By When you’re as big online as Google is, the Internet will easily fill up with various news and rumors about you.
Some of the news report Google’s StreetView service as being problematic and other various issues. The StreetView first came with the option of saying no to the service and then with a bit of a scandal in privacy breaches.
What’s interesting is that after Google was fined and the story closed, fans started to punish people who wanted out.
So what is this time for the seach engine giant? Well, something quite important as the European Union starts investigating what Google has been up to.
The new EU investigation came after a few complaints came from Google’s competitors in regards to abuse. What the competitors are claiming is that Google used the advantage of being a market leader and lowered other sites’ ranking throughout their service.
Basically, if you compete with Google, and your website is searched for in Google your ranking will be lower than it normally would. This is what the competition is claiming and it’s what lead to the European Union’s investigation.
Google’s Moutain View Headquarters
A similar claim against Google has been made earlier in the year by a Texas attorney who was representing a number of firms. Among the firms requesting such legal action we could find Foundem.
The complaints are pretty similar and straight forward. The competition is accusing Google of manipulating results and killing off Internet traffic that’s headed for them.
What I should mention though is that Google has claimed they will be working towards helping out the investigation. So far they came through and no problem has been identified.
This lead to the European Commission coming forward with a clarification in which they state the purpose of this investigation. The EC is looking into this matter because complaints have been filed and not because Google is suspected of any wrongdoing.
Google themselves claim that they’re hard at work in covering such aspects of the business but admit to some room still being left for improvement.
