Amazon and eBay). Singhal additionally particularly addresses complaints from several sectors like trip (Expedia, TripAdvisor) and native search (Yelp), noting that during the last 4 years, income has grown for Expedia (earnings up 67%), TripAdvisor (revenue doubled), and Yelp (revenue up 350%). while no longer a comprehensive protection, all three of these companies aggressively pushed the ecu into launching its antitrust investigation. in short, Singhal asks, how precisely has Google harmed these firms’ earnings?

Google’s respectable rebuttal addressed the complaint that bundling new Android phones with Google’s app suite equates to antitrust—a criticism echoed again in February by means of Russia’s greatest search company, Yandex. The submit says that, sure, it has all the time been ok to sell Android phones stripped of any Google apps—however achieve this at your peril, as Google’s app suite gives the same baseline products and services (like e-mail and map navigation) that Apple’s and Microsoft’s telephone suites present on their respective telephones. Plus, Android does not include as many preloaded apps as iOS units, the put up factors out. The submit additional states that Google paid $7 billion in revenue to developers and content publishers, and that competing apps from fb and Microsoft are freely to be had on the app retailer—and a few come preloaded on Android devices alongside Google’s apps.

Google’s legit put up proceeded to protect its domination of stories search outcomes (which the ecu commission’s antitrust criticism didn’t actually deal with). Google additionally incorporated information bragging about the quantity of site visitors that information web sites The Guardian and Bild get from Google search—however directly eliminated these numbers after catching flak over their accuracy.

[via Google weblog]