Google In Spotlight For Discriminating Against Online Comparison Shopping Services
Google is discriminating against other online comparison shopping services as per Paris-based Twenga. The California based search engine is under the scrutiny of the European Commission (EU) with regard to a complaint lodged by Twenga on 23 January. The complaint suggests that Google has demoted Twenga's online comparison shopping service in favour of its own in its search results. More trouble for Google comes from Microsoft Corp. and online comparison shopping service provider Foundem. These companies are also asking the EU to investigate upon Google. They claim that Google has stopped certain websites from accepting rival advertisements.
Google is not commenting yet. But, Chief Executive Officer of Twenga, Bastien Duclaux reveals that Google has applied several algorithms in the past year and to penalize these kind of products in the search results his online comparison shopping site has lost over 30% of its audience through August. He further adds that Google is tweaking its quality score of websites to demote rival advertising platforms. This enables Google to set advertisement prices for its AdWords advertising program.
Given the above state of affairs, Google's intent, in its February 2011 update is questionable. In its update, Google had said that it would favor 'high quality sites' with original content, research, in-depth reports, and meaningful analysis.