Andre Yoskowitz
15 Jan 2012 0:34
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has expanded its antitrust investigation into Google, adding the Google+ social network to the probe.
FTC investigators are looking into whether Google promotes its own services higher in search results and if they do, whether that practice violates antitrust laws.
The news comes just a week after Google started its "Search, Plus your World" feature, which shows photos, news and comments from Google+ in Google search results. If you have a Google+ account, you will see personal info from friends and circles when you enter a relevant search result.
Google said, at launch, of the new product: "We believe that our improvements to search will benefit consumers. The laws are designed to help consumers benefit from innovation, not to help competitors."
One major critic, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, had this to say: "Google's job as a search engine is to direct searchers to the most relevant information on the Web, not just to information that Google may have an interest in. Google has faced a lot of accusations that it's favoring its own services. Most allegations haven't held up. This is different. Google is suggesting to people that they may want to follow social media accounts -- but not all social media accounts, just Google's."
Google+ has 65 million users and Google controls 66 percent of the search engine market.