Yea...except in this regard the EU is pretty much nothing but a tool various US corporations use to get one up on each other...
This fine is due to MS asking the EU to investigate Google's illegal business practices. MS itself has been fined in the past when Google (and others) complained about browsers. Intel got fined because AMD complained.
Correct. People forget that. They all love to hate MS and point them as the evil monopolists. Well, one of the plaintiff of the MS case is now, nominally, a bigger monopolist than MS.
No more moral high ground for Google. The cliche is indeed true. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, even "good guys" like Google.
Well, they got rid of the "don't be evil" motto 8 years ago. Schmidt never liked it, was too morally restrictive for him. Chafed at his collar, so to speak.
With that being said... I think this is just part of the ongoing monopoly revenue stream for the EU. A company promoting their own store on their own service? Gasp.
Yeah, but such EU moves are real attempts to "keep-the-level-playing field" for the normal consumer while so called US regulators just turned a blind eye! Sure MS is a complainant in this case. Any person can file a complaint and justify it to the EU commissioner....
This is just another way of generating funds and the appeals process is an appeal to a borderline corrupt, biased judiciary which has judged on their own pay before now.
I do not understand why, if you create a business which provides a product that is so good no one else can come close and everyone uses it, why you may not promote your own services through your own business. They made the effort to create their product and now they're being told on their own website that they must place competitors products side by side with their own. It's common business practice to not advertise your competitors products and this is what everyone else does... but no, when the EU decides you're too big then you must change practice and start promoting your competitor's products also.
Seems mental to me. I get they're trying to stop an impenetrable monopoly but frankly talks and negotiation is the way forward, not massive fines which are frankly a pittance to a company of this size. All it does it stop companies wanting to grow too big in case the supranational governments decide to move the goal posts.
As stated already, the EU is just a lobbying organisation on this level. They've screwed over so many industries (such as bottled water - only the giants survived that one) due to lobbying by businesses which can afford to schmoose these people and take them to many an agreeable lunch.
Google are sneaky. You know it, I know, it's also obvious. Sneaking in installs via Java, Flash and more. Before the standard consumer knows it they're using Google Chrome and the search is Google. They might not have asked for it but they've got it.
I wouldn't call out Alphabet for the bundled Chrome installer with Java and Flash. Adobe and Oracle develop those products and have the option of excluding them if either company decided to do so. Yes you can blame Alphabet for such creepy software existing in the first place, but the unassuming looking installer add-ons are the responsibility of other businesses.
Quite a few people will respond to the EU's decision with unthinking brand loyalty. Conversely, they may cheer on the fine because they oppose Alphabet's idea of gathering and mining data for advertising purposes. I think the people behind the decision to fine Alphabet are doing so without as much of that bias and witha healthy dose of maturity not seen in the comments section of a tech site's news article.
I oppose Alphabet's advermining empire, and often point out that a business whose revenue is 90% advertising should not be trusted with data that you do not wish sold/marketed. But I oppose this EU action against GOOGL. The people behind the decision to fine them ARE biased, biased in favor of cash. Corruption, not protection. Your crayons may be broken but your horse is still standing tall.
I'm curious which product searches Google's accused of actually harming. For semi obscure to very obscure tech products there were several finder services that used to show up in the top 10 of search results until a few years ago. They universally displayed pages that stated "we can't find an Foo with any of our partners" if I clicked through; initially in optimism, eventually only when I wasn't paying attention. If Google killed these scammers good riddance.
If it's the airline search companies whining about google's relatively recent flight search. Until they can return results in 1 second instead of the 10 to 30 seconds they somehow seem to consider acceptable, they deserve to be flushed from any but the most complex flight searches which Google can't do yet because their user experience is so awful. And as for the company that's bought up several previously independent flight search sites and turned them all into minimally skinned versions of the same thing; the best thing Google could do to improve third party results is to only show one of the sites instead of letting them deceive their way into 3 or 4 slots on the first page.
It's not about a product in particular, it's just that when you search for a product Google shopping will be shown right away while all the other shops will be far in the list. Google is pushing its Google shopping up in the list despite others shops be far more relevant.
