The Federal Trade Commission of the United States has launched another antitrust probe against Google, following allegations that the search engine giant is using its position on the display-advertising market to curb its competition, illegally.
According to a report on Bloomberg, the regulating body is looking into how the California-based company is taking advantage of its status in the display ads market in the U.S. to push other companies to tap its services. The display ads industry is a $17.7 billion market that involves banner ads sale on websites.
Anyone who has been following the growth of the search engine company in the business of placing video ads and banner ads on websites will not be surprised with the federal investigation but unnamed sources said that most likely the probe will not be expanded into a bigger probe. The latest inquiry follows an investigation by the same body last January pertaining to the search business of Google.
An article on Forbes pointed to several sources that see the evidence against Google as mixed. Some say that the search engine company is playing it fair with its ad technologies.
"We have not heard anything from the FTC regarding any new antitrust investigation," according to a Google representative.
The FTC did not comment about the said investigation.
So what could have triggered the FTC investigation? Even if Google is leading the pack in terms of display-ad earnings, other technology firms like Facebook, Micrsoft, Yahoo, and AOL are following closely. Google cannot be considered that dominant but it has been acquiring ad technology players such as Double Click, Ad Mob, Invite Media, Ad Meld, and Wildfire Interactive from 2007 through 2012. Google has also been tweaking its software to make these ad services to work like a well-oiled machine.
According to a report on Wall Street Journal, the probe might have been triggered by an ad tech competition and not by ad publishers. The report did not name names but said that Microsoft, the perennial opponent of Google, is not involved.
The European Union is also conducting its own investigation with regard to the licensing issues of Motorola Mobility. The Competition Bureau of Canada is set to start a probe to check the company's search practices. If that is not enough, authorities in South Korea and Argentina are also scrutinizing Google.
The push on Google's part to get a bigger chunk of the display ad industry is just a clear sign that the company is feeling the pressure as the efforts of its competitions are likewise intensifying. Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo are all attempting making a buzz about their intentions of competing with Google in the lucrative display ads.
For now, it is quite too early to see where the FTC investigation will go. With Google being ahead in Internet advertisements, it is understandable why it has a big red spot on its back.
