Google Monopoly

The pressure on Google from regulators and lawmakers rose today as it emerged several American States have begun anti-trust investigations into the internet search giant. Attorneys-general in New York, Ohio and California have begun probes into whether Google’s dominance in the search market is problematic.  The suggestion that Google skews search finding to drive internet traffic to its own service such as Google Maps and YouTube and therefore away from rivals.

The State of Texas was already working on a similar inquiry. The FTC investigation seems to be centred on the same issue, as is a European Commission probe.  Today’s probes emerged a day after the Wall Street Journal claimed the Federal Trade Commission, a powerful consumer watchdog founded by the US government, will issue subpoenas against the company in the next few days.

Google declined to comment on the investigations, its usual stance on such matters. Industry watchers say the rising number of complaints and increasing concern about Google’s position almost exactly echo that attach that Microsoft that began 10 years ago.

That ended in the firm conclusion that Microsoft operated as a monopoly and led to a settlement with the government.

by Simon English

Apple iPod Touch Pocket Computer

Apple shares are worth more than ten times what they were a decade ago after churning out hit product after hit product such as the iPod, iPhone and MacBook laptops. That trend looks set to continue as today sees the launch in Britain of Apple’s iPad tablet computer, a format Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates mooted in 2001 but was shot down. And next month Apple boss Steve Jobs will unveil the next generation iPhone – the device that Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer dismissed back in 2007 as having ‘no chance’. Microsoft, whose operating systems run on 90 per cent of the world’s personal computers, has not been able to match growth rates from the 1990s.

Its stock is down 20 per cent from ten years ago. Apple, which struggled By Joel Taylor to get its products into the mainstream, resorted to a £103million investment from Microsoft in 1997. Microsoft has suffered because the consumer market, Apple’s focus, has outpaced the growth of spending on technology by businesses, Microsoft’s stronghold, said David Yoffie, a Harvard Business School professor. ‘Apple has had the wind at its back,’ he added. ‘Microsoft is playing catch-up.’   Article First  Published in Metro — By Joel Taylor