Eric Schmidt has come out fighting against accusations of ‘cooking’ the web, arguing cheffing is not an area of expertise.
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Google Chairman Eric Schmidt was before a US Senate hearing where he defended the company’s business practices to questions from senators on search rankings and Google’s search algorithm.
The search giant has come under scrutiny from antitrust officials who are investigating whether the search engine giant is abusing its power and raising questions about whether Google has a monopoly in the search market.
But is Google the new Microsoft?
US representatives seem to think so – branding the Internet powerhouse’s domination of search – controlling 64.8% of all searches according to comScore stats – as a “unnatural and extraordinary advantage.”
This web prowess along with Maps, News, Gmail and now You+ divisions, gives Google “clear and inherent conflict of interest” Sen Michael Lee of Utah also declared, a claim Chairman Schmidt quickly denied, comparing its situation to what appeared to be Microsoft.
“We get it. By that I mean, we get the lessons of our corporate predecessors.”
Republican senator Mike Lee asked whether the company was “cooking the results” to ensure that Google – related results appeared consistently in product searches – a claim denied by Schmidt.
“May I simply say that I can assure you we’re not cooking anything” Schmidt replied, denying it was engaging in underhand tactics in its search results to the disadvantage search rivals like Bing and Yahoo!
“Google does nothing to block access to any of the competitors and other sources of information,” he added.
During the hearing before the Senate judiciary antitrust subcommittee, Schmidt claimed that everything the company has done so far is legal and good for its customers.
He argued that the Internet is a platform on which Google is like a GPS system and doesn’t control access to the Web.
The company does, however, control its own search rankings, which were a key issue in the hearing.
