Recent reports indicate that the US and EU antitrust regulators are considering filing suits against Google, but not for control over the search engine market, which clearly Google controls. Rather the antitrust claims will be directed at Google’s unfair competition by unfairly manipulating search results. Computerworld recently reported:
…the suit might charge that Google manipulates search results to direct consumers to Google Places rather than Yelp or to Google Shopping rather than Pricegrabber or Shopzilla. Another potential issue is whether Google’s AdWords marketplace discriminates against ads from services that compete with Google’s services.
Given all the antitrust problems Microsoft has had with Internet Explorer in the US and EU, one would think that Google would understand that they had antitrust risk by their business practices.