Posted in: Mobile Services, Online Services

Google to provide rival search results to placate antitrust whispers

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Google is proposing an agreement to the European Commission which will have it provide search results from rivals like Bing and Yahoo! more prominently.

This is in light of a preliminary conclusion made by the Commission that several of Google’s business practices could be in violation of the EU’s antitrust rules.

To address the EC’s concerns – and avoid possible legislation – Google has proposed several measures it can take for the next 5 years in the European Economic Area (EEA):

  • label promoted links to its own services to differentiate them from natural web search results
  • display rival services in close proximity to its own services so they are clearly visible
  • allow websites to opt-out of the use of their content in Google’s specialized services
  • no longer require publishers to provide obligations that would require them to source online search advertisements from Google
  • no longer prevent advertisers from managing campaigns across competing advertising platforms

The European Commission will test out the proposals over the next month, and, if they find them satisfactorily meet the Comission’s concerns, may decide to make them legally binding.

It seems all that Fairsearch lobbying by Microsoft and Nokia paid off, after all.

Source | Via | Via

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