Privacy group files complaint with the FTC versus GOOGLE's Social Search policies
 

Looks like Google's latest social search changes are ruffling quite a few feathers. Unfair competition?

Whose vested interests are being protected by this move?

Source:
http://mashable.com/2012/01/12/watch...search-unfair/

Quote:

Privacy watchdog EPIC filed a complaint with the FTC on Thursday, saying that Google is using its search engine to create an unfair advantage for its social network. The report says Google is highlighting results from Google+ at the expense of pages that might be more relevant. ?For example,? EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg wrote in a letter to the FTC, ?the right-hand display of notable business and Google+ users replaces highly-visible advertising space, even for consumers who have no Google+ accounts and are not logged in to Google.? The letter cites research by Harvard Business School professor Benjamin Edelman, who has found more than a dozen Google services receiving favored placement in Google search results.

Google is evil

Yeah used to be a day when you owned a business you could do with it what you wanted. Not any more.

So instead of running as many ads, they are linking to their own new site in ad spots. Essentially buying advertising from themselves. Putting links on your site pointing to your other site - wow that's evil. Who would ever cross link their own sites?

If links to other Google properties replaced the search results that would be annoying. Showing ads for your own sites instead of ads for other people's sites sounds like plain common sense.

Yeah, sucks when you sale stock in your company and "go public" and are now actually
owned by the public but then expect private treatment.

:1orglaugh

"Go public" means the stock is publicly traded. The company is still owned by the stockholders, just like your company and mine. Selling stock doesn't mean your company is suddenly owned by the government.

No but it's heavily regulated by it.

.

I never said the government owned it.

The stockholders own it and they are the public.
And this type of public ownership is regulated by the government and that's
why "insider trading" is illegal.

what a waste of a lawsuit and court time, the court should counter sue the idiot for wasting their time.

Google.com is Google Inc's ball, sport, rules and stadium.

if you dont like their search results, dont use their engine. how they come to those search results is of no relevance to the user, as their choice in the matter is simple, use google or do not.