Senators to question Google chairman on antitrust issues
— -- Google Chairman Eric Schmidt could get the grilling of a lifetime at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing today, examining whether the company abused its Internet search dominance.
The former Google CEO will answer questions from senators probing whether Google used its power to unfairly compete with smaller Internet rivals. "There are some real concerns about Google," says Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan. "Some of the antitrust concerns are overblown."
Google commands roughly two-thirds of the U.S. Internet search market. Dozens of businesses have come forward to complain on Capitol Hill that Google is giving preferential treatment to some of its products and services by leveraging its dominant position to an unfair advantage.
Yelp, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Kayak and others say that Google, in some instances, has pushed their search results lower in the rankings while favoring its own.
They argue that this is a manipulation of what consumers have come to expect of "natural search" results and charge that Google's behavior is anti-competitive and leads to them getting less Internet traffic and losing business. Google makes the bulk of its revenue from search advertising.
Sens. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate antitrust panel, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, will lead the inquiry.
After Schmidt's appearance, there will be testimony from Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, Nextag CEO Jeff Katz and Thomas Barnett, an attorney with Covington & Burling. Stoppelman told The Telegraph of London last March that he was unhappy with the way Google used Yelp reviews in its Google Places. He said Google told him if he didn't like it, he could remove Yelp from the search index, a business buzz killer.
Silicon Valley rivals and regulators from the Federal Trade Commission to the Justice Department and the European Union, which have challenged Google on a range of issues, will be closely watching.
"As an entity that has pretty unprecedented data about our activities online, Google should anticipate pretty harsh questioning from Congress," says Kevin Bankston, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group.
