Tech community critics of Ohio’s suit to rein in Google’s abuse of its search engine dominance misunderstand both the case and the law. It is critical for those in the tech to understand why we are all on the same side.
Self-preferencing is the evil we fight in suit against Google. Google Search controls 92% of search globally. Google has long used its dominance of search to advance its other business lines. When Google rolled out Google Local, suddenly, Yelp!, Tripadvisor, and other review sites were demoted. Google Plus was forced into Search Engine Results (“SERPs”) when they didn’t even register in organic results. Google Flights is integrated into SERPS. YouTube videos will populate over Vimeo. Google Search has become so dominant that its self-preferencing can no longer be countenanced.
We don’t naively ask that search engines not rank results for relevance. That would be moronic. Relevance ranking is what a search engine does. The world relies on Google’s search algorithms. Our suit acknowledges their superiority. We also acknowledged the network effects that make Google’s algorithms so refined. We simply ask that Google rely on them too. What’s the harm in that?
Read Full Article »