Google won’t reveal compliance in US anti-trust probe

SEARCH GIANT Google has refused to reveal if it complied with a US anti-trust review of complaints about anti-competitive search rankings.

Only a couple of months after slipping out of an Italian anti-trust probe, Google has found itself in hot water again. This time the company is being held to account in Texas after being accused by several small websites of demoting their rankings.

The Texas attorney general's office revealed the set of demands it made to Google as it sought to investigate the claims of several companies in its anti-trust probe.

But when asked by the WSJ if it had complied with the request by the Texas attorney general, Google refused to answer. That was strange because the company was originally meant to hand over its documents in August. Google also said it would comply with the request in September. Then nothing.

The only comment Google supplied was anonymous diplomatic spin that said, "We're continuing to work with the Texas Attorney General's office to answer their questions and understand any concerns."

Even a spokesperson at the Texas attorney general's office wouldn't answer a question about Google's compliance with its own requests.

The documents requested concerned Google's search algorithms that rank websites and its search-advertising business. The small websites alleged that Google's search algorithms put their businesses and advertising way down the rankings. Some of the companies filed anti-competitive lawsuits that have either been dismissed, are pending or are under appeal.

Google has also complained that some of the complaints that generated the Texas anti-trust probe were promoted by Microsoft. The Vole said it wasn't connected to filing the complaints but had directed annoyed companies to the anti-trust authorities. We suspect Microsoft already had that phone number at hand. µ