Inside Google

Google’s latest change to its search engine, dubbed “Search plus Your World” apparently has drawn the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission because of antitrust concerns, according to Bloomberg News.

The top Senators on the Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee are expressing concern to the Federal Trade Commission over Google’s business practices and the Internet giant’s impact on competition in Internet search and commerce.

SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called on Los Angeles officials to demand Google remove a deceptive video featuring Los Angeles City employees from a website marketing the Internet giant’s Google Apps for Government “cloud computing” service.

Google’s sad saga of missed deadlines and unfulfilled promises in attempting to provide the City of Los Angeles with a “cloud” based email and collaboration system appears to be drawing to a close.

SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today warned the Chicago Board of Education to consider Google’s failures in implementing an email system for the City of Los Angeles as the seven members consider a new email and collaboration system for the nation’s third largest school district.

Probe of Wiretap Violations Should Include Google, Apple As Well As Software Maker

WASHINGTON, DC – Consumer Watchdog today called for a federal investigation into the “Spyphone Scandal”, in which software embedded in smartphones surreptitiously tracks users’ activities, including their keystrokes and numbers they dialed.

The Prestigious CQ Researcher has recently tackled the issue of  Google’s dominance, asking the question: “Is the online-search giant too powerful?”  See below for information about how you can read the entire online version of this important study. In a half-page opinion piece in the 24-page report, I square off with Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt [...]

SANTA MONICA CA – Consumer Watchdog today said executives of leading Internet companies Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! should face criminal charges for their roles in allowing mortgage modification ad scammers to advertise on their sites.

SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called on Google to donate the tainted revenue it received from deceptive ads preying on vulnerable homeowners to non-profit groups that help consumers with credit problems, including homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure. The mortgage modification scams were first revealed in a Consumer Watchdog report last February.

The week began for me at meetings in the heart of geekdom in Silicon Valley and concluded with consumer and privacy advocates meeting in New York City.  The two sessions are more related than you might first think. The New York meetings, convened by the Consumer Federation of America, were an off-the-record session for consumer [...]

Has Google taken a page from Microsoft’s evil history and started using the same anticompetitive tactics that landed the Redmond, WA., software company in antitrust trouble in the U.S. and Europe? A exclusive report in The New York Post says that’s exactly what the Federal Trade Commission is considering in its major antitrust investigation of the Internet giant.

SANTA MONICA, CA – Google Apps can be dangerous, Consumer Watchdog warned today and the public interest group said Los Angeles has been responsible for “giving the first imprint of credibility and acceptance to a program that has failed Los Angeles and other communities with frightening consequences.”

“The fact is the company is facing a well-deserved antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and wants to escape any consequences for its anti-competitive behavior,” said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project. “They’ve got billions in profits stashed in off-shore tax havens and are pressing for a tax-holiday to bring it into the United States.”