Web Search Market Competition Robust, Say Search Experts
Google should not be punished for providing a superior product, search engine experts said on a panel Tuesday hosted by the Computer and Communications Industry Association. There is healthy competition in the online search market and the FTC should carefully consider the impact that regulation could have on consumers, they said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
"Google is a large, scary company and the suggestion that it needs to be reined in has some legs to it,” said Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land, a website that reports on the online search market. “There are issues about whether Google is using too much content from other people and you have big competitors like Microsoft recognizing that this is a good way to go after them,” Sullivan said. “But Google is better and do you punish someone for creating a good product?”
In the context of an antitrust case, it’s helpful to take a look at the companies that are leveling the accusations against Google, said James Grimmelmann, a professor at the New York Law School and critic of the initial Google Books settlement (WID Aug 12/09 p1). “I look at their offerings versus Google’s and it’s not obvious that [the competitors] are offering a better product.” Other panelists agreed: “The people screaming loudest about Google’s unfairness are companies whose only reason for existence is gaming that system,” said George Michie, CEO of the Rimm-Kaufman Group (RKM), a search marketing group. Michie is also a member of Google’s search engine marketing advisory council and a Bing consultant.
Google has viable competitors and is worried about the threats to its business, said Grimmelmann. “Social networking is very important. I think Google is concerned about Facebook and people tapping into their friends’ network to find things.”
"The overall trend is that Bing is rising, Yahoo is slipping and we are getting down to having two search engines,” Sullivan said. “And one strong competitor is better than two weak ones.” In 2009 Microsoft and Yahoo entered a ten-year partnership agreement that would enable Microsoft’s Bing search engine to power Yahoo search. As a result of that agreement “Bing has basically grown at Yahoo’s expense,” Sullivan said. “We've gone from having three major search engines to effectively two.”
As for the smaller competitors who criticize Google’s entrance into vertical markets like flights and restaurant reviews, Sullivan said their arguments “don’t hold up.” To say it’s unfair that they have to compete with Google products in its search rankings is “the same as saying that the Los Angeles Times sports section should be stuck inside the New York Times newspaper,” Sullivan said. “If Google really wanted to wipe out their top competitors you would not be able to [perform a Google] search for Apple, or Facebook, or Bing, or Yahoo.”