The devil is with the product ( or service ) and not the company. From what I know, a search engine, operating on a large scale, requires a huge infrastructure ( server farms, databases, an army of programmers, etc ). It has to be efficient and fast. As millions of web pages are added constantly, it gets even harder. How many billions of dollars are needed to build such a thing ? If it's to be owned and operated by one company, who is to say what they will do ? It's kind of the same story as with MS. While it makes sense to have one OS across different hardware, it gives a lot of power to MS, whether they want it or not. And once they have it, what will they do with it ? The fines make sense and the EU and others should keep doing it.
I sure hope AnandTech was not hit with Petya Extortionware because I keep seeing my posts vanish from your site
Of course I'm not affected by Wannacry or Petya worms as I'm still Rocking Windows XP-SP2 without any Microsoft Critical Updates, a full Admin Account, an outdated antivirus and outdated browser
I hear the new Extortionware is locking up Fully Updated Windows 10 machines though so watch out and remember......
You cannot fix what Microsoft will not allow you to fix!
One day a multinational will stand up to the European Useless, but I doubt it will be Google. Rest assured, as someone who lives under the yoke of European Socialism, but not for much longer thank goodness, the EU has Google beat hands-down on the corruption front.
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Chaitanya - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
So after MS now its googles turn to pay up.prophet001 - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
These types of judgements seem more like revenue streams to the EU than anything else. I agree with Britain's decision to leave.Kvaern1 - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
Yea...except in this regard the EU is pretty much nothing but a tool various US corporations use to get one up on each other...This fine is due to MS asking the EU to investigate Google's illegal business practices.
MS itself has been fined in the past when Google (and others) complained about browsers.
Intel got fined because AMD complained.
and so on.
id4andrei - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
Correct. People forget that. They all love to hate MS and point them as the evil monopolists. Well, one of the plaintiff of the MS case is now, nominally, a bigger monopolist than MS.No more moral high ground for Google. The cliche is indeed true. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, even "good guys" like Google.
Alexvrb - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
Well, they got rid of the "don't be evil" motto 8 years ago. Schmidt never liked it, was too morally restrictive for him. Chafed at his collar, so to speak.With that being said... I think this is just part of the ongoing monopoly revenue stream for the EU. A company promoting their own store on their own service? Gasp.
dnd728 - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
Yes, and the sum is coincidentally like the $2.8bn VW fine.fteoath64 - Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - link
Yeah, but such EU moves are real attempts to "keep-the-level-playing field" for the normal consumer while so called US regulators just turned a blind eye! Sure MS is a complainant in this case. Any person can file a complaint and justify it to the EU commissioner....Gich - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
/facepalmprophet001 - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
/facepalmjjj - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
You should seek medical advice.T1beriu - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
Are you ok?philehidiot - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
This is just another way of generating funds and the appeals process is an appeal to a borderline corrupt, biased judiciary which has judged on their own pay before now.I do not understand why, if you create a business which provides a product that is so good no one else can come close and everyone uses it, why you may not promote your own services through your own business. They made the effort to create their product and now they're being told on their own website that they must place competitors products side by side with their own. It's common business practice to not advertise your competitors products and this is what everyone else does... but no, when the EU decides you're too big then you must change practice and start promoting your competitor's products also.
Seems mental to me. I get they're trying to stop an impenetrable monopoly but frankly talks and negotiation is the way forward, not massive fines which are frankly a pittance to a company of this size. All it does it stop companies wanting to grow too big in case the supranational governments decide to move the goal posts.
As stated already, the EU is just a lobbying organisation on this level. They've screwed over so many industries (such as bottled water - only the giants survived that one) due to lobbying by businesses which can afford to schmoose these people and take them to many an agreeable lunch.
highlnder69 - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
If I was Google, I would tell them to kiss my a$$. Since when is anyone forced to use Google as their search engine?Cellar Door - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
And face and operating ban - loose all that region to MS. Wow - lets hire this guy, he really knows how to run a business.damianrobertjones - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
Google are sneaky. You know it, I know, it's also obvious. Sneaking in installs via Java, Flash and more. Before the standard consumer knows it they're using Google Chrome and the search is Google. They might not have asked for it but they've got it.Naughty Google!
