It happened to AT&T, the Rockefeller oil empire and nearly happened to Microsoft. These days, Google is up to a lot of scrutinies. With total dominance in the search business online, it has made many enemies. And when the people thought it could lose in the mobile domain, Android saved its day.
So, the US Federal Trade Commission has started formal investigation of the trade practices of the software giant.
But not just in the US is the company getting another look. European counterpart of the FTC, European Trade Commission, has warmed up after a French competitor, a really small one, iplusV noted that it has to adopt Google search methods just to survive. Without adopting the Google way of doing business, it cannot secure advertising services.
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1PlusV, a French search company, has filed a lawsuit against Google asking for 295 million euros ($421 million). “Between 2007 and 2010, no less than 30 vertical search engines created by 1plusV were black-listed, some of which showed significant business potential,” the company said in its lawsuit. […] In March, Microsoft announced that it was filing a complaint against Google with the European Trade Commission.
It is not certain that these investigations can result to any punitive measures. However, the fact that they are will make some Google planned acquisitions on hold. They will not like to be moving fast to close the competition in the ecosystem. Watch out, Google will not make any major deal in search in the next six months, until these investigations clear.