European Union and the Google Bing Fear
June 19, 2009
The European Union has taken a dim view of some American business practices. I don’t think the global financial crisis can be blamed on Wild West MBAs, the SEC’s oversight expertise, or the American interest in Hummer-type vehicles. Let me suggest that some in Europe find these quirks less than charming.
Google is now on the radar of some of the European Union government folks, and that blip is persistent. A Web log post by a staffer at Computer World made this headline possible: “Google Tight Lipped about Co-Founder’s EC Meeting.” The Web log post (which may or may not be spot on) said:
Google was tight-lipped about co-founder Larry Page’s Wednesday meeting with Viviane Reding, European commissioner for the information society, but was very forthcoming about the rest of his visit to the European Union’s capital city. The European Commission declined to comment on the meeting beyond describing it as “informal”. Unlike most meet-and-greet visits to commissioners by well known people from the business world, the Commission’s satellite news service Europe by Satellite was instructed not to film Reding with Page, at Google’s request.
What is interesting to ponder is whether the somewhat sensational reports of Google’s fear of Bing. I wonder if Google is trying to use subjective information to alter the harder data about its dominant position in the Web search market? Most of the third party services suggest that Google has a 60 to 70 percent share of the Web search market. Fear of Bing is not the way to assuage the nuts and bolts thinks at the European Union’s regulatory entities in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, June 19, 2009
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