HuffPost: Smaller Rivals Say Web Giant Is 'Trying To Kill Them'

Leading up to today’s Senate hearing today on “The Power of Google,” there is a growing number of critics and competitors speaking out against the Internet giant. Internet companies are accusing Google of using “backhanded tactics” to promote Google-owned sites over their own. In the Huffington Post yesterday, Bianca Bosker, highlighted some of these concerns:

• “Google is not just competing in these verticals, but cheating. They are manipulating the search results,” said Gary Reback, a Silicon Valley antitrust lawyer. “The whole promise of the web was that you could be a little guy and be the best and people could find you and would find you. It’s great to get merchants on the Internet, but if no one can find them, they won’t go very far.” Reback goes on to say that Google is “trying to kill” its competitors, like Yelp and Nextag, by driving traffic from their sites to Google-owned ones.
• “The concern is that Google is in many ways the main street of the Internet,” said Robert Birge, Kayak’s chief marketing officer. “They’ve taken all of the real estate that anyone will ever click on and put a Google product there.”

The fact that Google powers two-thirds of all searches in the U.S. and claims more than three-quarters of all search advertising has prompted increased scrutiny from federal authorities.

For updates on today’s Senate hearing and real-time responses, check out FairSearch.org or follow us on Twitter!