The authorities in Texas have launched an investigation against Google, to find if the order of the results on the search site was manipulated or not, informs AFP.
“We were recently contacted by the Texas prosecutor’s office, which examines how Google respects the rules of competition”, announced Don Harrison, who works directly in the interior of the Google company.
“We are glad that we can answer the questions, because we are convinced that Google operates in the interests of the users”, he added.
The Mountain View company (California) explained that sometimes is forced to answer questions about the “impartiality of the results”.
Three sites have complained that they appear too late in searches on Google – Foundem, SourceTool and myTriggers. According to Google, the three sites have the same lawyers as Microsoft and Foundem company is funded by a company with has connections to Microsoft.
The European Commission launched in February a preliminary investigation of alleged abuses committed by Google, after the complaints made by the three companies, among them Foundem of course. In the U.S., Google has been investigated several times for anticompetitive practices, but was never convicted.
Google explained that the search engine results are ranked strictly according to the words searched, without favoring one site or another. “We rather seek to explain how the online search engine works and we listen carefully to the reasons that caused the alarm. We focus on users, not Websites”, said Don Harrison. According to statistics, 66% of U.S. Internet users’ searches are on Google.
