SAN FRANCISCO?When Google?s Eric Schmidt takes the oath at a Senate hearing Wednesday, he?s expected to present the Internet giant as a cool innovator that just wants to improve Web searches?? not a ruthless firm that controls what people see online and squashes competitors.
And over the past few weeks, Google has done everything it can to help him make that case.
Continue ReadingThe company last week brought a search guru to Washington to explain search algorithms. It?s made acquisitions and changed business practices, and it?s pitched itself as an underdog facing a unified front of enemies to whoever will listen.
?It's just like the schoolyard bully, when the teacher is watching, they will be on better behavior,? said Gary Reback, the Silicon Valley lawyer who spearheaded the Microsoft antitrust case and who is representing vertical search services, such as comparison shopping sites, in pressing antitrust complaints against Google.
The company denies it has changed practices.
?We?re always looking for ways to improve our services and we value the feedback we get from users and policymakers,? said Mistique Cano, a Google spokeswoman. ?We understand with success comes scrutiny, and we?re looking forward to the hearing and answering any questions senators may have about our business.?
Google is facing antitrust probes in the U.S., Europe and South Korea. The FTC is focusing on the company?s search business, particularly as it relates to mobile. The Department of Justice, meanwhile, is reviewing Google?s recent bid to purchase Motorola Mobile for $12.5 billion.
At the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday titled, ?The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition,? Schmidt will testify first, followed by a panel that includes Google competitors who have complained that Google is a gateway to the Internet in the U.S. because of its market share in search. Witnesses include representatives of Nextag, a shopping site; Yelp, a local search firm; and Expedia, the online travel site.
Critics are expected to argue that Google has a monopoly position and from that, it can give its own services prominent placement in what consumers see.
But in many ways, the company?s image has been a moving target for critics.
Over the summer, Google stopped using snippets of content from other review companies for its Google Places service after competitors Yelp and TripAdvisor complained that Google was not only ?scraping? their content but giving its own service better placement in a Web search.
Google said it changed its practices ?based on careful thought about the future direction of Place pages, and feedback we?ve heard over the past few months.?
Some of Google?s recent moves make as much political as business sense. When Google bought the restaurant review publisher Zagat two weeks ago, observers saw the purchase as giving the company a trove of local reviews and content while helping counter criticisms from rivals that Google builds new products on the backs of other businesses.
The Zagat purchase helps ?Google address some of the concerns? regulators have had, said Kartik Hosanagar, a Wharton professor of operations and information management. Once Google begins incorporating Zagat reviews into its products, review companies like Yelp and others ?can no longer complain that Google is using their content,? he said.
In the months leading up to the hearing, the company?s representatives have also sent emails to professors and industry critics with information clarifying its positions on issues. Google ?has always tried to do the right thing by its users and to compete fairly,? read one email to professors in June when the FTC announced its probe.
In Washington, Google believes that it needs to do a better job explaining how its technology works. The company has decided to make Schmidt available to testify out of a desire to better explain what it does in the face of a cadre of ever more vocal critics ? some underwritten by the company?s corporate foes.
In fact, Google claims to be the victim of a patent cabal, of sorts.
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