Google antitrust probe: Google targeted by 48 U.S. states in new antitrust investigation - CBS News
Google antitrust probe: Google targeted by 48 U.S. states in new antitrust investigation - CBS News |
- Google antitrust probe: Google targeted by 48 U.S. states in new antitrust investigation - CBS News
- 7 Reasons Advertising Will Drive Google Stock Higher | Stock Market News - U.S. News & World Report
- Los Angeles police recruitment ad on Breitbart prompts inquiry - NBC News
| Google antitrust probe: Google targeted by 48 U.S. states in new antitrust investigation - CBS News Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT 
Fifty state attorneys general, led by Texas, have announced an investigation into Google's "potential monopolistic behavior." The attorneys general are looking into whether the Silicon Valley search giant has gotten too big, and perhaps too effective at stomping out rivals. The investigations will initially focus on the advertising market and whether Google broke the law in achieving dominance in the industry, said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the probe. "This is a company that dominates all aspects of advertising on the internet, as they dominate the buyer, seller and auction side," Paxton said. He later added: "If advertising costs are higher, advertisers pay more, and ultimately that's passed on to consumers." Trending NewsAttorneys general in 48 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, are leading separate investigations. The attorneys general of California and Alabama are not involved in the probe. Market dominance Google's parent company, Alphabet, has a market value of more than $820 billion and last year reported revenue of $137 billion and income of $31 billion. Google controls so many aspects of the internet that it's hard to imagine surfing the web for long without running into at least one of its services. The legal authorities investigating the company on Monday focused on its dominance in advertising and in search. Nine of 10 online searches are conducted through Google, and the company has been criticized for prioritizing its subsidiaries in search results. "When my daughter is sick and I search online for advice or doctors, I want the best ones — the best advice or the best doctors — not the ones who spent the most on advertising," said Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. Last week, online project management company Basecamp complained that Google's paid search ads are similar to a "shakedown," noting that it had to pay to make sure its service appeared before rivals' ads. European regulators have fined Google for promoting its own shopping service in search. The company is appealing the fine. Google this year will control 31% of global digital ad dollars, according to eMarketer estimates, crushing a distant second-place Facebook. And many smaller advertisers have argued that Google has such a stranglehold on the market that it becomes a system of whatever Google says, goes — because the alternative could be not reaching customers. "It's like if you were trying to buy a house, and Google owned the house, and a lot of houses on your block. And they were the buyer's agent and also the seller's agent," said Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. "It would raise questions, certainly." "There's definitely concern on the part of the advertisers themselves that Google wields way too much power in setting rates and favoring their own services over others," said Jen King, the director of privacy at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society. DoubleClick purchaseCritics often point to Google's 2007 acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick as pivotal to its advertising dominance. Europe's antitrust regulators slapped Google with a $1.7 billion fine in March, saying it unfairly inserted exclusivity clauses into contracts with advertisers, a clear disadvantage for its rivals in the online advertising business. Google has long argued that although its businesses are large, they are useful and beneficial to consumers. But it appears regulators are growing more concerned not just with the effects on regular internet users, but on smaller companies as well. "On the one hand, you could just say, 'Well, Google is dominant because they're good,'" King said. "But at the same time, it's created an ecosystem where people's whole internet experience is mediated through Google's home page and Google's other products." A separate group of states announced an investigation into Facebook's dominance on Friday. The Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and Congress are also conducting probes of both Facebook and Google. Spin off the search business?One outcome antitrust regulators might explore is forcing Google to spin off search as a separate company. Then there's Google's smartphone operating system, Android. Another acquisition of Google's, the system is the most widely used in the world. European regulators have also fined Google to the tune of $5 billion for tactics involving Android, finding that Google forced handset makers to install Google apps, thereby increasing its reach. Google has since allowed more options for alternative browser and search apps to European Android phones. It's also possible U.S. states won't follow in Europe's footsteps. They could, for instance, focus on areas such as Google's popular video site YouTube, yet another acquisition Google made, that time in 2006. Google executive Walker emphasized that the company's products help people every day. "Google is one of America's top spenders on research and development, making investments that spur innovation: Things that were science fiction a few years ago are now free for everyone — translating any language instantaneously, learning about objects by pointing your phone, getting an answer to pretty much any question you might have," he wrote. CBS News' Irina Ivanova contributed reporting.  |
| 7 Reasons Advertising Will Drive Google Stock Higher | Stock Market News - U.S. News & World Report Posted: 20 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]7 Reasons Advertising Will Drive Google Stock Higher | Stock Market News U.S. News & World Report  |
| Los Angeles police recruitment ad on Breitbart prompts inquiry - NBC News Posted: 28 Sep 2019 11:16 PM PDT  The Los Angeles Police Department was trying to figure out Saturday how one of its ads for new recruits ended up on right-wing news site Breitbart. The department, in which Latinos comprise the largest ethnic group of officers, was quick to denounce the placement on a platform that has often highlighted the misdeeds and crimes of people living in the U.S. without proper documentation and that critics have accused of posting racist content. LAPD Chief Michel Moore tweeted Saturday that his department would team up with the city's Personnel Department to determine how the ad, featuring a photo of an officer and the words, "Choose Your Future," ended up on the website once run by Stephen Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump. The ad placement story went viral after Noah Shachtman, editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast, tweeted about it Friday night. The department's Media Relations Division responded Saturday on Twitter. "The LAPD celebrates diversity and embraces it within our ranks, and within the city we serve," it said. "We are aware that a recruitment advertisement has been circulated on a website that creates a negative juxtaposition to our core values." How the advertisement ended up on Breitbart was not much of a mystery to media experts, who noted that online ad buys, particularly those made through Google, target demographics rather than publications and can even follow targeted readers from site to site. Some experts have say that sites like Breitbart can be omitted from such buys, but that advertisers have to proactively discriminate. By Saturday afternoon, the LAPD's recruitment account on Twitter said it was a Google ad buy that placed the recruitment graphic on Breitbart. "The Personnel Department has not made any purchase of LAPD recruitment ads on Breitbart or similar sites," it said. "Recruitment ads were purchased through Google and ended up on sites that do not reflect the City's values through automatic placement." "We have stopped these Google Ads altogether while we reexamine our ad filters and take all necessary steps to ensure tighter control of ad settings," the department said. Breitbart spokeswoman Elizabeth Moore said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times that Breitbart has "one of the most pro-police, pro-law-enforcement news organizations in America."  |
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