Inside Google

“Here they are just out and out snooping in neighborhoods and spying on people,” said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, a frequent Google critic who questioned whether Google violated wiretapping laws.

Perhaps the toughest shareholder question came from consumer advocate John Simpson, who asked Schmidt whether Google had agreed to a reported $700 million “kill fee” if Google’s $750 million acquisition of the mobile advertising company AdMob is rejected by government antitrust regulators. Schmidt neither confirmed or denied that number, but predicted the deal would be approved by the Federal Trade Commission, which is expected to rule in coming days.

Those numbers might have gone unnoticed if not for a handful of critics who fear Google is becoming too dominant in its markets and is seeking to become too influential in Washington, D.C. Perhaps chief among those critics is John Simpson, a consumer advocate at the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog. Simpson says he would like to see the Justice Department launch a broad antitrust investigation of Google.

Consumers worried about the data Google amasses about them as they use the Internet giant’s search engine have used a service called Scroogle.org. This week the nonprofit service was abruptly disrupted, prompting questions about whether Google deliberately targeted the operation.

With the classic timing of those who want to downplay bad news, Google responded late Friday afternoon to a letter of complaint issued by ten countries last month about the misfired rollout of the Google Buzz social networking application when Google exposed Gmail users’ personal e-mail contacts to the online world without user consent.

As we ready Inside Google, now in “Beta” mode, for its formal launch I’ve been checking various search engines to see where the site ranks. Today Google put me at number one.

As we have been putting Consumer Watchdog’s new Inside Google Website through its paces while it’s still in “Beta” mode, I discovered an example of exactly the sort thing Google needs to explain.

Every month, Simpson comes to Washington to meet with staff on the Hill and regulatory agencies, journalists and corporate lobbyists. Simpson said he met last week with Jim Tierney, chief of the networks and technology section of the antitrust division of the Justice Department, and staffers about his petition for a broad investigation. Last year, he testified before Congress about privacy and competition concerns in Google’s book settlement.

Internet giant Google spiffed up its look and redesigned the appearance of its search pages this week. The move left me wondering what inferences, if any, can be drawn about the Internet giant’s attitude toward intellectual property.

John Simpson, an official with Consumer Watchdog, was displeased with the incident. “Once again we see what happens when companies push the technological envelope with little concern for consumers’ privacy rights,” he said via e-mail.