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
I wouldn't call out Alphabet for the bundled Chrome installer with Java and Flash. Adobe and Oracle develop those products and have the option of excluding them if either company decided to do so. Yes you can blame Alphabet for such creepy software existing in the first place, but the unassuming looking installer add-ons are the responsibility of other businesses.BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
Quite a few people will respond to the EU's decision with unthinking brand loyalty. Conversely, they may cheer on the fine because they oppose Alphabet's idea of gathering and mining data for advertising purposes. I think the people behind the decision to fine Alphabet are doing so without as much of that bias and witha healthy dose of maturity not seen in the comments section of a tech site's news article.Alexvrb - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
I oppose Alphabet's advermining empire, and often point out that a business whose revenue is 90% advertising should not be trusted with data that you do not wish sold/marketed. But I oppose this EU action against GOOGL. The people behind the decision to fine them ARE biased, biased in favor of cash. Corruption, not protection. Your crayons may be broken but your horse is still standing tall.DanNeely - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
I'm curious which product searches Google's accused of actually harming. For semi obscure to very obscure tech products there were several finder services that used to show up in the top 10 of search results until a few years ago. They universally displayed pages that stated "we can't find an Foo with any of our partners" if I clicked through; initially in optimism, eventually only when I wasn't paying attention. If Google killed these scammers good riddance.If it's the airline search companies whining about google's relatively recent flight search. Until they can return results in 1 second instead of the 10 to 30 seconds they somehow seem to consider acceptable, they deserve to be flushed from any but the most complex flight searches which Google can't do yet because their user experience is so awful. And as for the company that's bought up several previously independent flight search sites and turned them all into minimally skinned versions of the same thing; the best thing Google could do to improve third party results is to only show one of the sites instead of letting them deceive their way into 3 or 4 slots on the first page.
Strunf - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
It's not about a product in particular, it's just that when you search for a product Google shopping will be shown right away while all the other shops will be far in the list. Google is pushing its Google shopping up in the list despite others shops be far more relevant.someonesomewherelse - Saturday, October 14, 2017 - link
Did they actually do it or still do? If they did then the fine is something they had coming. Everything else is political crap.cocochanel - Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - link
The devil is with the product ( or service ) and not the company.From what I know, a search engine, operating on a large scale, requires a huge infrastructure ( server farms, databases, an army of programmers, etc ). It has to be efficient and fast. As millions of web pages are added constantly, it gets even harder. How many billions of dollars are needed to build such a thing ? If it's to be owned and operated by one company, who is to say what they will do ?
It's kind of the same story as with MS. While it makes sense to have one OS across different hardware, it gives a lot of power to MS, whether they want it or not. And once they have it, what will they do with it ?
The fines make sense and the EU and others should keep doing it.
fteoath64 - Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - link
IN this case the fine should be around the $5B mark. Google is getting away too easily!.Bullwinkle J Moose - Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - link
Heads up guys.....I sure hope AnandTech was not hit with Petya Extortionware because I keep seeing my posts vanish from your site
Of course I'm not affected by Wannacry or Petya worms as I'm still Rocking Windows XP-SP2 without any Microsoft Critical Updates, a full Admin Account, an outdated antivirus and outdated browser
I hear the new Extortionware is locking up Fully Updated Windows 10 machines though so watch out and remember......
You cannot fix what Microsoft will not allow you to fix!
STAY SAFE!
fteoath64 - Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - link
"You cannot fix what Microsoft will not allow you to fix!".You can, just walk away, use Ubuntu instead!.
yhselp - Thursday, June 29, 2017 - link
Gotta love Google's reasoning - we have competition from Amazon and eBay, which is already bad enough so fuck off EU.timbotim - Friday, June 30, 2017 - link
One day a multinational will stand up to the European Useless, but I doubt it will be Google. Rest assured, as someone who lives under the yoke of European Socialism, but not for much longer thank goodness, the EU has Google beat hands-down on the corruption front.vladx - Monday, July 3, 2017 - link
Says the scummy brit, EU corruption has nothing on both UK and US governments.someonesomewherelse - Saturday, October 14, 2017 - link
They'll stand up for their right to take your money not for you.