Uncertainty but Hope for Google

Some of “the most serious antitrust allegations” against Google may not make it to court this year, anonymous sources tell Bloomberg News :

Federal Trade Commission officials are unsure they have enough evidence to sue Google successfully under antitrust laws for giving its own services top billing and pushing down the offerings of rivals, said the people, who asked for anonymity because the discussions aren’t public. Regulators are also looking at whether the ranking system’s benefits to consumers outweigh any harm suffered by rivals including NexTag Inc. and Kayak Software Corp., the people said. . . .

“The only part of the case that goes to the heart of what Google does is the search-biasing claim,” [law professor Keith] Hylton said. “If that drops out of the FTC’s case, then you have something that doesn’t seem to be all that interesting in terms of antitrust law.”

The “search-biasing claim” actually refers to Google’s practice of integrating other relevant information into the same page as web search results, giving you, for example, a map when you search for an address or news results when you search for someone who’s been in the news lately.

If Google isn’t sued (this year) for helping its users that way, then one serious threat to Google (and its users) doesn’t materialize (this year). But any antitrust case that involves a potential for a court order limiting how Google does business, threatens Google’s freedom to produce the wonderful values it has produced—the freedom of Google’s leaders and employees to live by creating the kinds of services that have so greatly enhanced its users’ ability to find, share and use information over the past 14 years. And it threatens the opportunity of Google users—which means virtually all of us—to benefit from those services.

But even that doesn’t exhaust the problem. The fact that there’s still a question, after a long debate, as to whether Google’s integrated results are legal, suggests that it is difficult or even impossible for Google to know, before offering its users a new service, what risks it may face from the government if it does. That uncertainty is itself a harm to Google—and to its users, who may never know what services Google decides not to offer in order to avoid antitrust charges.

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